Romelu Lukaku and the Premier League's worst-ever one-season flops
Suraj Radia
- Updated: 8 Jun 2022 12:56 CDT
- 3 min read
Romelu Lukaku is on course to leave Chelsea after one expensive and underwhelming season back at the club.
The Belgian rejoined the club last summer for nearly £100 million but looks likely to return to former club Inter Milan after just eight goals in 26 Premier League games.
If he does leave after less than 12 months back in England, he will go down as one of the biggest one-season flops of all time.
But which other players would join him on the unwanted list? FootballTransfers takes a look at some of the worst one-season signings in Premier League history.
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Angel Di Maria (Manchester United
Angel Di Maria arrived at Manchester United from Real Madrid as a British transfer record and one of the most expensive signings of all time at £59.7m.
The Argentine winger was handed the iconic number 7 jersey at Old Trafford but vacated it after one season where he only netted three times in 27 games.
United managed to recoup £44m of the fee by selling him to Paris Saint-Germain and he has since proven the spell in England was just a blip in an otherwise memorable career.
Bebe (Manchester United)
Although not a huge financial outlay, the signing of Bebe for £7.4m in 2010 was bizarre considering the Portguese forward had only joined Vitoria de Guimaraes for free five weeks earlier.
The move was even more peculiar considering Bebe was virtually unknown at the time and manager Sir Alex Ferguson had not seen him play, instead signing him on recommendation of his former assistant Carlos Quieroz.
Bebe only made two league appearances in his one year at United before being loaned out for three seasons and eventually sold to Benfica for €3m in 2014.
Juan Sebastian Veron (Chelsea)
United were thankfully on the right side of the deal when they sold Juan Sebastian Veron to Chelsea for £15m in 2003, although they had paid a British record £28.1m for him two years earlier.
The Argentine struggled to adapt to English football but Chelsea still chose to pay a significant sum for the midfielder after a big-money takeover by Roman Abramovich.
However, Veron only made 15 appearances for Chelsea before being loaned out until the end of his contract and leaving on a free.
Danny Drinkwater (Chelsea)
Having not learned from previous mistakes, Chelsea once again overpaid for a midfielder by signing Danny Drinkwater from Leicester for £35m in 2017.
Chelsea felt compelled to reunite Drinkwater with N'Golo Kante, who had signed a year earlier after forming a title-winning partnership with the England midfielder at Leicester.
Drinkwater only left Chelsea this summer, having made 12 league appearances in his first season before spending the rest of his contract out on loan with various clubs.
Mario Balotelli (Liverpool)
Few players have ever been so enigmatic as Mario Balotelli and Liverpool signed the striker for £16m from Milan in 2014 as a replacement for the recently-departed Luis Suarez.
The Italian's career had been plagued with disciplinary and behavioural issues and they continued at Anfield where he scored just once in 16 league games.
He returned on loan to Milan a year later before joining Nice on a free in 2016, describing his move to Liverpool as the 'worst mistake of my life'.
