Carroll, Torres and Tevez: Ghosts of Transfer Busts Past Still Haunt the Market

Three strikers, bought at a combined cost of well over £100 million, have become ghosts of Premier League transfer busts past.

Their stories are completely true, and they continue to haunt big-spending clubs as the January transfer window is set to close on Tuesday.

Here are these players' cautionary tales.

The Desperation Buy

Andy Carroll was never worth £35 million. Newcastle's towering force of nature could barely be trusted on a night out—let alone to carry the weight of expectancy that comes with a fee like that.

Luis Figo had Ballon d'Or winner on his resume when he joined Real Madrid for £37 million in 2001. On his, Carroll had a decent season in the Championship and half of one in the Premier League.

The Liverpool brass were reeled in like tourists. With the £50m sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea imminent, they stepped into the market like a flush exchange student onto Oxford Street.

One way or another, tills would ring. With Torres on his way to the Blues, the Liverpool fans demanded it. And what better statement of intent for the returning Kenny Dalglish than to snare a homegrown talent ahead of the competition?

Perhaps Liverpool sensed this was their moment. This was the transfer window to reverse their recent decline and steer the good ship Anfield back towards the glory days of the 1970s and '80s.

Maybe the Carroll deal was always bigger than his 6'3" frame. Liverpool fans needed a reason to believe in the future, and in his signing they would have one.

At what price hope? £35m you say? Done.

Another explanation, outlined in this intriguing article by The FCF's Andi Thomas, is that the entire deal was conducted like a heist from Ocean's 11.

Here's what agent Clam Shuttleworth told him about who made the final offer on the Carroll deal:

"

Dalglish thought it was [Liverpool director of football Damian] Comolli. Comolli thought it was Dalglish. [Owner] John Henry doesn’t know who he heard it from, but thought it was both of them. They’ve never found out how, or why, it happened, but the deal was done before anybody noticed. Of course, the report was never published.

"

However it went down, all hope has been extinguished since. Carroll looks half the player he did at Newcastle, and has managed just four goals in 27 games this season.

First there were rumours he'd go back to Newcastle for £10m. Then an Observer exclusive which claimed Liverpool tried to swap him for Manchester City's Carlos Tevez.

Carroll has paid for being right at the top of his game, right at the top of Liverpool's spending potential. He was overpriced, and he will forever be judged by a fee he will probably never justify.

Liverpool's desperation may ultimately see them take a big loss on Carroll. And unless they can convince him of their faith, a cut-price exit this summer seems inevitable.

Everyone's a loser, baby.

The Marquee Buy

Unlike Carroll, Fernando Torres had no problem settling at Liverpool. The Spanish international took some convincing to leave his beloved Atletico Madrid, but he fit in straight away at Anfield.

Goals were easy to come by. Torres scored freely in his first three seasons and was named twice in the PFA Team of the Year. Much owed to his combination with Steven Gerrard, and for a time the pair appeared to be keeping Liverpool afloat on their own.

But for all the fans' passion and the club's enduring romantic appeal, Liverpool remained cast adrift of their rivals.

Torres was a world-class striker, and when Chelsea came knocking in January 2011, the lure of success was too strong to resist. First they offered £35 million. Then £40 million. Finally, at £50 million, Liverpool relented.

Torres became the fifth most expensive player in history, and with that came a level of expectancy that has shackled him ever since.

Chelsea have yet to see the best of him. At times they've seen a player unrecognizable from the marauding forward who once ripped through Premier League defences.

Currently, Torres is without a goal in his last 18 games. There have been signs of encouragement in his support play, but the goalscoring instincts are nowhere to be seen.

The manager who signed him, Carlo Ancelotti, has been sacked. The man who took over, Andre Villas-Boas, is already under pressure. Both have looked to Torres. Both have found him wanting.

Money bought Abramovich the most sought-after striker on the planet, but there's no buying a footballer's confidence. And without it, Torres is the biggest misfire in transfer history.

The "Handle with Care" Buy

Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't do difficult players at Manchester United. They arrive, they contribute for as long as he can control them, and when they cross his line they're sold.

It happened to David Beckham, Roy Keane and Jaap Stam, to name but a few. And it happened to Carlos Tevez.

Tevez's complicated ownership structure meant he was only ever officially a loan player at United. When the option for a full contract came up, the two parties never found common ground and Tevez duly joined Manchester City.

A mud-slinging match followed, and recent events would have us inclined to believe Ferguson's version of events the more reliable.

Wherever you stand on the Tevez-City affair, the combination of the striker and his "advisor" Kia Joorabchian is clearly not made for amicable, easy-going relations.

The rules that apply to most players seemingly don't apply to Tevez, and it's surely no coincidence he averages a transfer every two seasons. The problem for him now, however, is that City are refusing to be held hostage to his transfer demands.

Deals with AC Milan, Inter and PSG have all fallen through in January, and Tevez now faces the humbling prospect of getting himself back into Roberto Mancini's City team in an attempt to push through a deal in the summer.

Based on the events of the past four months in Manchester, it'll be a brave team that takes a risk on Tevez next.

All of which brings us neatly back to Liverpool—who are apparently trying to sign Tevez on loan before the window shuts tomorrow night. Haven't they learned anything?

What's the Fallout?

So what does it all mean for the transfer market? My suspicion is that the respective woes of Carroll, Torres and Tevez are acting as powerful market forces in this January window.

January 2011 saw a record £225 million spent in the Premier League. So far we're £30 million down on the figure spent at this point last year, with experts predicting a considerable drop in outlay when the numbers are added up after the deadline.

Part of that is down to UEFA's new financial fair-play regulations, which are now being accounted for. Another contributing factor is surely the growing evidence that big buys in January don't win titles.

But I'd argue the ghosts of transfers past, in particular those named Carroll and Torres, are having their say too. Two of the highest-profile, most lucrative deals in recent Premier League history (Sergio Aguero also came in at £35m), and both have proven to be spectacular flops.

Is it any wonder Ferguson has turned to newly out-of-retirement Paul Scholes rather than put his house on Wesley Sneijder? Or that Arsene Wenger continues to proceed with caution in the transfer market? Even Chelsea and Manchester City have acted with relative caution this January.

There's still time of course, but who'd blame an owner if the specter of Carroll, Torres or Tevez entered their thinking with a big deal looming on deadline day?

It might just be enough to put them off.