50 Worst Transfers

Sizzler

So say The Times .....Theres plenty more that could be added to this list

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article2096584.ece

Lex Luthor

What, no Sean Dundee in there

and no Hadj Diouf either

There was something dodgy about that Boumsong transfer to Newcastle, but Asprilla was one of my favourite players...dont think too many Toon fans would agree with his placing

Kingp35

Glad to see Brolin features in the top 5 but personally I think he should be top 3.

Attractive Nun

Poor newcastle, they have some showing in this list.

One Cold Hand

Bosko Balaban!!!

As a Villa fan that name sends £6m worth of shivers up my spine.

Worst. Signing. Ever.

I cant check it from work but out of curiousity is Veron in there twice?!!!

Spud83

Deleted User wrote:

I cant check it from work but out of curiousity is Veron in there twice?!!!

11 Juan Sebastian Veron, Lazio to Manchester United, £28.1m, July 2001; United to Chelsea, £15m, August 2003

To spare the Argentinian from appearing twice, these two moves have been placed together. If anything, Chelsea’s signing was worse, given that they knew Veron had failed to adjust to English football.

alanmurphy83

alanmurphy83 wrote:

Genius!! hahaha!! ****in Seba!! Couldnt believe Chelsea paid out for him!!! Suckers!! Ended up loanin him off n losin him on a freebie in the end as well!!

smcelhinney

had a surprisingly fantastic Copa America though, although thats prob cos he was beside Riquelme for most of it..

Galvasean

I'm suprised Andy Van Der Meyde didn't appear

DSB

Balaban, Flo and Sutton should have been higher.

Baros shouldn't have been in there at all.

Jesus Wept

In the early days of managing Newcastle, Bobby Robson saw Jason Euell playing upfront for Wimbledon and thought he was a fantastic player. But Bobby Robson is not very good with names and tells his scout to make enquires about the young black lad, England under 21 player, who plays upfront for Wimbledon.


The only problem was that Wimbledon had moved Jason Euell back to midfield and put Carl Cort up front for Wimbledon, who is also a young black lad and an England under 21 player.


So the scout comes back and asks Bobby Robson if he wants to put a bid in for Carl Cort and Bobby Robson says yes put a £7.5 million pound bid for the young black lad, England under 21 player, who plays upfront for Wimbledon.
Now Jason Euell is arguably a much better player than Carl Cort and maybe worth £7.5 million pounds but Carl Cort is not worth that much, so when Wimbledon received a bid of £7.5 million pounds for Carl Cort, they could not sign fast enough.

---

I could well believe there to be truth to this, seen Bobby stuggle with names as a pundit, and, at the time, and it was way way way above anyones estimation of the players value.

DSB

*tumbleweed*

Zebra3

Pity it's only the English Premier League.

The Luther Blissett story is the stuff of legend!!!

Jesus Wept

Zebra3 wrote:

Pity it's only the English Premier League.

The Luther Blissett story is the stuff of legend!!!

What ones that?

marco_polo

No room for George Weah's "cousin" that signed for the gunners? Anyone remember his name? Although he was technically a free transfer I think.

mikemac

Francis Jeffers ftw

AnCapaillMor

From an Arsenal view.

He only cost 2.5m but Kaba Diawara was a disaster, anyone else at the end of those passes in ellland road game and arsenal could've been champions in 99. Glen Helder also springs to mind, signed for Arsenal because apparently the dutch mafia was after him due to gambing debts, arsenal was the last place you'd want to go to back then. Much worse signing than kiwomya.


Chris Wreh was Weahs cousin, was'nt too bad, scored a few goals then vanished. speaking of Weah, whot was the name of that guy souness signed for southampton, give him 10 minutes pay and then realised this is not Weahs nephew.

Zebra3

The-Rigger wrote:

What ones that?

He failed miserably in Serie A and legend has it that Milan thought they were signing John Barnes from Watford, but got him mixed up with Blissett.

Of course then there is Ian Rush and his amazing inside view of life in Italy!!!

80s nostalgia!!!! :cool:

gosplan

smcelhinney wrote:

had a surprisingly fantastic Copa America though, although thats prob cos he was beside Riquelme for most of it..

If ever there was a player who wasn't suited to the speed of English football, it was he. Give him time and he's brilliant. Give him time and a static defence and he's more creative then most players, if he's getting kicked and rushed, it's a different story.

Hobart

marco_polo wrote:

No room for George Weah's "cousin" that signed for the gunners? Anyone remember his name? Although he was technically a free transfer I think.

Was it not Southampton he "signed" for?

[edit] It was Ali Dia=> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dia [/edit]

Chardee MacDennis

he's on that list is he not?

EDIT: sorry on the guardians list

Chardee MacDennis

from the guardian, i think

50 Claus Lundekvam (Southampton)
Saints boss Gordon Strachan paid this glowing tribute to the one-paced
Scandinavian in 2003: "He was carried off at Leicester and someone
asked me if he was unconscious. I didn't have a clue. That's what he's
always like."

49 Massimo Taibi (Manchester United)
United's worst keeper ever – in a competitive field featuring Mark
Bosnich. The Italian takes the prize for that dive over a shot from
Matt Le Tissier, an all-time You Tube favourite.

48 Stephane Guiv'arch (Newcastle)
Milburn, Macdonald, Shearer and ... Guiv'arch! The World Cup winner
never came close to that pantheon. Come to that, he's lagging in
Tyneside's Hall of Centre-Forward Fame (they could call it Striker
Grove) behind Cunningham, Mirandinha and Ameobi.

47 Jody Morris (Chelsea, Leeds)
Grew up at Chelsea with Dennis Wise as his mentor, and turned into the
snidey kid brother everyone hates. Had all of Wise's sly tendencies
and penchant for a scrape, but none of the skill. Perfect acquisition
for Leeds in 2003, then.
46 Nigel Quashie (QPR, Forest, Southampton, WBA and more)
Relegated four times with four clubs – and only narrowly avoided No 5
with West Ham last year.

45 Roque Junior (Leeds)
The execrable Brazilian arrived on loan for a few months from AC Milan
in 2003, and did as much as anybody to shove Leeds towards
destruction.

44 Sergei Rebrov (Tottenham)
Looked good enough playing alongside Andriy Shevchenko for Dynamo
Kiev. Sadly, Glenn Hoddle's £11m signing never looked the same force
with Steffen Iversen.

43 David May (Blackburn, Man United)
The guy picked up Premiership winner's medals with two clubs. But so
did Larry Lloyd.

42 Larry Lloyd (Liverpool, Nottingham Forest)
See David May (No 43)

41 Bosko Balaban (Aston Villa)
They said Deadly Doug was tight, but you can hardly blame him after
Ellis fished £6m out of his humbug tin for John Gregory to spend, and
the manager came back with the elusive Croatian. He never started a
Premiership game and scored no goals.

40 Carlton Palmer (Southampton)
"He covers every blade of grass out there," said Saints manager, Dave
Jones. "But that's only because his first touch is so cr@p."

39 Claudio Marangoni (Sunderland)
The striker swapped the rolling pampas of Argentina for Wearside when
he signed for a club-record £320,000 at Christmas 1979. One year and
three goals later he went back home. Only Geordies were sorry to see
him go.

38 Glenn Keeley (Everton)
Arrived on loan from Blackburn keen to show his mettle at the highest
level. On debut in 1982, against Liverpool no less, he was sent off in
the first-half, The Reds won 5-0 and he never played for Everton
again.

37 Marco Materazzi (Everton)
Yes, he won the World Cup with Italy. But the lean centre-half
couldn't tackle a Sayers' steak and kidney pie during his pointless
spell at Goodison.

36 John Jensen (Arsenal)
Empires rose and fell in the time it took the bubble-permed Dane to
score his first Arsenal goal. Searing pace, an eye for goal and a
fierce shot were just three qualities he didn't have.

35 Dean Austin (Tottenham)
The wafer-thin defender earned the wrath of the notoriously fickle
Spurs support early doors, and never won them round. Even now, he
featured strongly in a straw poll of Tottenhamites' least favourite
player ever to wear the white.

34 Ramon Vega (Tottenham)
The big Swiss was Dean Austin, with (cow) bells on.

33 Alberto Tarantini (Birmingham City)
Jim Smith went down the Spurs road and hired himself an Argentinian
World Cup winner in the afterglow of 1978, but the Bald Eagle chose
this dud left-back. Blues were relegated.

32 Gary Sprake (Leeds)
The Kop serenaded the hapless Welshman with "Careless Hands" when he
threw another one into the back of his own net, hardly a unique moment
for the accident-prone Inspector Clouseau of international
goalkeeping.

31 Charlie Nicholas (Arsenal)
The much-hyped Champagne Charlie didn't even amount to Pomagne Charlie
at Highbury.

30 Darren Ferguson (Manchester United)
Tried to make a name for himself at Old Trafford in the early 90s, but
it was already taken.

29 Winston Bogarde (Chelsea)
For all the good this expensive, non-playing flop ever did Chelsea,
they might as well have signed foppish character actor, Dirk Bogarde.
Or maybe they did and tried to cover it up.

28 Iain Dowie (West Ham)
Headlines that were never written: "It's Iain Wow-ie!", and maybe "Dow
ya think I'm sexy."

27 Eric Djemba-Djemba (Man United, Aston Villa)
One Djemba would have been bad enough, but two of them was more than plenty.

26 Frank Sinclair (Leicester City)
Whatever the opposite of a purple patch is, Frank 'Spencer' Sinclair
had one in August 1999. In two matches in August he scored two risible
own goals, single-handedly costing his team three points. That month
of mishaps alone earns him a place in the annals of infamy.

25 Steve Marlet (Fulham)
Mr Fayed didn't rise to the top in business by not knowing the value
of a pound. So mystery remains why he was persuaded to give Lyons
eleven and a half mill for the misfit striker. Marlet's ghost will
haunt him to the end of his days.

24 Mark Dennis (Birmingham City)
There were rumours in the game that Dennis could actually play, and
possessed a decent enough left foot. But the Blues' anti-footballer
was content to amass the game's blackest rap sheet.

23 Torben Piechnik (Liverpool)
Graeme Souness faces the bad transfer tribunal again for the
inexplicable purchase of the dithering Dane. English football was no
picnic for Piechnik and he slunk back to Denmark in short order.

22 John Fashanu (Wimbledon)
Fash elbows his way into the list for a legion of crimes and
misdemeanours inflicted on association football in the dubious cause
of Wimbledon FC, topped by the assault which shattered Saint Gary
Mabbutt's eye socket.

21 Nikola Jovanovic (Manchester United)
Third-worst United centre-half of all time (see nos 5 and 6).

20 Jason Lee (Nottingham Forest)
"He's got a pineapple on his head," crooned fans all over the land in
homage to the dreadlocked striker, who couldn't hit a ruminant's
posterior with a stringed musical instrument.

19 Marco Boogers (West Ham)
He made his mark on English football, but only on Gary Neville's
midriff as a murderous tackle almost wiped out the United right-back.
It was all downhill from there, as Mad Marco fled East London for a
caravan park somewhere in the Low Countries.

18 Martin Jol (West Brom)
The Dutchman was away from school the day they taught the
sophisticated tenets of Total Football, and the no-nonsense midfielder
went on to spread mayhem across the midfields of England.

17 Nicky Summerbee (Manchester City)
The mid-90s City 'winger' earns his place on account of his singular
running style. Arse stuck out in the fashion of a cartoon Mick Jagger,
in Manchester derbies he made the ungainly Phil Neville look like
Nijinsky.

16 Chris Kamara (Leeds)
For more than two decades Kammy has sported the perma-frizzed coiff of
a 60s soul legend, but it failed to distract from a playing style long
on effort, short on elegance.

15 Ade Akinbiyi (Leicester City)
Big Ade's combined career transfer value would dwarf the national debt
of an especially feckless banana republic, but he couldn't buy a goal
at Filbert Street after signing in 2000.

14 Micky Droy (Chelsea)
Nouveau Chelsea fans should know that their swanky club's DNA contains
the traces of lumbering 1970s dinosaurs such as Big Micky.

13 Steve Daley (Manchester City)
The poor bloke suffered from one of Man City's periodic bouts of
madness when they insisted on paying Wolves a record £1.45m for him in
1979, back in the days when £1.45m was £1.45m. He never looked close
to matching the valuation.

12 Terry Hurlock (Millwall)
Graced Cold Blow Lane during The Lions' unlikely late 80s spell in the
top flight, and unleashed a short-lived reign of midfield terror.
Hurlock, a one-man disciplinary crime wave, remains, unsurprisingly, a
cult hero in Millwall-supporting enclaves of south London.

11 Billy Woof (Middlesbrough)
Even three decades down the road Boro fans are still convinced Billy
only ever got a game because he was the son-in-law of John Neal, the
manager.

10 Vinnie Jones (Wimbledon and more)
Told Kenny Dalglish he intended to bite off his ear and spit in the
hole. And they said there were no characters left in the game.

9 Ian Ormondroyd (Aston Villa)
Nature's prototype for Peter Crouch lived at the same lofty altitudes
as his Villa Park successor, but perhaps lacked his touch and speed –
so why did he play on the wing?

8 Andrea Silenzi (Nottingham Forest)
The Italian who looked much like a horse turned out to be a load of
pony at the City Ground after his multi-billion lira move from Torino
in 1995, and pips Justin Fashanu as Forest's greatest transfer rick
ever.

7 Li Wei-Feng (Everton)
Arrived as part of the same strange deal which brought the not-too-bad
Li Tie to Goodison in 2002. Why? Perhaps he came free, like the prawn
crackers we get in our Chinese takeaway when we spend more than a
tenner.

6 William Prunier (Man United)
The baldy Bordeaux triallist starred in a calamitous 4-1 defeat at
Spurs on New Year's Day 1996, and he was bundled back onto a plane to
France the next day.

5 Arnold Sidebottom (Man United)
Ryan's dad also bowled quickly for England, but the centre-half
injected no discernible pace to the worst United team since records
began.

4 Istvan Kozma (Liverpool)
Yet another Souness master signing – the abject Magyar cost £300,000
from Dunfermline in 1992 and played just three games for the Reds
before Souey realised he'd made one more transfer goulash.

3 Gus Caesar (Arsenal)
"... painfully, obviously, out of his depth ... he looked like a
rabbit frozen to the spot ... and then he starts to thrash about,
horribly and pitifully..." not our words – those of ultra-loyal
Arsenalist, Nick Hornby.

2 Tomas Brolin (Leeds, Crystal Palace)
Hard to imagine that Leeds United, normally a model of fiscal probity,
paid £4.5m for the Swedish meatball in 1995. A good footballer treats
his body like a temple. Brolin's was a bouncy castle.

1 Ali Dia (Southampton)
Was he George Weah's cousin? Was he hell! Neither had the impostor won
12 caps for Senegal, nor had he played for Paris St Germain. But it
took Saints boss Graeme Souness a whole 52 minutes to suss he'd been
had in 1996.

marco_polo

Hobart wrote:

Was it not Southampton he "signed" for?

[edit] It was Ali Dia=> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dia [/edit]

Yeah thats the guy, got him mixed up with Christopher Wreh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wreh , who signed for Arsenal in 1997 and actually was really Georges cousin .

Jesus Wept

What was the name of Gerrard Houllier's first Liverpool signing?

It was seriously dodgy, the transfer went through I think only a day or 2 after Houllier's became manager, the guy cost about 1-1.5million, played 0 or half a game, and was never spoken of again, and was aged around 30-31.

He had a French name, think it may of started Jean Pierre

---

Anyone recall? Struck me as really bizzarre.

Eirebear

I take it this is tansfers to english clubs only then?
because i know theres at least one set of fans who would have been happy to see their team only pay 6.5 million for flo!

KdjaCL

The-Rigger wrote:

He had a french name, think it may of started Jean Pierre

---

.

hehhe

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040525/ai_n12779704

Sure it wasnt his 2nd signing? managing some small country in the west of europe


Edit upon further reading jesus you could copy and paste that as the worst 50 odd transfers.


kdjac

~Rebel~

The-Rigger wrote:

What was the name of Gerrard Houllier's first Liverpool signing?

It was seriously dodgy, the transfer went through I think only a day or 2 after Houllier's became manager, the guy cost about 1-1.5million, played 0 or half a game, and was never spoken of again, and was aged around 30-31.

He had a French name, think it may of started Jean Pierre

---

Anyone recall? Struck me as really bizzarre.

Jean-Michel Ferri was the guy. cost 1.7mill, made 2 sub appearances and was sold on. pretty crap start alright!

Jesus Wept

~Rebel~ wrote:

Jean-Michel Ferri was the guy. cost 1.7mill, made 2 sub appearances and was sold on. pretty crap start alright!

Thanks! I have been searching and searching. Something really dodgy about it I thought. Still boggles my mind.

~Rebel~

here's another page i found to go along with KdjaCL's;
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=264163&root=england&cc=5739

some of its good for a laugh if nothing else, now that those days are theoretically behind us..

Jesus Wept

ah, that one says that Jean-Michel Ferri was his first signing.

I don't know how they can bad mouth champions league winner like that? :eek::D

DeadSkin

~Rebel~ wrote:

here's another page i found to go along with KdjaCL's;
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=264163&root=england&cc=5739

some of its good for a laugh if nothing else, now that those days are theoretically behind us..

Just before I hit that link, Bernard Diomede's name bounced into me head.
Check out his profile here;
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/team/past_players/players/diomede/
'was a regular in the reserve team' ha!!!!
Some names on that list bring back some bad bad memories.

Daysha

Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson should be there. DD twice for his move to Aston Villa!

gandalf

Jeffers is only at 41, christ he was so crap he deserved a top 10 at least. FFS Franny even a loser at being crap

Lex Luthor

Houillier made some real porker signings...weren't half of them supposed to be the next Zidane?

Fratton Fred

Ali Dia. That name still brings a smile to my face.:D

How amazing it is that a manager of Greame Souness' experience and knowledge could end up with an absolute donkey. Good job he never managed a big team, like Liverpool or Newcastle:rolleyes:

aidan24326

Fratton Fred wrote:

Ali Dia. That name still brings a smile to my face.:D

How amazing it is that a manager of Greame Souness' experience and knowledge could end up with an absolute donkey. Good job he never managed a big team, like Liverpool or Newcastle:rolleyes:

You could nearly compile a list just from Souness alone. Amazing that someone of his experience got it wrong so many times. And the Ali Dia thing was just ridiculous, how could a club possibly sign a guy and put him in the first team when they clearly knew little or nothing about his background!

astrofool

Houllier seemed to be on a mission to redistribute Liverpool's wealth among the french league

Cyrus

yer man ferri was supposed to be houlliers spy in the dressing room!

Jonny Arson

David Bellion is another one to add to the pile of crap list that Alex Ferguson has bought.

Ali Dia is the worst signing ever but for the most consistent worst signing award has to go to Francis Jeffers. He's is nothing but a talentless effortless footballing hack and it's a miracle he is still with a Premier League club, he should be playing in non-league football.

Fratton Fred wrote:

How amazing it is that a manager of Greame Souness' experience and knowledge could end up with an absolute donkey. Good job he never managed a big team, like Liverpool or Newcastle:rolleyes:

Graeme Souness is an even bigger donkey that Ali Dia. One of the worst manager's ever.

PHB

Surprised to see David May on there, especially considering his role in the treble.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Djemba squared was poor. Pellegrino was awful.

Seth Johnson to Leeds.

All legendary flops.

Lemlin

aidan24326 wrote:

You could nearly compile a list just from Souness alone. Amazing that someone of his experience got it wrong so many times. And the Ali Dia thing was just ridiculous, how could a club possibly sign a guy and put him in the first team when they clearly knew little or nothing about his background!

Grabbi and Amoruso spring to mind. Just from his time at Blackburn.

The Guardian article is wrong too. May never won a Premiership medal with Blackburn. They finished second in '94 and he moved, famously stating "Only one team finished above Blackburn last season".

The following season Blackburn won the Premiership and United won nothing

Although maybe he had the last laugh as United went on to conquer all but oblivion over the following years, albeit with him being on the bench.

Benedict XVI

Zebra3 wrote:

Pity it's only the English Premier League.

Yea, I would have liked to see Arsenal's signing on Jon Jensen in there.
They bought him after the Euro '92, plaid millions for him and he only scored one goal.

AnCapaillMor

Benedict XVI wrote:

Yea, I would have liked to see Arsenal's signing on Jon Jensen in there.
They bought him after the Euro '92, plaid millions for him and he only scored one goal.

Goals were'nt a big part of his game, that goal in the 92 final convinced eveyone he'd be banging them in. Djibril Cisse, purely on all the hype we non-pool supporters had to put up with the 2 years before her signed.

Is there a top 50 never lived up to the hype?

Zebra3

AnCapaillMor wrote:

Goals were'nt a big part of his game, that goal in the 92 final convinced eveyone he'd be banging them in

Yeah, think he only scored one other international goal. And sure wasn't he George Graham's dream type of player!!!

Bubs101

Were is Caseraghi. He's without doubt the worst signing. 2 days of training and then 2 years of full pay on his sick bed.