Ever since the inauguration of the Premier League back in 1990, it has born witness to a huge influx of foreigners from abroad and likewise, it has seen many big money transfers from within the borders. Whilst some of these big bucks transfers do pay off, and the new recruit makes a big impact at their new club, this isn’t always the case…
Millions and Millions of pounds have been squandered by clubs over the years, on obtaining mediocre and sometimes disastrous signings. As you’d imagine particular clubs are more suspect to these flops than others, proving that it is indeed possible to have more money than sense.
This article will list 15 of what I believe to be the Worst Ever Premier League signings. Feel free to post if you disagree with my list, and please post your own lists in response to this.
15. Eric Djemba-Djemba
- From: Nantes
- To: Manchester United
- Fee: £3.5 million (Source: BBC)
Eric Djemba-Djemba shot to fame in the noughties, after putting in a manifold of impressive performances for his French club, Nantes, and he quickly gained the reputation in France of being a no-nonsense anchor man and feisty tackler in midfield. His performances soon attracted the Premier League market and in particularly, he caught the eye of Sir Alex Ferguson, who thought the Cameroonian international would be an ideal replacement for Roy Keane in the heart of midfield for Manchester United. Sir Alex eventually purchased him from Nantes for £3.5 million in 2003, and expected that he would become the mainstay of the United midfield for many a year.
Djemba Djemba however, struggled with the tempo of the Premier League and couldn’t emulate the form that he once had in Ligue 1 and consequently, in the two years he played at Old Trafford, he only amassed 20 Premier League games collectively. In 2005 after a largely ineffective period in Manchester, he was dumped by Ferguson to fellow Premier Leauge team Aston Villa for a fee of around £1.5 million.
Djemba-Djemba is probably most fondly remembered at Old Trafford for his frequent and savage two footed tackles and also for the coolest surname the Premier League has seen since its induction. Sadly, his finest goal was clearly an accident…
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35 Comments
David De Gea as one of the 15 worst signings in Premier League history…what are you like 15 years old??
no actually I’m 17
Ha, Phil did you come up with that comment yourself? by the looks of it your the one i would be inclined to think was a child
You missed a lot of other bad signings made by l’pool like harry kewell, cisse, crouch, joe cole, etc. De Gea certainly doesn’t deseve to be in the list.
how was Crouch a bad signing for Liverpool? He wasn’t Torres but he did well for us. Kewell won a Champions League as well so I’ll let him off too
Kewell was 5m.. For that he wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some of these transfers, Crouch was class, he was only 7m and we sold him for 12m… Hardly a flop.. De Gea has been gash. What’s with all the anti-Liverpool?
Nice article Jacob.
Good for a 17 year old and much better than what a Man U tw@t supporter like Phil_Sterling could ever produce!
Potentially should have been included as well somewhere: Thomas Brolin (Leeds/Crystal Palace); Andrea Silenzi (Notts Forest); Hugo Viana (Newcastle); Lee Bradbury (Man City); Andriy Voronin (Liverpool); Jo (Man City/Everton); and Kleberson (Man Utd)
Bebe should be there in the list instead of de gea and possibley in the top 5.
Thats a fair point
There are a few names in this article I would agree with along with some of the suggestions within the comments section. My main gripe is that football has such a rich history that merely picking transfers over the last ten years leaves you open for criticism as there are plenty of candidates that would have been prime candidates for thus list over and above some of those selected.
Picking De Gea seems wholly premature, and having Carroll as your number one is unfair on the player. I. Would argue that Liverpool’s failure to play to his strengths was the main reason they failed to get the best out of his ability.
If you were to pick signings from recent transfer windows then you missed plenty of Arsene Wenger’s recent buys
I understand where you are coming from however as a 17 year old, some of the older players haven’t come into my radar therefore I can’t put them in my list.
In which case the article should not be called the 15 worst EVER premier league signings if you dont have the experience to back it up. Purely off the top of my head, how about Marco Booger, Joey Beaucham, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Stuart Downing, Bosko Balaban, Savo Milosevic and many more. Also it was Brendan Rodgers who shipped out Andy Caroll not Kenny Dalglish.
I have a few criticisms, but please take them in good humour rather than get upset or offended:
- Make sure you know the meaning of words before you use them (e.g ‘tenure’, not ‘tenor’)
- Countless times in the article, you use commas in entirely the wrong way (I would have expected the editor and/or your schoolteachers to inform you of this – you need complete mastery of a variety of punctuation to succeed at A-Level)
- You can’t say ‘of all time’ in the article title and then say that you’re too young to have seen many that others have mentioned; either do the research, or simply state ‘of the past ten years’ in the title.
I’m an English teacher myself, so again, please take my criticisms on board, and strive for perfection in your writing. Well done.
Robbie Keane has never played for Blackburn.
ITS A GOOD ARTICLE, AND YOU ARE JUST BEING ANAL.. I’M SURE THE GUY WILL PASS HIS FOKKIN ENGLISH EXAM THEN COMMAS AND APOSTRAPHIES DONT MATTER IN THE REAL WORLD!!
It is very hard to only be able to pick 15 players after some of the abysmal signings the premier league has seen so well done, but……. the spelling of the word GEORDIE in the section about Andy Carroll I cannot forgive. Jordie????? seriously
What about Arshavin?He started good,but now he’s on the bench
The Andy Carroll transfer is a bit of a strange one.
The transaction itself didn’t damage Liverpool. According to L’pool owner JWH, Liverpool told Chelsea that they wanted Carroll plus 15 million. Essentially, Liverpool swapped one striker for another and got 15m. Chelsea were the real victims of the Carroll transaction.
spot on! Andy Carroll, for me, has got to be the worst signing ever! crazy amount of money for a player who has offered so little for liverpool.
He may not have had the large transfer fee, but any ‘worst ever’ list must contain Ali Dia of Southampton
Ollie, you beat me to it. This list should be titled “The worst EXPENSIVE transfers in RECENT Premier League history”, because it pretty much ignores the first decade.
Ali Dia pulled off one of the biggest frauds in football history (claiming to be George Weah on the phone, recommending himself) and managed to get himself a game for Graeme Souness at The Saints. He was actually horrific and subsequently failed to impress at clubs like Gateshead.
This list is full of top players who simply didn’t seem worth their price at certain clubs. They are nowhere near the worst signings in Premier League history.
I mean, is Torres at Chelsea really worse than say… Andy Booth at Spurs?
Even if we are just limiting it to expensive signings, as this list seems to do, Afonso Alves HAS to be on there.
Michael Owen to Newcastle? Wouldn’t really say De Gea was a bad signing yet as he has the potential to develop into a top keeper. Not good in the air but he’s already a first class shot stopper. He’s no Taibi.
As a NUFC supporter I am quite shocked that no Newcastle signings are present on this article as I have lost count personally i.e. Boumsong, Bramble, Xisco to name but a few. Also please do your research, it’s ‘Geordie’ not ‘jordie’.
Sorry mate, but Rodgers shipped Carrol on loan to West Ham, not Dalglish. And it was Liverpool’s fault for not playing in his particular style, not Carrol’s; as he did have the work rate and arguable talent.
yes but perhaps not worth £35 million?
Glad you put Carroll number 1. People usually put Torres above him in lists like this but at least you could kind of see where Chelsea were coming from, I mean we’ve all seen what he can/could do. The Carroll transfer was just hilarious lunacy, it almost makes the fees for Downing, Allen & Aquillani look shrewd. Almost.
U forgot Andre Santos, Djourou, Giroud, Traore, Mertesacker, Squillaci, Bendtner, Gervinho, Senderos, Almunia, Lehmann (worst and dirtiest gk in history of premiership), first rule of sports journalism try and conceal obvious bias.
ALI DIA
You missed do many players its laughable your only a kid so u don’t remember the likes of Thomas brolin or Chris Sutton even andy cole was a flop
Marcelino Elena
The premier league started in 1992 didn’t it?
Brendan Rodgers sent Carroll on loan to West Ham, not Dalglish. You would have thought that an ‘aspiring journalist’ would be capable of a little research.
Poor article.
an ok article, but i feel you have missed so many worse players off the list here, and david de gea should definitely not be on here. this season has been a good one for him, and how many young players struggle in their first season in the prem? his flaws were just accentuated last season because, as a keeper, there is nobody to hide his mistakes.