Five teams who lose their best players every year

If you look at recent Premier League history, you will see two instances of top teams struggling to live up to expectations following the departure of star players.

The first, in 2013/14, when Tottenham lost Gareth Bale and struggled massively to fill the void left by their talisman and the second, in 2014/15, when Liverpool failed to replicate their amazing performance from 2013/14 following the departure of Luis Suarez.

What this shows is that it is never easy to replace your best players. So spare a thought for those clubs who constantly lose their best players to Europe’s richest and finest.

Take Monaco for example. The defending Ligue 1 champions built a young and strong squad with considerable effort but have already lost a major core of that team. Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy joined Manchester City and Tiemoue Bakayoko joined Chelsea. There is also the possibility that they could lose the most wanted prodigy in football, Kylian Mbappe.

Monaco have only been in this situation for a couple of seasons now; there are several clubs across Europe who have seen other clubs poach their best talents year in year out and here are the top five teams who keep losing their best players every year.

Honourable mentions: Sevilla, FC Porto, Schalke 04, AS Monaco and PSV Eindhoven

---

#5 Ajax FC

Tottenham's centre-back pair also played together at Ajax

Gone are the days when Ajax were a European superpower and also one of Europe’s supreme talent factories. Now, they are only the latter.

The Dutch giants gave the world some supreme talents in the 70s and have continued to deliver on the same line. The emergence of players of the highest order like Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Wesley Sneijder and several more players over the years is a testament to the quality of their youth setup.

Despite producing such world-class players, Ajax have struggled to keep hold of them every year. The Dutch club reached the final of the Europa League last season with a very young squad but they have already lost their captain Davy Klaassen to Everton, Kenny Tete to Olympique Lyon and if rumours are to be believed, they might lose their Colombian defender, Davinson Sanchez, as well.

Three of Tottenham Hotspur’s key players, Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are products of the Ajax academy. In addition to these three, some other major players sold by Ajax in the 2010s include Arkadiusz Milik (Napoli), Jasper Cillessen (Barcelona), Daley Blind (Manchester United), Timothy Fosu Mensah (Manchester United) and Luis Suarez (Liverpool).

#4 Valencia

Valencia once had a front three comprising David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata

Before Atletico Madrid won the La Liga title in 2013/14, the last team to beat Real Madrid or Barcelona to the league title was Valencia way back in 2003/04. The club also won the title in 2002 and reached the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2001 but lost to Bayern Munich on penalties.

However, their inability to compete on a regular basis with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona often led to the departure of their top players to greener pastures in search of trophies.

During the latter years of the first decade of the 21st century, the Los Murcielagos had an attacking line up consisting of David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata. Villa joined Barcelona in 2010 and went on to win the La Liga title, UEFA Champions League and several other honours; Silva joined Manchester City and won all possible domestic honours including two Premier League titles and Mata has won multiple honours with both Chelsea and Manchester United including a Champions League with the former.

Some of the other notable players sold by Valencia in the 2010s include Paco Alcacer (Barcelona), Andre Gomes (Barcelona), Shkodran Mustafi (Arsenal), Nicolas Otamendi (Manchester City), Jeremy Mathieu (Barcelona), Roberto Soldado (Spurs), Jordi Alba (Barcelona), Isco (Malaga) and Adil Rami (Milan).

#3 Southampton

Three players in the picture above have left Southampton and the fourth has handed in a transfer request

It is safe to say that in the recent past Southampton have produced some of the most talented English players, irrespective of how their careers panned out after leaving the club. In addition, the Saints also have a terrific scouting network which has helped them maintain their status in the Premier League despite losing key players every year.

Without a hint of doubt, the most notable player to have come through the Saints Academy is Gareth Bale but the Welsh wizard was a left-back when he left the Saints to join Spurs. However, the incredible turnaround in his fortunes in the last seven years needs no mention.

The Saints earned promotion back to the Premier League in 2012 and have constantly lost some of their major players to the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Spurs. Even before their promotion, Arsenal signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott from Southampton as teenagers.

After promotion, the figure has increased manifold and they have also lost two managers to rival Premier League clubs - Mauricio Pochettino to Spurs and Ronaldo Koeman to Everton.

The notable departures from the Saints in the last five years include Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane and Rickie Lambert all to Liverpool; Morgan Schneiderlin and Luke Shaw to Manchester United; Calum Chambers to Arsenal; Victor Wanyama to Spurs; Jose Fonte to West Ham and Graziano Pelle to Shandong Luneng.

At least one more player is likely to join this long list of departures this season after Virgil van Dijk submitted a transfer request, with Liverpool rumoured be his preferred destination.

#2 Borussia Dortmund

Lewandowski, Hummels and Gotze joined Bayern Munich from Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund’s rise from the verge of bankruptcy to win back to back Bundesliga titles and later become UEFA Champions League finalists is one of football’s most romantic stories.

The club’s incredible fan base and style of play have made them a favourite among the neutrals. This has also resulted in them getting plenty of sympathy every summer when they lose their key assets and have to rebuild their spine.

During the Jurgen Klopp era at Dortmund, the first major player to leave the club and join a top European side was their former club captain Nuri Sahin in 2011, when he signed for Real Madrid. Now, Sahin was named the Bundesliga Player of the Season for the 2010/11 season where the German club were crowned champions.

Two years later, in a shocking move, Mario Gotze opted to join rivals Bayern Munich a few weeks before the two clubs were due to play in the Champions League final. Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels also opted to follow Gotze’s path with the former joining the Bavarians on a free transfer.

Some of the other notable key players to leave Dortmund in recent years include Shinji Kagawa (Manchester United), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United) and Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City).

The Ruhr club might lose at least one more crucial player this summer as Ousmane Dembele is trying to force a move to Barcelona against the wishes of his current employers.

#1 SL Benfica

David Luiz and Angel di Maria played together at Benfica before joining Chelsea and Real Madrid respectively

The three Portuguese giants Benfica, Porto and Sporting are all renowned for grooming top players, especially Portuguese or South American players. These clubs have an amazing scouting setup in the South American countries and have brought many players from the continent to the fore.

One can argue that all three clubs deserve to be on this list but Benfica probably deserve it the most. During the 2017 summer transfer window alone, the club sold Ederson Moraes to Manchester City, Victor Lindelof to Manchester United and Nelson Semedo to Barcelona.

These days, in addition to scouting some superb talents from South America, Benfica also have a strong scouting network in the former Yugoslavian countries, notably Serbia.

Some of the other major outgoing players from Benfica in the 2010s alone include Renato Sanches to Bayern Munich, Nicolas Gaitan to Atletico Madrid, Goncalo Guedes to PSG, Joao Cancelo to Valencia, Andre Gomes to Valencia, Ezequiel Garay to Zenit, Lazar Markovic to Liverpool, Jan Oblak to Atletico Madrid, Bernardo Silva to Monaco, Nolito to Celta Vigo, Nemanja Matic to Chelsea, Javi Garcia to Manchester City, Axel Witsel to Zenit, Fabio Coentrao to Real Madrid, Angel di Maria to Real Madrid, Ramires to Chelsea and David Luiz to Chelsea.