10 Premier League Record Signings Who Were A Waste Of Money

3. Fernando Torres

His return to Atletico Madrid in January sparked jubilant scenes among fans of the Spanish club with 40,000 people turning out at the Vicente Calderón Stadium to welcome their hero home. You get the sense they haven't paid much attention to his career recently. In 2007 the world was the Spanish striker's oyster. He was viewed as one of the greatest talents in Europe, was a legend in Spain and had secured a move to Liverpool for over £20M. The move was successful and his reputation as a deadly goal-scorer continued to grow, until Chelsea decided they needed his quality in their front-line. The most notorious £50M bid ever followed and for some reason the talent well ran dry. Despite being a World Cup and European Championship winner, Torres failed to produce the kind of form that saw him named third place in the 2008 Ballon d'Or and came nowhere near repeating the number of goals he scored during his spells at Atletico and Liverpool. Before Manchester United signed Angel Di Maria for £59.7M this summer, Torres's move to Chelsea was a British record transfer fee, but he will forever be remembered as a record waste of money.