Is Fernando Torres tenure at Chelsea the biggest flop in Premier League history?

[PorkChop]

The latest is that he's signed a two year deal at AC Milan, ahead of a tree transfer. He cost Chelsea £50 million 3 years ago, scored 20 goals in 110 games, cost a fortune in wages and is now leaving on a free.

That's pretty shocking. Definitely a contender for the biggest flop ever.

[prophet]

No, Andy Carroll is the biggest flop ever.

35 million to Liverpool = 6 goals.
15 million to West Ham = 9 goals.

I don't hold the transfer fees against him, he had nothing to do with those and it isn't his fault two clubs have paid absurdly stupid amounts for him but even with that aside 15 goals is fucking terrible, couple that with how woefully injury prone he is and you have yourself the biggest flop ever.

Torres, whilst certainly up there, at least somewhat justified his price tag with his performances as a Liverpool player and did contribute in the campaign that saw Chelsea win the Champions League so for those reasons I have to consider Carroll to be a bigger flop them him.

[AkydefGoldberg]

For the fee paid and numbers he returned - yes.

But as a former Liverpool player, I actually feel a great deal amount of sympathy for him. He's a player I've got a soft spot for besides his goal laden spell at the Scousers. At Atletico he showed promise, was their captain but his knee injury in 2010 effectively killed him as a pace-driven striker. He never was the same. Abramovich was out of his nut paying £50m for him. In his last season at Liverpool, you could tell his goal-scoring days were done. Then Chelsea's system didn't really suit him but he's won everything in the game so don't think he'll complain.

Hope he does well at Milan which is effectively a free transfer - amazed Chelsea didn't try to get some fee for him but might have felt sorry for the lad.