Worst transfer ever

[Danbert]

Reading threads full of twonks clamoring for expensive new signings got me thinking. What's the worst transfer ever? I reckon this one has to come pretty close. A quite amazing waste of wonga.

In 2009 West Ham signed forward Savio Magala Nsereko for a fee of around 7.5 million plus add ons and sold him on sharpish (and at a loss).

He has yet to score a goal for any of the 6 teams he has played for since and is currently on loan at Sporting Club Vaslui of Romania.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savio_Nsereko

Can anyone better that?

[Colinjb]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

69 million euros AND Samuel Eto to take him to Barcelona.

Two years later sold to A.C. Milan for a 45 million euro cash loss after playing less then 30 league games.

Total insanity.

[Hatch]

Joey Beauchamp.

Signed by West Ham, but missed being tucked into bed by his mum, so went back.

[Joe Kirkup]

Clive Allen bought by from QPR by Arsenal in the close season and sold to Crystal Palace before the season started without playing a competitive game. Rumours at the time thought Arsenal acted as go betweens because QPR wouldn't sell him to Palace.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Tal Ben Haim signed but some team that is no longer in existence, given a huge contract and then another one. Along with Kanu he helped them go out of business*


*wishful thinking that it has already happened.

[doubleonothing]

Richard Wright went to Preston this pre-season. He lasted 4 days before they released him as he didn't like it. No money involved in signing him though.

Would go with any deal involving Kieron Dyer. Gets injured after 10 mins but is on a fortune.

[Special K]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

69 million euros AND Samuel Eto to take him to Barcelona.

Two years later sold to A.C. Milan for a 45 million euro cash loss after playing less then 30 league games.

Total insanity.

Strange really, as he is a terrific player.

[doddisalegend]

Andy Carroll to Liverpool 35 million now one full season on they want to get rid and want people to pay 20 million for him. Latest goss is that WHU are preparing to offer Liverpool 17 million for him....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18995674

[Turkish]

Tomas Brolin to Leeds. £5m, great player who suddenly became sh*t, got fat and last i heard was a hoover salesman back in Sweden.

[Crazy Diamond]

Tomas Brolin to Leeds. £5m, great player who suddenly became sh*t, got fat and last i heard was a hoover salesman back in Sweden.

He owns a restaurant from which he is banned.

According to Sean Lock.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Tomas Brolin to Leeds. £5m, great player who suddenly became sh*t, got fat and last i heard was a hoover salesman back in Sweden.

Good shout. I always thought he was a great player in his younger days and then just seemed to lose it. I think when he moved back to Sweden he became a goalkeeper for a bit and was actually reasonable.

[Kingsland Codger]

Winston Bogarde was offered a huge wage by Chelsea 10 or so years ago and barely played for them. He stuck around until his conract expired.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Winston Bogarde was offered a huge wage by Chelsea 10 or so years ago and barely played for them. He stuck around until his conract expired.

Another good one. If anyone has time can they make up one of those team things. I nominate Massimo Taibi as the goal keeper, £4.5m back in the days when this was a huge sum for a goal keeper (Bufffon and Van der Sar aside) and was a complete flop.

[Turkish]

For foreign clubs signings, Denilson. Cost a world record in the late 90's, 20 odd million to Real Betis, he was sh*t, they got relegated and he got loaned back to a Brazilian club. Think he ended up playing in America in the end.

[Minty]

I think Tomas Brolin is hard to beat.

I still can't believe how fat and slow he was.

[Maggie May]

Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi to Pompey.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Another good one. If anyone has time can they make up one of those team things. I nominate Massimo Taibi as the goal keeper, £4.5m back in the days when this was a huge sum for a goal keeper (Bufffon and Van der Sar aside) and was a complete flop.

Was he in goal when MLT scored through his legs at Old Trafford?

[Fowllyd]

Going a bit further back, Steve Daley's move from Wolves to Man City back in 1979 has been described as "the biggest waste of money in football history". It happened at a time when City were run by Peter Swales and managed by Malcolm "Big Mal" Allison and was a then record at just short of £1.5M. City signed a fair number of players at inflated prices at that time, with Daley being the most expensive and the worst. He was a major flop at Maine Road, and less than two years later went off to play in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Daley

[Saint in Paradise]

Surprised no-one has mentioned a certain Tommy Fourpast

Oh...

[JackFrost]

Albert Luque

Signed for Newcastle for £9.5 million and scored 1 goal in 21 games

[Tokyo-Saint]

Was he in goal when MLT scored through his legs at Old Trafford?

Yes, that's the one. Difficult to say really but as I guess, with Buttland looking to cost £6m, I would say the £4.5m fee then is more like £10m now.

I remember Denilson, he was all step overs and no final product. Always seemed to be on a free transfer in Football Manager as well. Betis seemed to put all of their eggs in one basket with him. There was an interesting program on the radio the other night with Tim Vickery, he was saying how Brazilian youngsters get so over hyped, partly blaming Nike. He said that less than half of the 'wonder-kids' actually go on to play at even a reasonable standard.

[Colinjb]

Albert Luque

Signed for Newcastle for £9.5 million and scored 1 goal in 21 games

Likewise:

Xisco from Deportivo La Coruna. 5.7 million pounds for 9 appearances and one goal (A home defeat v Hull.)

Now perpetually on loan to teams in La Liga.

[Turkish]

Albert Luque

Signed for Newcastle for £9.5 million and scored 1 goal in 21 games

Talking of Newcastle Jean-Alain Boumsong has to be up there. Signed for £8m, months after he'd joined Ragners for nothing, was sh*t and ended up being sold a year or so later for £3m.

They also signed a Spanish centre back in the late nineties call Marcelino who cost about £6m, was absolutely sh*t and only played a few times in about 4 seasons. Always injured and i'm sure he missed about 3 months with a damaged finger at one point.

[Fowllyd]

Here's an article on this very subject - eleven years old, so obviously somewhat dated. Interesting to read the actual sums paid, what they would be in 2001 money, and estimated price for the same player at 2001 transfer prices. Turkish will be pleased to see that Denilson makes the list.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/s...543912,00.html

[Turkish]

How could we forget Kevin Davies!! £7.5m to Blackburn, completely sh*t, always injured or ill and came back to us a shadow of the player for next to nothing 2 years later.

[sfc1976]

How could we forget Kevin Davies!! £7.5m to Blackburn, completely sh*t, always injured or ill and came back to us a shadow of the player for next to nothing 2 years later.

That was a great bit of business by us, we got Beattie as part of the deal as well if I remember right.

Confident Henderson at Liverpool will turn out awful value at £20m!!

[OttawaSaint]

Stephane Guivarc'h: Teams were spunking money left right and centre on World Cup98 stars and Newcastle splashed out on this guy. Was hopeless, played 4 times for them...

[Junction 9]

Early days I know, but as it stands Torres for Chelsea is up there as a huge waste of money.

[Turkish]

Shevchenko was £30m well spent. As was the £11m on Rebrov.

[Tokyo-Saint]

You could maybe make up a whole team of Chelsea signings. Definitely if you add Man City to the mix but I guess you have to make some crap signing along the way to the top.

[Thedelldays]

veron was pap for utd

[Tokyo-Saint]

veron was pap for utd

I think he was in England in general. I don't think the tempo of the game here suited him.

[JackanorySFC]

For Saints I nominate:

Delgado has to be up there along with his mate (Chevas?)... His goal against Arsenal aside that is!

John McLoughlin. Think we paid Swindon big money at the time (£1m)? and he was seriously average.

Whatever we paid for Staurt Ripley

Don't think he was a waste of money (going of piste here), but what was the name of that psyhco French left back we signed that used to go knee high on everyone? Surname begame with a C? Proper loony little bloke that hardly said a word but would think nothing of trying to decapitate Duncan Furguson?

[sticksaint]

For Saints I nominate:

Delgado has to be up there along with his mate (Chevas?)... His goal against Arsenal aside that is!

John McLoughlin. Think we paid Swindon big money at the time (£1m)? and he was seriously average.

Whatever we paid for Staurt Ripley

Don't think he was a waste of money (going of piste here), but what was the name of that psyhco French left back we signed that used to go knee high on everyone? Surname begame with a C? Proper loony little bloke that hardly said a word but would think nothing of trying to decapitate Duncan Furguson?

Colleter?

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

For Saints I nominate:

Delgado has to be up there along with his mate (Chevas?)... His goal against Arsenal aside that is!

John McLoughlin. Think we paid Swindon big money at the time (£1m)? and he was seriously average.

Whatever we paid for Staurt Ripley

Don't think he was a waste of money (going of piste here), but what was the name of that psyhco French left back we signed that used to go knee high on everyone? Surname begame with a C? Proper loony little bloke that hardly said a word but would think nothing of trying to decapitate Duncan Furguson?

You mean Alan Mcloughlin. In fairness we only gave him 29 games because if he reached thirty we had to pay even more

[sambosa75]

Our worst ever signing was Neil McCann.

[Jonnyboy]

veron was pap for utd

leave Pap out of this!

[S-Clarke]

Carroll stands out as the modern day flop, the fact he cost more than David Villa is insanity.

But a couple of transfers made by clubs up on tee side stand out.

Alfonso Alves -cost Boro £12m. He was a disaster, was supposed to fire them to the ''next'' level but it went horribly wrong.

Sunderland - Asamoah Gyan. Another 'big name' signed for £14/15m, and was hopeless for them. Went awol and then left for a club in Dubai.

[Chez]

Newcastle certainly knew how to sign um, how about Hugo Viana?
Sol Cambell at Notts County?
From my limited viewings of Spanish football, Kaka to Real hasn't exactly been great either has it for £56m?

[PaulSaint]

Perry Groves and David Hurst - both gash.

[Turkish]

Alberto Aquilani at Liverpool. £20m, signed injured and been on loan ever since.

[Badger]

Mark Hughes and his inflated ego.

Only £650,000 reported at the time, but that was broken down as:

£0 for Mark Hughes the player.
£650,000 for his ego, and his, and his agents, over-inflated opinion of him and his ability

[Lighthouse]

veron was pap for utd

He was worse for Chelsea, barely lasted a season and then vanished along with Mutu.

I think the net transfer cost would be about £15m each after Utd sold him to Chelsea.

[S-Clarke]

Alberto Aquilani at Liverpool. £20m, signed injured and been on loan ever since.

Good shout, they took a huge gamble swapping Alonso with him, as Aquilani was injured when they signed him so whoever sorted that medical needs shooting.

[Hamilton Saint]

Within living memory, has to be the Tin Man. How many games did we get out of him? Four? Five?

[SNSUN]

Not one mention for Ali Dia? I know he wasn't a transfer as such but not one mention on here until now? Possibly the worst thing any team in the whole wide world has ever done. And we had the privilege of it happening to us. Even though no money exchanged hands, it was still the worst 'transfer' in the history of the world.

My vote? Marco Boogers. Joined the Hammers under 'Arry and got sent off in his second appearance, then got injured, then got depressed and lived in a caravan. Apparently.

[Thedelldays]

Balaban is up there
Steve marlet
Grabbi to Blackburn too

[scotty]

Not one mention for Ali Dia? I know he wasn't a transfer as such but not one mention on here until now? Possibly the worst thing any team in the whole wide world has ever done. And we had the privilege of it happening to us. Even though no money exchanged hands, it was still the worst 'transfer' in the history of the world.

My vote? Marco Boogers. Joined the Hammers under 'Arry and got sent off in his second appearance, then got injured, then got depressed and lived in a caravan. Apparently.

Ali Dia, oh God that was funny. How many minutes did he play as sub before being subbed? After Souness "noticed he was appalling"??

[SNSUN]

Ali Dia, oh God that was funny. How many minutes did he play as sub before being subbed? After Souness "noticed he was appalling"??

You could see a non-league team getting conned like that, but not a Premier League team with a big name manager. A one off that will never be repeated.

Perhaps not the worst transfer ever but Fernando Torres must be up there in terms of money paid.He did start to show some form at the tail end of last season though, and I think he'll have a good season coming up.

[Turkish]

Ali Dia, oh God that was funny. How many minutes did he play as sub before being subbed? After Souness "noticed he was appalling"??

The funny thing is and what a lot of people forget is that almost immediately after he came on he had a chance to score, unsurprisingly he missed but had he got lucky it and tucked it away we might have been stuck with him for 3 years.