Your 5 worst signings in Premier League history?

[Jippy]

Kewell was fantastic at Leeds, Giggs level at times, I thought he was the best Leeds player when they were good

thinking about it I can remember Giggs dropped off heavy around the early 2000s so Kewell may even have been better for a spell

Kewell was class at Leeds and was gutting when he joined Liverpool. I thought it was mostly injuries that meant he stunk it up there tbh. Only came out he was a major prick later.

Ah i meant in that era, Malbranque was okay and yeah definitely not a flop twas more of an illustration of there's more to bad signings that recent one's.

Veron was terrible for Chelsea + United, didn't he cost £20mill (both times) too which at the time was expensive

Veron wasn't terrible for United. He played an important role in the 2003 title winning season and scored some good and important goals- he was quite good in the UCL too. Obviously he disappointed given the fee and expectation, but he wasn't as bad as people make out. The fact it was hard to fit him in a long established midfield of Giggs-Scholes-Keane-Beckham didn't help.

 

[Dean60]

Childhood Liverpool fan Dele Alli 100k a week for that absolute clown.

Harry Maguire has to be up there for me as well.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

This thread makes me take in just how bad we've been in the transfer market for the past decade...

while we paid tons for:

Antony
Sancho
Maguire
Casemiro
Varane
Di Maria
Sanchez
Mount

(those in bold have a legitimate shot at being the worst ever)....

how about some other semi-forgotten players for which we paid in the region of 40m and were anywhere between terrible to underwhelming:

Van de Beek
Wan Bissaka
Bailly
Lindelof
Mata
Mikhitaryan


this is quite a blow, looking at all those names concentrated like that.

 

[duffer]

I'm sure Chelsea decided to play him at centre back too.

That didn't happen but maybe we should've tried!

 

[Red the Bear]

Go back as far as you like, you'll not find any transfers as bad as Antony

Just sticking to united and the recent memory van de beek has to be worse considering Antony at least several big game performances.

No way he's top of the list.

 

[Pickle85]

Just sticking to united and the recent memory van de beek has to be worse considering Antony at least several big game performances.

No way he's top of the list.

VdB really does take some beating. Has hardly played, when he has played he's been anonymous, and he still cost 40 million or something.

 

[Rozay]

Peaky Jack to City. A quietly hugely ineffective £100m/€120m signing, who has only gotten away with it because his team haven’t had to rely upon him being a good signing to compete. Most teams can’t afford for their £100m signing not to work.

 

[MrMarcello]

Veron wasn't terrible for United. He played an important role in the 2003 title winning season and scored some good and important goals- he was quite good in the UCL too. Obviously he disappointed given the fee and expectation, but he wasn't as bad as people make out. The fact it was hard to fit him in a long established midfield of Giggs-Scholes-Keane-Beckham didn't help.

He was probably an overall 7/10 for United with moments of sheer class, those pinpoint passes and vision were above anyone at the club, even Beckham and Scholes at the time. Don't leave out Butt who was also extensively used in that midfield setup, which means SAF was trying to fit a world class signing into a quintet of starlets who had grown up in and played in the league for multiple seasons.

Drop a prime Veron into the 06-10 sides to play in a midfield trio of Carrick and Scholes and that would have fared much better.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

This thread makes me take in just how bad we've been in the transfer market for the past decade...

while we paid tons for:

Antony
Sancho
Maguire
Casemiro
Varane
Di Maria
Sanchez
Mount

(those in bold have a legitimate shot at being the worst ever)....

how about some other semi-forgotten players for which we paid in the region of 40m and were anywhere between terrible to underwhelming:

Van de Beek
Wan Bissaka
Bailly
Lindelof
Mata
Mikhitaryan


this is quite a blow, looking at all those names concentrated like that.

Judging by how much we spent in the last 10 years and how little we have won, it's no surprise that most of the worst transfers in recent times are ours.
I would swap di Maria for Pogba though, at least for Di Maria we got our money back and he was a good player, it was LVG who did not know how to use him.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Antony
Sancho
Mount
Maguire
Fellani

 

[Jippy]

He was probably an overall 7/10 for United with moments of sheer class, those pinpoint passes and vision were above anyone at the club, even Beckham and Scholes at the time. Don't leave out Butt who was also extensively used in that midfield setup, which means SAF was trying to fit a world class signing into a quintet of starlets who had grown up in and played in the league for multiple seasons.

Drop a prime Veron into the 06-10 sides to play in a midfield trio of Carrick and Scholes and that would have fared much better.

Yep you could see he was class, but difficult fitting him in and arguably better suited to Spain and Italy. Would've loved to see that 06-10 variant, though he would've been pretty old by then!

Judging by how much we spent in the last 10 years and how little we have won, it's no surprise that most of the worst transfers in recent times are ours.
I would swap di Maria for Pogba though, at least for Di Maria we got our money back and he was a good player, it was LVG who did not know how to use him.

We got most of our money back in AdM and the impact of the armed robbery on him and his wife clearly unsettled him massively too. That and not really wanting to be here in the first place. Shame cos after that lob against Leicester, it briefly all looked rosy...albeit not even until the end of that game.

 

[troylocker]

Torres to Chelsea
Sanchez to us
Martial to us
Shevchenko ot Chelsea
Antony to us

 

[JPRouve]

Torres to Chelsea
Sanchez to us
Martial to us
Shevchenko ot Chelsea
Antony to us

How is Martial to United even in the top 50?

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Sancho to United - Again not just the fee, because I don't think Sancho is an awful player, but when you desperately need a new central midfield, spending the best part of £100m on a right winger who prefers to play on the left where all your other wingers prefer to play, is a bit dumb. Then after signing Sancho, for the best part of £100m, Ole decided to instill confidence in him by immediately preferring to play Daniel James. Then to compound matters further from this already extremely dumb sequence of events, Sancho almost invariably played like garbage.

I think you've concocted that sequence of events in your own head. Dan James was sold a few weeks after we signed Sancho. Unless you're referring to that opening day battering of Leeds? James always played well vs Leeds so it made sense to start him ahead of Sancho in that one game.

 

[troylocker]

How is Martial to United even in the top 50?

60M for a kid valued at 8M in 2015 with «nothing» on his CV other than being worded the next Henry. Which he wasn’t. Impossible to sell, injury prone and seen with a smile on his face twice in 9 years. I could‘ve gone with Pogba, but Martial won the flip.

 

[JPRouve]

60M for a kid valued at 8M in 2015 with «nothing» at his CV other than being worded the next Henry. Which he wasn’t. Impossible to sell, injury prone and seen with a smile on his face twice in 9 years. I could write Pogba too, but Martial won the flip.

A simple example, Martial played 317(19000 minutes) games for United scored 90 goals and provided 42 assists. Naby Keita joined Liverpool for the same amount, 11 goals 7 assists and 128 games. Pépé moved for 80m, Kepa also moved for 80m.

I won't mention Pogba because his mention is crazy, he isn't even in United's top 5, let alone the entire league.

 

[Frank Grimes]

5. Andy Carroll

4. Harry Maguire

3. Donny Van de Beek

2. Sancho

1. Antony

 

[Gentleman Jim]

5 City stinkers

Danny Mills: took the club for every cent he could giving very little back.

Wayne Bridge: expensive permacrock

Eliaquim Mangala: Willing but not able

Wilfried Bony: contacted Malaria which may mitigate unbelievable shiteness.

Kalvin Phillips: crap beyond belief

ZZZ c

Add Roque Santa-Cruz

Yeah he was another permacrock.
At least Hughes did well out of the signing.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

I remember the days when it felt like Fellaini was our worst ever signing.

Now he wouldn't even crack the top ten. To his credit, he did also end up making himself quite useful in the end.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Antony
Alexis
Schneiderlin
Depay
Onana

 

[Jimble]

Alexis Sanchez
Angel Di Maria
Andy Carrol
Nicolas Pepe
Naby Keita

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

60M for a kid valued at 8M in 2015 with «nothing» on his CV other than being worded the next Henry. Which he wasn’t. Impossible to sell, injury prone and seen with a smile on his face twice in 9 years. I could‘ve gone with Pogba, but Martial won the flip.

He definitely didn't cost 60m. It was a 36m fee plus add-ons. It's safe to say he didn't meet all of those add-ons considering one of them would only trigger if he won the Ballon d'Or.

 

[Malkovich]

Honestly to me Andy Carroll is P4P #1 without any question. Because with Antony or Mudryk at least you sort of understand the reasoning behind the fee, you are signing an electric, flair player in theory. But Carroll's fee is like if someone today paid 90M for a younger Chris Wood or someone of that profile, its the only signing that is terrible beforehand rather than only ex-post.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Honestly to me Andy Carroll is P4P #1 without any question. Because with Antony or Mudryk at least you sort of understand the reasoning behind the fee, you are signing an electric, flair player in theory. But Carroll's fee is like if someone today paid 90M for a younger Chris Wood or someone of that profile, its the only signing that is terrible beforehand rather than only ex-post.

Dalglish was stuck in the early 90s with his rationale behind that signing. Big man up top who wins headers + midfielders with long range passing (Downing & Adams) = title winning team.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Ah i meant in that era, Malbranque was okay and yeah definitely not a flop twas more of an illustration of there's more to bad signings that recent one's.

Veron was terrible for Chelsea + United, didn't he cost £20mill (both times) too which at the time was expensive

Oh right. I have fond memories (even if it's all hazy now) of that time of the league because I remember playing Champ Manager and Fantasy Football league so was more interested with clubs/players that were not Utd. I recall Malbranque being quite a decent and entertaining player to watch. @JPRouve thoughts?

 

[JPRouve]

Oh right. I have fond memories (even if it's all hazy now) of that time of the league because I remember playing Champ Manager and Fantasy Football league so was more interested with clubs/players that were not Utd. I recall Malbranque being quite a decent and entertaining player to watch. @JPRouve thoughts?

Yeah he was decent, in a similar bracket than Payet.

 

[JakeC]

Shows how much some people know about football calling Martial one of the worst signings ever. Did he live up to his expectations? Of course not. He is, however in our top 10 PL scorers ever. With a similar goals to game ratio as Mark Hughes Javier Hernandez, Saha, and Sheringham.

 

[M Bison]

Lavia for Chelsea has been a bad one, has he even played a game yet?

 

[fps]

Antony
Alexis
Schneiderlin
Depay
Onana

Schneiderlin is quite the shout. Couldn’t cover the pitch. Massive money.

 

[fps]

Oh right. I have fond memories (even if it's all hazy now) of that time of the league because I remember playing Champ Manager and Fantasy Football league so was more interested with clubs/players that were not Utd. I recall Malbranque being quite a decent and entertaining player to watch. @JPRouve thoughts?

Why are we mentioning Steed Malbranque? He did really well for Fulham.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Shows how much some people know about football calling Martial one of the worst signings ever. Did he live up to his expectations? Of course not. He is, however in our top 10 PL scorers ever. With a similar goals to game ratio as Mark Hughes Javier Hernandez, Saha, and Sheringham.

Martial's career was going alright until the end of 19/20 season. Since then he's been finished by injuries.

 

[Red in STL]

Schneiderlin is quite the shout. Couldn’t cover the pitch. Massive money.

We also got most of what we paid for him back, incidentally he's still playing, in Greece aged 34

 

[Widow]

Mount to Man United isn't remotely close to being one of the worst prem signings ever

Agreed! To see his name on these lists with Onana too is just daft. You can list 10 keepers without even trying that are far worse.

 

[Pughnichi]

We have had our fair share…and not wanting to just throw more mud at the club

Kepa. Value alone was insane
Mangala. City CB was so out of his depth
Bakayoko. Just a terrible player
Pepe. High value. Real poor quality
Drinkwater. Zero return for Chelsea

 

[fps]

We also got most of what we paid for him back, incidentally he's still playing, in Greece aged 34

That does make a difference in this debate. Not a bad player just not the level for what we wanted to accomplish.

 

[Red in STL]

That does make a difference in this debate. Not a bad player just not the level for what we wanted to accomplish.

I understand why we bought him, he was outstanding at Southampton, must have been the Northern air because he was crap with us and crap with Everton as well

 

[Fully Fledged]

And why Djemba Djemba has to be 2 of them.

 

[noodlehair]

I think you've concocted that sequence of events in your own head. Dan James was sold a few weeks after we signed Sancho. Unless you're referring to that opening day battering of Leeds? James always played well vs Leeds so it made sense to start him ahead of Sancho in that one game.

The James bit was just to make the point of Ole signing Sancho then immediately sidelining him.

He started him in only 2 of our opening 8 league games, and he was subbed off after an hour in both. In between James, Martial, Pogba, Greenwood, Lingard, etc were all picked ahead of him, and Rashford only wasn't because he wasn't available.

By the time Sanchobstatred getting even remotely semi regular starts (?which is about as good as it got) our season and confidence was already in tatters.

You don't pay a near record fee for someone in order to pick literally every single player in your squad ahead of them, including players who don't even play in their position.

 

[Fobal]

Yep you could see he was class, but difficult fitting him in and arguably better suited to Spain and Italy. Would've loved to see that 06-10 variant, though he would've been pretty old by then!

We got most of our money back in AdM and the impact of the armed robbery on him and his wife clearly unsettled him massively too. That and not really wanting to be here in the first place. Shame cos after that lob against Leicester, it briefly all looked rosy...albeit not even until the end of that game.

Exactly, but there is no denial that lots of bucks were paid for both and that would always be against them.
In any case, worst like I've said before, it's quite a stretch, I understand it more with Di Maria due to his declarations and his wife's big mouth.

I never got why Fergie wanted Veron even if he clearly enhaced the side on CLs, but still was another passer, launcher of the ball in a team full of them.

Louis clearly does not mix with such a classic south american wing (for the good and the bad) like Di Maria was and is. Did he ask for him?, it was always bizarre for me that he wanted him.

I remember once he stated that he wanted to coach Brazil or Argentina, it would more than probably end so bad in both cases with his looney and obssesive manners, mostly because in addition to that he is quite blunt like most Dutch coaches.
Great character nonetheless, entertainment galore with him and his AJAX was Outstanding, such a joy to see.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

The James bit was just to make the point of Ole signing Sancho then immediately sidelining him.

He started him in only 2 of our opening 8 league games, and he was subbed off after an hour in both. In between James, Martial, Pogba, Greenwood, Lingard, etc were all picked ahead of him, and Rashford only wasn't because he wasn't available.

By the time Sanchobstatred getting even remotely semi regular starts (?which is about as good as it got) our season and confidence was already in tatters.

You don't pay a near record fee for someone in order to pick literally every single player in your squad ahead of them, including players who don't even play in their position.

It's almost as if Sancho wasn't pulling his weight in training after we signed him. Given what we now know about Sancho, Ole was well within his rights to start other squad players ahead of him.