In his first managerial role at Bournemouth, Redknapp had been rather restrained in the transfer market, signing just 19 players in eight years. It was at West Ham, therefore, that he made his name as someone constantly hunting for a bargain. And so it was at West Ham that he made some of his more spectacularly bad transfers. After making an impressive £18 million for the sale of Rio Ferdinand to Leeds in November 2000, Redknapp had ample transfer funds to strengthen the squad. In came the likes of defender Ragnvald Soma (£800,000, 7 Premier League games), forward Svetoslav Todorov (£500,000, 1 goal) and Liverpool forward Titi Camara. Costing £1.5 million, the striker told the press "I've come to West Ham to play, play, play and score, score, score". He did neither. In three years he racked up all of 14 appearances in all competitions, failing to score a single goal. After Redknapp was fired for complaining to the press about the club's directors and their not providing him with more transfer money (can you blame them?), Camara remained at the club until they were relegated and he too was fired. He would later try and sue West Ham for terminating his contract.
