Endrick, Joao Palhinha & the top 20 most disappointing signings of the 2024-25 European season - ranked

Lauded as a marquee defensive signing, Matthijs de Ligt was supposed to sort out Manchester United's backline; instead, he ended up being part of one of the worst Red Devils sides of all time, let alone the Premier League era. That said, you would be hard pressed to claim he necessarily did anything wrong individually - the Dutchman didn't make a single error leading to a goal and largely demonstrated his acumen at centre-back.

However, when you sign a defender with De Ligt's reputation for a fee north of £40m ($53m), you expect a broader return on your investment in terms of an overall improvement. United finished the season with the joint-ninth-worst defensive record in the Premier League having conceded 54 times, and they were run ragged at the back far too often given the quality they have at their disposal. De Ligt will need to call on his vast experience to step up next season.

Jadon Sancho's eye-catching spell with his former club Borussia Dortmund - in exile from Manchester United - in the second half of last season convinced pretty much everyone that he was officially back, as he played a key role in an unlikely run to the Champions League final. Consequently, it was viewed as shrewd piece of business when Chelsea took the winger on a shock loan late in the summer, with a £25 million ($33m) obligation to buy worked into the deal.

There were early signs of promise as Sancho laid on four goals in three games to begin the 2024-25 campaign, but his form tailed off and it became increasingly clear why United had been willing to let him go in the first place as he reverted to type. It has even been rumoured that the Blues are even weighing up paying a £5m get-out clause to send him back to Old Trafford. He had his moments, but it would be little surprise to see the 25-year-old's time in west London cut short.

It initially seemed as though Emile Smith Rowe would thrive away from Arsenal, making the Gunners regret their decision to let him go, but his fast start at Craven Cottage proved to be somewhat misleading. Fulham's record signing found it difficult to make a consistent impact in the weeks and months following his early-season flourishes, and he lost his starting place as a result. His manager Marco Silva suggested he was once again struggling with the physical issues he had during his time in north London.

"He had a very good impact in the first few months, but after the second international break he was down - December was a difficult month for him," Silva said in March. "He needs to find the right consistency in his game to perform at a very good level and this is the main thing for us. I don't doubt his talent and quality, but the Premier League demands so many things from you and you always have to be in very good shape and top level physically. This is something we have been working on with Emile."

Poor old Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Chelsea plucked the midfielder from newly-promoted Leicester City for a cool £30m ($40m) shortly after nabbing the Foxes' Championship-winning head coach Enzo Maresca. There was the expectation that Dewsbury-Hall would play a significant role in the Italian's tactical system as a shuttling No.8 but, perhaps predictably, that was not what transpired, and he is widely expected to be on the move again in the summer.

The 26-year-old barely had a look in at Stamford Bridge as he battled key players Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez for a starting place, and there is clearly some element of Maresca not fully trusting a player he leaned on so heavily at the King Power Stadium last season. The step up to the upper-echelons of the Premier League was always going to be a big one, and Dewsbury-Hall hasn't made the grade - though that's through no fault of his own.

The fifth-most expensive player of all time in terms of combined transfer fees, Alvaro Morata consolidated his place on that list with a regrettable £11m ($15m) permanent switch from Atletico Madrid to AC Milan in the summer. But after lasting just six months at San Siro, he already seems destined to add to the cumulative £170m ($226m) that has been spent on him when the window opens again.

Morata managed just five goals in 16 games in the first half of the season against the backdrop of a temporary split from his wife, before Sergio Conceicao's arrival in the dugout put paid to his continuation with the Rossoneri, with the Spain international joining Galatasaray on loan and somewhat rediscovering his form.

"I should have never left Atletico, but I wasn't feeling well, and when you're not well, you make wrong decisions in every aspect of life," he told Cadena Ser back in March.

Douglas Luiz formed a key part of a costly midfield rebuild for Juventus last summer, but he has so far failed to justify a £42m ($56m) price tag in Turin. That is a result of injuries as well as being overlooked by both Thiago Motta and his replacement Igor Tudor. The answer to the question of why he was so often snubbed is anyone's guess, and the Brazilian midfielder seemed to be none the wiser himself, angrily responding to a fan who questioned his commitment late in the season.

He wrote: "I had come off one of the best seasons of my career, one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League. Injuries held me back. True. But how long did I stay on the bench while I was fit? A lot. These injuries were not normal. I’ve never been injury-prone, but there are many reasons that could have caused this, which I’d rather not comment on."

The outburst suggests his days at Juve might be numbered amid links with a return to England, and that process might be accelerated following his split from Bianconeri co-star Alisha Lehmann.

Vitor Roque's time in Spanish football proved to be short and not very sweet. Once dubbed a wonderkid, Roque endured a miserable spell at Barcelona in the second half of 2023-24 before being shipped out on loan to Real Betis this season, but unfortunately that didn't bring a change in his fortunes. Although he had more game time, the Brazilian continued to struggle in front of goal as he failed to live up to a lofty reputation and previous price tag.

By late February, the striker still had just four La Liga strikes to his name, and amid transfer interest from Palmeiras in his home country, his parent club Barca decided to cash in. The loan with Betis was cut short, and he headed back to Brazil for just £21m ($28m) - significantly less than the Catalans committed to pay Athletico Paranaense just one year previously. Still only 20 years old, it remains to be seen whether Roque will have another chance at the top level of European football.

Teun Koopmeiners was supposed to be transformative for Juventus having starred in Serie A with Atalanta and signed in a big-money deal as part of the Bianconeri's aforementioned midfield rebuild in the summer. For reasons not dissimilar to fellow new arrival Luiz, things have gone awry in Turin for the Dutchman. An early-season rib fracture hampered him during his bedding-in period, but it quickly became clear that the attack-minded No.8 was a tactical misfit under Motta.

Koopmeiners' numbers were way down on last season (four goals, three assists), with the scrutiny surrounding him intensified by the Juve squad's overall goal-shyness. In November, one newspaper asked: 'where's the real Koopmeiners?!'. He has even been jeered by his own fans. Any hope of a change in fortunes under Motta's replacement Tudor was short-lived, as an Achilles issue once again forced the midfielder onto the treatment table.

Having finally escaped the Arsenal substitutes' bench, many people were expecting to see Eddie Nketiah unleashed in new surroundings at Crystal Palace, but so far his move south of the river hasn't gone to plan. The striker scored just three times all season in the Premier League and struggled to hold down a starting place as the weeks wore on.

A big reason for Nketiah's predicament was Jean-Philippe Mateta, with the towering Frenchman hitting another rich vein of form up front as the lone striker, giving manager Oliver Glasner absolutely no reason to overlook him. "He's so hard-working," Glasner said of Nketiah in April. "Sometimes I feel a little bit sad for him, personally, when I see all his effort. It looks like, sometimes, things don't go well for him. There will come a day when he gets paid for all his effort." The former Gunner will certainly hope that's the case.

Versatile attacker Noah Okafor was signed by Napoli in January to provide useful back-up and boost their title push under Antonio Conte, although he had failed to make much of an impact in a season-and-a-half at AC Milan. Perhaps that should have been a red flag, as his contributions at Stadio Diego Maradona were negligible.

Conte afforded the Switzerland international fewer than 45 minutes of action in Serie A, which begs the question: why did the Partonopei even bother? Okafor didn't manage a goal or assist, with his only strike of the entire campaign coming for AC Milan on the opening day of the league season way back in August. Entirely forgettable.

It was considered to be something of a coup when Manchester United took advantage of Joshua Zirkzee's release clause to land him for £36.5m ($48m), below market value. Although he was hardly prolific, the striker had had an influential season in Italy as he played a key role in Bologna reaching the Champions League for the first time. However, the Dutchman proved to be the latest dud centre-forward to pull on the famous red shirt, following very closely in Rasmus Hojlund's footsteps.

Although he scored an opening-day winner against Fulham in the Premier League and showed flashes of technical brilliance, Zirkzee managed just three league goals before his season was curtailed by an untimely thigh injury, just when he had been improving and getting the fans onside. The 23-year-old wasn't helped by Hojlund's own terrible form, as he was expected to shoulder a burden he clearly wasn't ready for as he settled into his new surroundings.

Part of an influx of big-money signings as Marseille finally looked to return to the Champions League, Elye Wahi was the one who didn't meet expectations at Stade Velodrome. Things started well as the striker bagged a goal on the opening day of the Ligue 1 season, but he very swiftly went off the boil.

By the time mid-January rolled around, Wahi had just three league goals to his name and OM took the unusual decision of cutting their losses entirely and selling him to Eintracht Frankfurt for a little less than they had paid Lens just five months prior, with the German club looking to replace Manchester City-bound Omar Marmoush. However...

Wahi would have been desperate to get his career back on track in the Bundesliga after his ill-fated spell at Marseille, but things haven't gone to plan for the young Frenchman - who is already developing a reputation as something of a journeyman. The 23-year-old failed to score in 11appearances for Eintracht in the second half of 2024-25, seeing his minutes diminish as time wore on - although a knee injury didn't help matters.

The German side will expect much, much more from their record signing next term once he has a full pre-season under his belt, but it will be interesting to see whether they follow Marseille's lead by cutting their losses on Wahi at the earliest possible opportunity. At this stage, you certainly wouldn't rule that out, and he is known to have suitors in the Premier League.

Although not technically a 2024-25 signing, Endrick officially began life at Real Madrid last summer after a costly pre-transfer was agreed with talent-factory Palmeiras in December 2022, with the prodigious attacker completing the move after he turned 18 last year. Unfortunately for the teenager, that coincided with Kylian Mbappe's blockbuster free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain as a fearsome first-choice attack was formed.

Inevitably, Carlo Ancelotti was hesitant to bed the youngster in amid a fierce title race with Clasico rivals Barcelona, an ill-fated attempt to defend Los Blancos' Champions League crown and the overall pressure that comes with managing the biggest club in the world. Endrick took his opportunities by scoring five times in the Copa del Rey, but so much more was expected from a player touted as a generational talent.

He is already reported to be weighing up his options with the 2026 World Cup at the front of his mind. Of course, Ancelotti will now decide whether or not he is called up.

This was always a transfer that was going to go one of two ways for Liverpool: either Federico Chiesa would become a bargain cult hero, or he would continue to battle injuries and consequently struggle to adapt to English football. Unfortunately for both player and club, the latter has proven to be the reality. The one consolation is the fact he cost the Reds just £12.5m ($17m), although his £140,000-per-week wages are undoubtedly a burden.

The winger played just 104 minutes across the Premier League season(466 across all competitions), hindered by both his fitness and Arne Slot's inability to trust the Italian on the occasions that he was available for selection. What could have been a very shrewd piece of business has ultimately ended up being a waste of time for all involved, and it would be little surprise to see the 27-year-old head for pastures new when the transfer window opens.

Joao Felix remains modern football's lost boy. The ever-enigmatic attacker failed to find a home at Chelsea despite finally making a permanent transfer away from Atletico Madrid (again, more on that later), finding himself on the move again in January - this time in a temporary switch to AC Milan. However, he was once again unable to answer perpetual questions about what he is truly capable of in Italy.

The notoriously brutal Italian media wrote him off pretty quickly as he continued to flatter to deceive at San Siro, with his ineffectual performances and meagre attacking output belying his exceptional technical ability. It was very clear from an early stage in his loan move that the Rossoneri would have no plans to keep the Portuguese beyond the end of the campaign, and he now faces yet another summer of uncertainty at the age of just 25.

There was a time when Youssoufa Moukoko was considered one of the most exciting wonderkids around, drawing links with some of Europe's biggest clubs. Now, that feels like a distant memory with his career in limbo. Having found minutes hard to come by in an underwhelming 2023-24 campaign at Borussia Dortmund, Moukoko was loaned to Nice in a deal that interestingly included an option to buy for as little as £15m ($20m).

However, rather than getting himself back on track, things went badly wrong in the south of France; the striker scored just twice all season, in the form of a brace against St Etienne way back in September, and started just twice in Ligue 1, with his final appearance coming in a one-minute cameo in February. He was given opportunities in the Europa League but didn't take them. Unsurprising, Nice have effectively already confirmed the German won't be staying beyond the summer.

It feels like a lifetime ago that Bayern Munich were bending over backwards to try to sign Joao Palhinha from Fulham - a player who had developed a reputation as one of the finest defensive midfielders around. After his 2023 summer deadline-day move to the Allianz Arena dramatically collapsed, Bayern finally got their man last year. But following a debut season to forget, the Bavarian giants must be wondering if it was all worth it.

It was a similar story to a number of names on this list, with the Portugal international's adaptation period - where he was used sparingly by head coach Vincent Kompany - disrupted by a serious muscle injury that kept him out of action for two months between November and January. When he returned, he found minutes very hard to come by, with Kompany preferring the more mobile Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka and Aleksandar Pavlovic in his midfield. As a result, Palhinha is already being linked with a return to Fulham, but he has suggested he's not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

It's probably not a surprise that Raheem Sterling's temporary move from Chelsea to Arsenal wasn't a roaring success - not many loan deals are. But the fact it went as badly as it did is certainly something of a shock. The once-prolific Manchester City winger was a shadow of his former self in north London, leaving his parent club with a costly problem on their hands now he has returned to Stamford Bridge.

Sterling's time at the Emirates was largely characterised by aimless dribbles, poor touches and a complete loss of confidence. Despite the Gunners' injury problems in the attacking areas, there were plenty of occasions when Sterling was left on the bench as an unused substitute, with Arteta saying in February: "We are all behind him, we are the best for him and it's going to be really important and we need his best. And we need the players only with that mindset to be here to impact the team." What the future now holds for the England international is anyone's guess.

Any hope that Felix had finally found a permanent and long-term home at Chelsea was very short-lived after he returned to his former loan club in a shock £46m ($61m) move from Atletico Madrid late in the summer transfer window, as Conor Gallagher headed in the opposite direction. Following a mightily underwhelming half-season in which he made just two goal contributions in the league, he was on his way to AC Milan - where, as we know, things haven't gone much better during his loan spell.

Felix's capture by the Blues seemed more opportunistic than logical, and he predictably struggled to find a role in Maresca's system, with Cole Palmer holding down the No.10 position and the head coach preferring out-and-out wingers in the wide areas. Most of the the enigmatic attacker's minutes came in the cup competitions as he once again failed to live up to what may now always remain as significant unfulfilled potential and nothing more.