Francis Jeffers is actually one of the more successful entrants on this list, as he actually has an appearance - and a goal - for England on his CV. In his early days at Everton, though, they would have expected a lot more than one solitary cap for the youngster. He made his debut for his hometown club in a game at Old Trafford at the age of 16. Over the course of four years at struggling Everton he bagged a respectable 21 goals despite being frequently disrupted by injury. Arsene Wenger saw enough promise in the young Englishman to bring him to Arsenal for £8m where he was given the dreaded "fox in the box" tag that would be an albatross around his neck. Signed to give Wenger's side a new attacking dimension, Jeffers wilted under the pressure and scored just 8 times in all competitions over two seasons. That's a million pounds a goal. He was loaned back to Everton for the 2003/04 season but failed to score a league goal and from there he adopted a "have football boots, will travel" attitude, pitching up at the likes of Charlton Athletic, Rangers, Blackburn, Ipswich, Motherwell and Accrington Stanley, as well as two stints with Newcastle Jets in Australia (he scored twice for them in total) and a brief spell in the Maltese league with Floriana (where he got one goal). Jeffers is 35 and in theory he could still he playing. He has not officially retired but has been without a club since being released by Accrington after the 2012/13 season. With just 52 professional club goals over a career spanning almost two decades, he probably shouldn't be waiting by the phone.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
