West Ham have been criticised in recent years for our tendency to panic buy. £15.5 million for a repeatedly injured Andy Carroll doesn't scream great value. Neither does a £10.75 million Matt Jarvis; although he has put in some great performances for us, he'd be hard pushed to live up to that price tag. Even when purchasing seemingly wisely, we have seldom seen great surprise purchases. When we received £18 million for the sale if Rio Ferdinand to Leeds, Harry Redknapp decided to use the money to sign a number of cheaper players rather than a replacement. Arrivals included £2.5 million Rigobert Song and £2.2 million Titi Camara, who were both an embarrassment to the club. Criticisms aside, however, some of our dealings in the transfer market have really paid off and bargain players have flourished at West Ham. This list is a celebration of those rare occasions in which we got much more than we could've expected from some clever bargain buys.
