Five Big-Money Signings Who've Merely Whelmed: Gyokeres, Mbeumo, and the Middling Middle

The temptation to slot expensive signings into neat categories—triumph or calamity—has never been stronger. Yet this season offers five prime examples of players occupying that awkward, unglamorous middle ground: neither the solution nor the problem, but something altogether more mundane.

Viktor Gyokeres: The Unicorn That Whelmed

When Gyokeres arrived at Arsenal, he carried the weight of being The Missing Piece. A midfield general to replace Patrick Vieira. A streetwise defensive coach to build on Arsene Wenger's attacking blueprint. Few players have ever arrived radiating such Final Jigsaw energy.

The 20-goal striker has now registered 21 goals in his debut English campaign—already his best return across a full Mikel Arteta season. Yet even this hasn't silenced the carping. The flat-track bully accusations started early, fuelled by his opening Premier League goals coming against Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Burnley. Then came the stat-padding narrative, with penalties conveniently wheeled out as proof of his inadequacy. By the time he hit the bench for Kai Havertz, his credentials as a certified flop seemed sealed.

But then April arrived. Arteta had always suggested that the final reckoning would come "in the last seven or eight weeks," and performances against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final and Fulham have forced something of a reckoning among the doubters.

The uncomfortable truth? Gyokeres was never quite as dreadful as his harshest critics claimed, nor as magnificent as the recent revisionism suggests. He's been absolutely fine—which, for a club chasing that elusive trophy, might prove to be exactly what was needed.

Bryan Mbeumo: United's Diminishing Returns

Manchester United's suggestion that they might already be eyeing Mbeumo's replacement is frankly daft, yet this hasn't been the breakout campaign initially promised by the Cameroon winger.

He arrived feeling like a natural fit at Old Trafford—unencumbered by the shirt's weight or the accompanying circus. Alongside Matheus Cunha, he represented a successful pivot to a revived transfer strategy that once underpinned the club's Premier League dominance.

But ten games without a goal, the last eight of which have also yielded no assists, tells a damning story. Nine goals and three assists might appear respectable in isolation, but they don't match his 2022/23 Brentford output of nine goals and eight assists—or remotely approach last season's 20 goals and eight assists. Michael Carrick's arrival has coincided with a marked drop in effectiveness.

The uncomfortable fact: Mbeumo shouldn't possess only one more combined goal and assist than Casemiro. Benjamin Sesko has matched his tally despite significantly less game time in a new league, while Cunha has spread his contributions more evenly.

Milos Kerkez: Liverpool's Left-Back Liability

Jamie Carragher's assessment was withering: "Sometimes when you watch Kerkez it's like having Darwin Nunez at left-back." Gary Neville went further, comparing his "naive" defending to that of "a youth-team player."

On paper, Kerkez represented Liverpool's least risky summer outlay. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike required patience. Jeremie Frimpong was replacing a generational talent in a position demanding tactical restructuring. Alexander Isak arrived without pre-season.

Kerkez, by contrast, joined early with two seasons of Premier League experience at Bournemouth and a clear pathway to displace Andy Robertson. Yet he's spent stretches drowning in Liverpool's seasonal chaos. Now he's losing the left-back battle to a player who nearly departed in January and will definitely leave come summer.

The image of him mopping up Virgil van Dijk's defensive mistakes from the bench has rather summed up his trajectory.

Thierno Barry: Everton's Patience Test

Eight goals represents a decent return for a prospect signed on potential. The brace against Manchester City came after a seven-game drought, with his maiden goal arriving only in December.

David Moyes offered perspective: "We took a chance on a young up and coming striker, we tried to get him in quickly and early to see how he was going. He has not done bad. I actually think he is improving as he is going along. The first season in the Premier League, it is not that easy."

The Everton boss also noted that "football supporters are not having much patience with many things" nowadays, emphasizing that "there is a bigger emphasis on: We need things now, we are looking for that to happen quickly."

Tony Hibbert would never have survived this era.

Dango Ouattara: Brentford's Patient Gamble

Brentford parted with an initial £37m for Ouattara, with another £5m in add-ons, making him their record signing.

Should those bonuses activate based on club success, Bournemouth will likely pocket a windfall from one of their European qualification rivals. Individual performance clauses, however, may have to wait. Five goals and three assists represents decent work, though there's considerable room for growth—particularly if he becomes a Champions League club's most expensive player by month's end.

On the bright side, he's helped eliminate the Panenka from football's repertoire.