25 Worst Premier League Signings Ever
For every Alan Shearer there's an Ali Dia...
Reports are leaking through various news outlets that Chelsea forward Alexandre Pato could be leaving the club before his contract expires, even before making a single appearance for the Blues. His career stats for Chelsea currently stand at zero minutes on the pitch, and zero goals, allowing him entry into a very unfortunate clan which no player wants to be associated with; the worst Premier League signings of all time.
Thousands of players have come and gone during the twenty four year span of England's top division some, such as Luis Suarez and Gianfranco Zola, are revered as the greatest signings in Premier League history, but there is a collective so bad that they're permanently engrained in the minds of football supporters up and down the country.
Managers of England's top clubs are always on the lookout for that one talent that will light a fire in their team and bring them success, but as the famous Latin phrase states - Caveat emptor, Let the buyer beware. Sometimes a signing so promising on paper touches down on English soil and is so monumentally bad that they're forever immortalised in the echelons of footballing history as an example of how not to do business when buying a player.
25. Alexandre Pato
The player for whom this list was compiled; Pato at one point had the world at his feet and was rightly regarded as one of the best young attacking talents in European football. Simply excellent at Milan from 2007 to 2010, he began a decline which he still hasn't kicked himself out of. Failed spells at Corinthians and Sao Paulo led to Chelsea taking a gamble on the former kid superstar, and it has backfired horrendously.
To date Pato has clocked no appearances, no goals, and is behind twenty year old Bertrand Traore in the pecking order at Stamford Bridge. Looking mildly interested in a Chelsea tracksuit whilst he picks up his reported £30,000 a week wages, the striker looks to be having his loan deal cut short before it has even expired.
An unfortunate case of buying into reputation rather than performances.