EPL: 25 of the Worst Signings in League History, Part One

When I was assigned this article my initial thought was, "Well this will be easy, I'll just list every signing made by Roy Hodgson during his time as a Premier League manager and that will be perfect". 

Then, I thought that perhaps that might be a little unfair on Roy because he has signed some good players like Shane Long, Bobby Zamora and Raul Meireles.

Having ruled out Roy, I was going to give this the title of "Power Ranking the 25 Worst Signings in EPL history" but outside of American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey and Baseball no other sport really has a proper way to power rank players because statistical analysis in soccer is years behind those leagues.

Power Rankings in soccer don't mean anything, there's no formula for them and they end up just being based on opinion so it would basically just be an opinion piece with a fancy title aimed at attracting reads, and that's not what I wanted to do.

What I've decided to do instead is list the worst signings for each of the 20 current premier league teams and the five teams not currently in the league that have spent the most seasons in the EPL since its formation, namely Coventry City, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Southampton and West Ham United.

Obviously by doing one for each team I am going to miss out some terrible signings as the majority of clubs have more than one, and some clubs would probably have multiple entries in an overall top 25 worst signings list. 

In this first part of the list, I give the worst signings made by teams beginning with the letters A through to M.  

Of course, these are the worst signings for each club based on my own personal opinion. Other people will have their own views on some of these and I invite you to share those opinions in the comment section below.

I hope you enjoy.

Fee Paid: £8million

Time Spent at Club: 3 seasons

League Appearances: 22

League Goals: 4

Fee Received: £2.6million

Arsene Wenger dubbed him "The Fox in the Box" when he signed him. The nickname was given as a result of the finishing ability Jeffers had displayed at Everton where he had come through the ranks and established himself as their most exciting prospect in many years.

To say that he was a bit of a flop after leaving Everton would be an understatement. Jeffers was nothing short of awful for Arsenal, who loaned him back to Everton where he couldn't find his form either.

Since leaving Everton he has flopped for Arsenal, Everton (loan), Charlton, Rangers (loan), Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle Jets.

He is currently struggling for form at Motherwell and must surely go down as one of the biggest disappointments in recent English history given how promising he looked when he broke into the Everton team.

Fee Paid: £5.8million

Time Spent at Club: 2 and a half seasons including 1 spent on loan

League Appearances: 9

League Goals: 0

Fee Received: Free transfer

It's hard to explain why Balaban was such a flop at Villa because he was a prolific goalscorer everywhere else he played. Perhaps he's just a prime example of a player who wasn't suited to a certain league? Perhaps he wasn't given enough of a chance? Perhaps he just wasn't good enough to play in an elite league?

Whatever the reason, he was a shocking waste of money.

Fee Paid: £7.5million

Time Spent at Club: 1 season

League Appearances: 23

League Goals: 1

Fee Received: £3million as part of deal for Egil Ostenstad

Davies is best known as the bustling centre forward for Bolton who never gives defenders a minute's rest and has established himself as a respected Premier League player. He deserves credit for that because he was simply awful at Blackburn.

Davies was bought for Southampton for £750,000 and sold 12 months later for ten times that amount after scoring 9 goals in 25 games and impressing a lot of people with his physical style of play and deceptive skill for such a big man.

What Blackburn was thinking, spending so much on a player who had proven so little, is beyond me. Perhaps the same thing Liverpool was thinking when they signed Andy Carroll.

Fee Paid: £8.5million

Time Spent at Club: 3 seasons

League Appearances: 85

League Goals: 22

Fee Received: Free Transfer

While Elmander wasn't a bad player for Bolton, he certainly lived up to his price tag—or the reputation he had built for himself at Toulouse—and can be deemed as nothing other than a waste of money.

While undoubtedly a talented player, he struggled to settle into English football for the better part of two seasons and endured an 11 month goal drought which did little to help him prove his worth to the Bolton faithful.

Losing him on a free transfer was a slap in the face for Bolton who had gotten very little in return for their large investment. 

Fee Paid: £30.8million

Time Spent at Club: 3 and a half seasons, including 1 on loan

League Appearances: 48

League Goals: 9

Fee Received: Free Transfer

There's a saying in football that form is temporary but class is forever. Unfortunately for Mr. Shevchenko and Chelsea, that wasn't really the case after his move to Stamford Bridge

Shevchenko was one of the worlds greatest player during his time at AC Milan. For the majority of his spell there you'd have been hard pressed to find a list of the top ten players in the world without his name on it. 

He was a truly magnificent player who scored goals for fun in the league widely regarding as Europe's strongest in terms of defensive play. He won countless admirers, among them Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich splashed a club record fee to bring the Ukranian megastar to Stamford Bridge and with Chelsea already being unquestionably the best team in England, it seemed that signing of Shevchenko would cement Chelsea as England's kingpins and potentially spark a dynasty. But it all went wrong.

I won't go into the details of his time at Chelsea, those are already well documented and I'm sure Chelsea fans have already suffered enough over Shevchenko.

What I will say is this. It is my believe that Shevchenko was the victim of a power struggle at Chelsea between Abramovich and Jose Mourinho. Mourinho didn't want Shevchenko and did not give him, in my opinion, enough of a chance at Chelsea.

Great players don't become bad ones overnight and I feel that if Mourinho had made Shevchenko the focal point of his attack, he would have rediscovered his best form and led Chelsea to European dominance.

Fee Paid: £3.25million

Time Spent at Club: 6 Months

League Appearances: 9

League Goals: 1

Fee Received: £4million

Gordan Strachan thought he had found himself a real gem when he landed Moldovan from the Grasshoppers of Zurich in January 1998. Moldovan arrived at Highfield Road with an impressive goalscoring record in the Romanian and Swiss leagues and his international goalscoring record was nothing to be sniffed at either.

Unfortunately for Strachan and Coventry City, Moldovan didn't really want to play for Coventry and he'd barely had time to settle in before he started talking about moving on to a bigger club. 

He made only ten total appearances for Coventry, scoring only two goals before forcing his way out of the club and heading for Turkish giants Fenerbache.

Coventry actually made a profit on the player so the deal wasn't a total disaster, but I'm sure the club didn't buy just to sell him six months later.

Fee Paid: £6million

Time Spent at Club: 2 and a half seasons

League Appearances: 76

League Goals: 13

Fee Received: £4million

Beattie had made a name for himself at Southampton where his bustling, all-action style had made him a fan favourite in a similar way to what Kevin Davies has become at Bolton. While never a prolific goalscorer, Beattie was a team player who never gave less than 100% and was capable of scoring goals when it mattered.

He struggled to settle at Everton, finding it hard to adjust to their style of play and difficult to deal with the expectations of playing for a big club. The most memorable moment of his first season at the club was his head butt on William Gallas which earned him a red card and a three match ban.

Things did improve in his second season—his first full season—as he managed to grab 13 league goals and seemed to be on the verge of a recall to the England set-up. For whatever reason, David Moyes decided that Beattie was no longer in his plans.

His stock dropped so far that no Premier League club was willing to make Everton an offer for a player they had beaten off strong opposition to sign only 30 months earlier. In the end, Sheffield United bizarrely offered £4million, £2million more than the asking price, and Beattie made the drop to the Championship.

Fee Paid: £11.5million

Time Spent at Club: 4 seasons including a season and a half spent out on loan.

League Appearances: 54

League Goals: 11

Fee Received: Contract Cancelled

Marlet's signing by Fulham remains one of the most controversial in Premier League history. In 2001 Fulham manager Jean Tigana splashed, to the surprise of many, £11.5million to bring Steve Marlet to the club from Olympique Lyonnais.

Marlet was a good player with a decent goalscoring record in the French league but nobody, other than Tigana, would have considered him worthy of such a large fee. 

Marlet spent two disappointing seasons in the Fulham first team before being loaned to Marseille. In a slap to the face for Fulham, Marlet actually managed to score more goals for Marseille than he had for Fulham, all while Fulham paid his wages.

The controversy surrounding his signing developed with reports that Tigana had paid such a large fee for the player in return for a percentage of the fee for himself. Fulham owner Mohammed Al Fayed took Tigana to court in an attempt to recoup the transfer fee but the case was quickly dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Fulham cancelled Marlet's contract and paid him the final year of it to just go away. This deal cost them close to £20million in total and is one they won't be looking to repeat any time soon.

Fee Paid: £4.5million

Time Spent at Club: 2 seasons including a season spent on loan

League Appearances: 20

League Goals: 4

Fee Received: Contract Cancelled

Tomas Brolin was a fantastic player for Parma, teaming up with Gianfranco Zola and Tino Asprilla among others to give Parma one of the most feared attacks in European football. 

He was also a fantastic player for Sweden where he had teamed up with Martin Dahlin and Kenneth Anderson, a team that played some fantastic football. His goal at the 1992 European Championships remains one of the best that tournament has seen.

Leeds appeared to be signing a star when Howard Wilkinson moved to bring him to Elland Road. Unfortunately for all parties involved, Brolin had broken his foot a year earlier and had never really been the same player since. 

Still, he seemed like an ideal fit in a team with Gary McAllister and Tony Yeboah, amongst others, and Leeds fans were delighted by his signing.

That delight soon turned to despair. Brolin was nothing short of awful for Leeds and spent most of his time at the club locked in disputes with over his failure to fulfil his contract, and his ever expanding waist-line.

Brolin had two loan spells away from the club, both of which ended in farce as Leeds were forced to threaten legal action just to get Brolin to return to the club. No longer willing to deal with his antics, they terminated his contract in late October of 1997.

Brolin has since been voted the worst player in Leeds history and it will take something truly "special" for him to lose that particular "honour."

Fee Paid: £10.5million

Time Spent at Club: 3 seasons including one on loan

League Appearances: 55

League Goals: 3

Fee Received: £3.5million

"You're going to love this boy from Senegal that I've signed." Those were the infamous words uttered by then Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier when a journalist asked him why he had chosen not to make sign Nico Anelka after a successful loan spell.

Houllier had paid Lens a shade over £10million for the 21 year old Senegalese international and to be quite honest, based on his performances in the 2002 World Cup, it looked like money well spent.

Unfortunately it was anything but. Diouf was a very talented player capable of moments of brilliance. He was also an idiot who spat at people. It is the latter for which he will always be remembered by Liverpool fans.

He did go on to play pretty well for Bolton and struck up an excellent, and somewhat ironic, partnership with Nico Anelka but he was a complete disaster for Liverpool and his signing, along with that of his mate Salif Diao, marked the beginning of the end for Houllier at Liverpool.

Fee Paid: £18million

Time Spent at Club: 3 seasons including a season and a half on loan.

League Appearances: 21

League Goals: 1

Fee Received: £6.5million

When City signed Jo from CSKA Moscow in 2008 they appeared to be getting themselves a very talented player with a big future ahead of him. Only 21 years old, Jo had already been a professional for five years and had played for the Brazilian national team.

Unfortunately for Jo, and for City, he arrived as the club was starting to build towards the juggernaut they are now becoming. Jo needed time to settle in and develop his game. City didn't want to wait for him.

They loaned him to Everton and then to Galatasaray where he showed flashes of his potential but still couldn't perform on a regular basis.

He returned to City for part of last season and actually turned in some strong performances but Roberto Mancini didn't have a place for him in his plans and he was allowed to leave the club this summer, returning to his homeland at a big loss to City.

Fee Paid: £10.5million

Time Spent at Club: 1 and a half seasons including half a season on loan.

League Appearances: 2 

League Goals: 0

Fee Received: £5.5million

The next Ryan Giggs? Apparently, not so much.

I considered Juan Sebastian Veron for this slide but Veron actually did have some fantastic games in a United shirt, but just couldn't mesh in midfield with Roy Keane. Plus Veron is one of my all time favourite players.

Tosic on the other hand is not and did a whole heap of nothing during his time at United. To be fair to the lad, he wasn't given much of a chance at United. The main reason I'm going with Tosic is because United signed him and declined to sign the player who was meant to arrive with him, Adem Ljajic. 

United had agreed to sign both players for a combined fee of £16.5million but decided not to sign Ljajic and gave a poor excuse about work permits. Their loss has been Fiorentina's gain. Then, Viola snapped him up for less than £6million and have been reaping the rewards as he turns in consistent impressive displays.

Tosic on the other managed just two league games for United, impressed in neither, was shipped to Koln on loan and then sold to CSKA Moscow at a loss. And as fate would have it, has actually been playing pretty well for them.

Fee Paid: £12.7million

Time Spent at Club: 1 and a half seasons

League Appearances: 42

League Goals: 10

Fee Received: £7million

Gareth Southgate really had an eye for talent didn't he? When he signed Alves he predicted he could break all kinds of goalscoring records in the Premier League and that he would be a nightmare for Premier League defenders. And people were surprised when Southgate was sacked?

Instead of fulfilling his manager's predictions, Alves turned out to be a rather poor player who played more for himself than the team and didn't like playing in cold weather. Middlesbrough might not have been the best destination for a man who preferred a tropical climate as it's actually located within the outer regions of the Arctic Circle.

Ok, that last line was a lie. But it might as well be. Middlesbrough is a cold place to live during the winter. Sander Westerveld once claimed it was so cold that there was ice on the football during a game between Liverpool and Middlesbrough. Of course he may have been lying to save face after spilling a routine cross and costing Liverpool the game.

Anyway, back to Alves. What more can I say? He was truly awful for Boro, did more moaning and complaining than he did scoring and was shipped off to Qatar which I'm sure we all hope was of a more suitable climate for poor Alfonso than England's northeast was.

So there you have part one of my rundown of 25 of the worst signings in EPL history.

I hope you've enjoyed reading it and agree with at least some of the players I've chosen to grace this illustrious list. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Check back next week for part two as I run down teams beginning with N and ending, rather sadly, at W due to the fact that we've never had a Premiership team beginning with X, Y or Z. Unfortunately, unless the Mansour family are looking to invest in Yeovil, I don't see that changing for many many years.

Thanks for reading.