7 Panic Buys That Were Actually A HUGE Success

in the world of football just like in everything else panic buying tends not to end well i mean the clue is in the name panic buying this time last year you may recall there was a veritable festival of stupidity that hit the nation's supermarket shelves here in the uk at least as people began hoarding toilet roll and bottles of water as though the only symptom of coven 19 was chronic diarrhea and that consequently the water supply would become so contaminated that it was no longer safe for human consumption well for every idiot panic buying toilet roll you can guarantee there's another one out there on a six or seven figure salary sat in the boardroom of a professional football club making an even more stupid decision panic buyers in football are practically synonymous with disaster whether it be andy carroll kim kallstrom or benjamin as with everything though there are exceptions that prove the rule and it is those rare exceptions that i'm interested in for the purposes of this video to be clear i'm being quite strict in my definition of what constitutes a panic buy to some people any deadline day deal is a panic buy by which logic louis suarez to liverpool would be a fantastic example of a panic buy that turned out to be a huge success however liverpool had been monitoring suarez for months if not years it just took until deadline day for the deal to finally be completed that to me is not a panic buy there are many other such examples but as i say if i don't believe there was genuine panic among managers chairman or directors of football when signing off on the deal then i left them out i'm a stickler for the rules even if it meant this video took a couple of hours longer than i would have liked to research here are seven panic buys then that were actually a huge success sammy hippia sami hippia is a man who will be best known to most of our subscribers for his decade of stellar service to liverpool where he made almost 400 appearances and won 10 trophies including the 2005 uefa champions league hippia was a bit of a wild card of asani by liverpool snapped up for just 2.6 million pounds after he was recommended to the reds chief executive by a cameraman however he was not a panic buy therefore hippia doesn't feature due to his 1999 move to anfield but rather his departure from the club in 2009. rafa benitez felt that he had the makings of a good sense back pairing in martin skirtle and daniela so he allowed hippia to join bayer leverkusen on a free transfer it was an interesting labor cousin squad that's hippia joined containing the likes of club legend stefan keisling south american internationals renato augusto and arturo vidal and a young tony crows they had finished ninth the previous season slap bang in the middle of the table equidistant between the top of the league and relegation on the cusp of turning 36 at the time and having seen his game time decrease at liverpool few expected sami hippia to be anything more than an old head and a reliable rotation option well as the joke goes hippia may have been finnish but he certainly wasn't finished he made 33 appearances and was an absolute rock during his debut campaign playing a pivotal role as levicus and climbed to a fourth place finish narrowly missing out on champions league qualification it could have been even better since leverkusen went unbeaten for an incredible 24 games before a minor collapse following their first league defeat of the season in march hippie was once again a regular fixture the following season as levakuzen finished as bundesliga runners-up trailing only young klopp's borussia dortmund if you're going to panic by then you could do a lot worse than picking up a rolls royce of a centre-back on a free transfer so hippia seems like a fitting starting point in this seven michael arteta and per mertesacker i don't tend to do joint inclusions but i found these two just too difficult to split in truth neither were masterful signings who rank among arsenal's all-time greats but they were both crucial editions who brought something more than just talent to arsene wenger's squad to begin with we should set the scene the summer of 2011 had been a brutal one for arsenal fans as club captain cess fabregas finally departed for barcelona meanwhile important first-team french duo gel cliche and samin nasri had both been seduced by manchester city's project and prosperousness on august 28th the gunners lost 8-2 to manchester united in one of the heaviest and most humiliating defeats of the premier league era with just three days until the transfer window slammed shut arsene wenger was without a win in his opening three league games and had just suffered the most painful defeat of his managerial career the typically studious frenchman claimed that arsenal wouldn't panic in the market but they did park chu yong andre santos yossi ben ayoon pen mertesacker and mike lartetta were all brought in at the 11th hour to try and plug the gaps in arsenal's leaky 11. murtazaka even acknowledged himself that he was a panic buy but said that he was fine with that fact whilst jokes were often made about murtazaka's pace or lack thereof and arteta was in all truth a poor man's fabregas both players brought stability to the emirates and were both very solid servants to the club they made 371 appearances in north london between them both going on to serve as club captains and the fact that both are still employed by the gunners mertesacker as the arsenal academy manager and arteta as the first team manager speaks volumes henry and vieira they were not but good solid recruits and even better characters they mostly surely were as panicked guys go you could certainly do a lot worse edgar davids it is all too easy to think that two seasons without a laliga title and half a decade without a champions league should constitute a major crisis for fc barcelona and financially right now it does but from a footballing perspective we have been tainted by a decade and a half of almost unparalleled domestic dominance and frequent continental brilliance it wasn't always thus at the start of the 200304 season barcelona had won just five of their opening 15 la laga games the club was without a laliga title since 1999 they had been humiliated by real madrid in their long-term pursuit of david beckham that summer a new boss frank wright guard was in danger of a very swift sacking by recently elected president joanne lopota in the midst of this crisis regard turned to a compatriot and former teammate in the form of edgar davids it was an unpopular decision among the barcelona board and among many supporters but reichardt was increasingly desperate as far as most were concerned barcelona already had five dutchmen in their squad and the thirty-year-old davids had been dropped by juventus replaced by ghanaian international stephen apparel so what could he really offer them as it turned out quite a lot basser had the makings of a fantastic midfield at the time with the likes of javi iniesta and summer rival ronaldinho but as the team struggled to get a foothold in games right guard couldn't get the best out of those players edgar davids came in with his wild hair iconic goggles and an insatiable appetite to win the ball back and drive barcelona on he puts a rocket up an ailing side that had been out of sorts for years and his dynamism allowed javi to start to dictate games for the first time and for aldenia to push forward and win games on his own barcelona enjoyed a sensational second half of the season and ended up finishing second in la liga frank reichard kept his job and the following season barcelona won the laliga title a year later they won the champions league and before long pep guardiola arrived bringing with him an era of unprecedented dominance whether all of that would have been possible without the panic by that kid david's and the brief period of inspiration that he brought the club who knows his lone move never became a permanent one but his legacy at the camp nou has been very long lasting giacomo bonaventura the man that ac milan fans called jack giacomo bonaventura is an unlikely rossoneri legend from around 2013 onwards ac milan had roughly half a decade of miserable transfer dealings and equally despondent performances in all of this darkness bonaventura provided a rare ray of light and yet it was a transfer that was never really meant to happen throughout the summer of 2014 ac milan had been desperately trying to sign rapid palmer wide man jonathan biabiani on transfer deadline day with just hours of the window left open ac milan's deal to san berbiani collapsed at the same time atalanta had agreed a deal to sell jacomo bonaventura to helle sperona and the final paperwork appeared to be a formality panicked and in desperate need of a replacement for biabiani milan turned to bonaventura who was so overjoyed to sign for the club in the final moments of the transfer deadline day that he burst into tips bonaventura sets ac milan back just seven million euros far less than costly flops like alessandro matri and class yan hunzela that jack would contribute so much more to the club than both of them combined whether it was in central midfield attacking midfield or out wide on the left bonaventura played with a passion and enthusiasm that made him an instant hit with supporters what's more he was intelligent good on the ball and a frequent gem in a turgid ac milan side almost like a semi steven gerrard figure in the history of ac milan bonaventura is someone who kept the club on the verge of competitiveness in a distinctly mediocre or even subpar set of squads he departed in the summer of 2020 following 184 appearances at the san siro to the dismay of many supporters and seemingly to bonaventure as well he will never be a maldini or a barassi when it comes to writing the annals of rostenairy greatness but jokomo bonaventura will always hold a special place in the hearts of ac milan fans who recognise the role they played during one of the club's bleakest periods raphael van der vaart talking of unusual club legends raphael van der vaart only ever played 77 games to tottenham which is only one more than major flop roberto soldado yet he is undoubtedly considered to be a spurs icon by many supporters if not a bonafide club legend the circumstances of vandervat's arrival at white hart lane have sometimes been somewhat disputed but harry redknapp has claimed that the move was facilitated by van der vaart's transfer from real madrid to bayern munich falling through at the death in the 2010 summer transfer window real madrid were apparently still looking to offload the dutchman who rednapped claims have been set to join buying for 18 million pounds so spurs came in with a lowball offer thought to have been somewhere between eight to 11 million pounds much to harry redknapp's delight their offer was accepted spurs had to be given special dispensation from the premier league to complete the deal since the paperwork couldn't be completed in time but boy was he worth the wait in his first four premier league games van der vaart scored three goals in addition to grabbing a goal and an assist in his first two champions league outings playing as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1 vanderwaal was given the freedom to go and express himself forming wonderful partnerships all over the pitch with the likes of luka modric gareth bale and peter crouch he ended his debut campaign as tottenham's top scorer with 15 goals he struck 13 times the following term as spurs finished in the top four for the first time during the premier league era he was sold after just two seasons following the arrivals of moussiden ballet clint dempsey and gylfi sickerton but for two seasons at the lane vandevar was majestic and he goes down as one of the finest premier league panic buys of all time iron robin if there is a takeaway from this seven then perhaps it is that if you really really must make a panic buy then sign a dutchman just not this one i say that because our runner-up iron robin is the third former netherlands international to feature in this seven and arguably if not definitely he is the pick of the bunch a world-class wide man now widely regarded as one of the finest of his generation back in 2010 his reputation wasn't quite as lofty following an early breakthrough robin had done well at chelsea but he hadn't quite been able to captivate the bernabeu as hoped at real madrid robin did little wrong in truth but the arrivals of karen benzema cristiano ronaldo and kaka all in the same summer sealed his fate what was less immediately apparent however was where he would end up as usual bam munich had got their work done early during the transfer window but louis van gaal's men subsequently made a dreadful start to the season failing to win any of their opening three games the dutchman who had only just arrived in bavaria was under immense pressure and just like frank wright guard he turned to a compatriot bynes stumped up the 22.5 million pounds the real madrid were demanding for robin at the 11th hour in the hope that it would give them some much needed impetus and threaten the final third robin would provide all of that and a whole lot more in his debut campaign he scored a remarkable 23 goals from the right flank becoming band's top scorer and inspiring them to a domestic double in total robin spent nine seasons in bavaria where he scored 144 goals in 309 games forming one of the most iconic wing partnerships of all time alongside frank ribery and winning 20 trophies i imagine that's how stuart donald thought his deadline day signing of will grigg would end up when he said you're either a fighter or a quitter after agreeing to pay a potential four million pounds for the league one centre forward with the sunderland hillary cameras pointing in his face eric cantona i know what you were probably thinking there's no way he's going to be able to pull out a better panic by the night robin he's clearly got the order wrong what an idiot some of you may even have ventured towards the comments ready to lambast me for my folly well i don't blame you for making that presupposition i am after all an idiot but on this occasion there has been no such offence committed for all his brilliance even iron robin cannot rival the majesty and sheer weight of impact upon the entire history of a club of eric cantona king eric as he is affectionately known by manchester united fans joined the red devils midway through the 1992-93 campaign the inaugural season following the premier league's breakaway from the football league whilst manchester united had made huge strides under alex ferguson since 1986 they were still without a top flight league title since 1967. cantona would swiftly change all that he arrived with an almost uniquely french arrogance about him both on and off the pitch but he lifted everyone in the manchester united dressing room whether that was in training or across a competitive full 90 minutes from no title since the 60s manchester united won four premier league titles during cantona's five seasons at the club the only exception being the season in which he was banned for kung fu kicking a crystal palace man cantona's character and genius made him a manchester united legend hailed as one of the club's greatest players of all time and yet it was a transfer that required a cocktail of unlikely events to ever become possible firstly an injury fergie had signed dion dublin over the summer to play up front alongside mark hughes and brian mclaren but in just his fourth game of the season dublin suffered a leg break in a game against crystal palace a couple of months later with manchester united depleted on the forwards front leeds united asked fergie whether he'd be open to selling fullback dennis owen absolutely not came the response but it opened a dialogue between the two clubs which led to the possibility of cantona being available the frenchman was considered to be a bit of a loose cannon by leeds and had caused them one or two headaches with no dublin and cantona available on the cheap ferguson took a gamble on the mercurial native of marseille and the rest as they say is history so that is it for today's video but before i leave you a quick shout out is owed to both david prescott who i'm assuming isn't john prescott's son but thank you either way and akutan and ja both of whom commented with this video idea four months ago and received thousands of likes for their suggestions my apologies that i didn't get around to making it sooner but my sincere gratitude for your suggestions and indeed for all of your suggestions as ever thank you all also simply for watching go ahead and like this video if you enjoyed it means a lot let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for hitch sevens oh and you can also find me on twitter or instagram by the username at hitc7 on both of those social media platforms should you wish to do so

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 704,130

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Panic, Buys, Transfers, Signings, Success, HITC Sport, Premier League, Bundesliga, Bayern Munich, Arjen Robben, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Eric Cantona, Tottenham, Arsenal, Barcelona, Champions League, AC Milan, Serie A

Id: h2ZqB2lnRxY

Length: 17min 47sec (1067 seconds)

Published: Wed May 05 2021