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+++ The Bitters won !!! The only thing they've won in the last 15 years!

The 50 worst transfers

Out comes the chequebook, up go the expectations; then down to earth come the fans. Here are the 50 worst signings made by Premier League clubs since its inception in 1992, based on the size of transfer fee and impact made by the player. Do you agree?

50 Stan Collymore, Liverpool to Aston Villa, £7m, May 1997

The striker scored just seven goals in 46 league appearances for the club he supported as a boy.

49 Khalid Boulahrouz, SV Hamburg to Chelsea, £7m, August 2006

The “Cannibal” has devoured only the weakest of Premier League opponents.

48 Eddie McGoldrick, Crystal Palace to Arsenal, £1m, June 1993

The Ireland winger was reunited with Ian Wright but could not supply crosses for his former Crystal Palace team-mate as he had done at Selhurst Park.

47 Mark Hateley, Rangers to Queens Park Rangers, £1.5m, November 1995

The England centre forward was a hero in Glasgow but the fans at the other Rangers did not take to him.

46 Darren Huckerby, Coventry City to Leeds United, £4m, August 1999

A world-beater on his day, the forward was not one of David O’Leary’s successes at Leeds.

45 Georgios Samaras, Heerenveen to Manchester City, £6m, January 2006

A lack of goals led to Stuart Pearce’s sacking as manager and the Greece striker was among the chief culprits.

44 Massimo Taibi, Venezia to Manchester United, £4.5m, August 1999

United splashed out in the hope of finding the next Peter Schmeichel, to no avail. The Italian goalkeeper lasted just four months.

43 Titus Bramble, Ipswich Town to Newcastle United, £5m, July 2002

Bramble looked like a future England player when at Ipswich but became a byword for calamitous defending at Newcastle.

42 Fernando Morientes, Real Madrid to Liverpool, £6.5m, January 2005

The striker who helped knock Chelsea out of the Champions League as an AS Monaco player failed to trouble English defences much while at Liverpool.

41 Francis Jeffers, Everton to Arsenal, £8m, June 2001

Signed as Arsene Wenger’s “fox in the box”, he was sold as a donkey in the box at a loss of £5.4m.

40 Michael Owen, Real Madrid to Newcastle United, £16m, August 2005

The English striker has fared reasonably well when fit but injuries mean Newcastle have yet to see anything like a decent return for their money.

39 Chris Kiwomya, Ipswich Town to Arsenal, £1.25m, January 1995

Signed in the dying days of George Graham’s reign and later allowed to leave for nothing.

38 Massimo Maccarone, Empoli to Middlesbrough, July 2002

Views on the Italian range from not picked enough to not good enough. Either way, 18 league goals in four years was a poor return for the striker, who was allowed to leave on a free transfer.

37 Gerry Creaney, Portsmouth to Manchester City, £1m, September 1995

The Scottish striker was a prolific scorer at Portsmouth but misfired at City.

36 Jon Dahl Tomasson, Heerenveen to Newcastle United, £2.5m, July 1997

Played as a striker rather than his more familiar attacking midfield role, the Dane was out of position and out of luck.

35 Ned Zelic, Borussia Dortmund to Queens Park Rangers, £1.25m, July 1995

Blamed the hard English ground for his injuries and quickly returned to Germany.

34 Dean Saunders, Galatasaray to Nottingham Forest, £1.5m, July 1996

The striker who specialised in relegations endured a barren run in front of goal as Forest plunged from the Premier League.

33 Eoin Jess, Aberdeen to Coventry City, £2m, February 1996

An unsuccessful spell at Highfield Road had the Scotsman scuttling back to Aberdeen for a third of the original transfer fee.

32 Paul Furlong, Watford to Chelsea, £2.3m

Chelsea would spend this on a team bus nowadays but it was their record transfer fee in 1994. The striker’s spell was characterised by howlers in front of goal.

31 Ramon Vega, Cagliari to Tottenham Hotspur, £3.5m, January 1997

The Switzerland central defender gave Tottenham fans countless nervous moments.

30 Salif Diao, Sedan to Liverpool, £5m, August 2002

Gerard Houllier, the Liverpool manager who signed the midfield player, compared him to Patrick Vieira. Well, he is tall and from Senegal, but otherwise...

29 Milan Baros, Liverpool to Aston Villa, £6.5m, August 2005

Nine goals in 42 league games was not what Villa had in mind when signing the Czech from Liverpool and they were happy to offload him to Lyons.

28 Faustino Asprilla, Parma to Newcastle United, £6.7m, February 1996

The Colombian was a fine player who enjoyed some good times at Newcastle but his mid-season arrival appeared to unbalance a team that had seemed destined for the Premier League title.

27 Kevin Davies, Southampton to Blackburn Rovers, £7.5m, June 1998

The burly striker is having more luck down the road at Bolton Wanderer but at Blackburn he managed just one goal in a whole league season.

26 Andriy Shevchenko, AC Milan to Chelsea, £30.8m, May 2006

The Ukrainian may yet justify his fee but so far his arrival has contributed little apart from prompting a change in formation that arguably hindered Chelsea last season.

25 Stephane Guivarc’h, Auxerre to Newcastle United, £3.5m, June 1998

The World Cup winners’ medal that the striker collected with France needed to be seen to be believed by frustrated Newcastle fans.

24 Glen Johnson, West Ham United to Chelsea, £6m, July 2003

The first signing of the Roman Abramovich era has still to establish himself four years and one loan spell at Portsmouth later.

23 Corrado Grabbi, Ternana to Blackburn Rovers, £6.75m, June 2001

The Italian striker scored two goals in 30 Premier League appearances. That’s £3.38m per goal.

22 Adrian Mutu, Parma to Chelsea, £15.8m, August 2003

As if six goals in 27 league games was not bad enough, the Romania striker was sacked after failing a drugs test for cocaine.

21 Tore Andre Flo, Rangers to Sunderland, £6.75m, August 2002

Four goals in 29 league appearances by the Norway striker helped Sunderland towards an ignominious relegation.

20 Joey Beauchamp, Oxford United to West Ham United, £1m, June 1994

The Oxford-born winger was so homesick after joining West Ham that he left two months later without playing a competitive game. He returned closer to his roots with a move to Swindon Town.

19 Hugo Viana, Sporting Lisbon to Newcastle United, £8.5m, June 2002

The young Portuguese midfield player spent most of his two years at the club on the bench.

18 Andrea Silenzi, Torino to Nottingham Forest, £1.8m, August 1995

The Italian striker was so poor that Forest allowed him to leave for nothing.

17 Florin Raducioiu, Espanyol to West Ham United, £2.4m, July 1996

Lasted only six months after missing training to go shopping.

16 Sasa Curcic, Bolton Wanderers to Aston Villa, £4m, August 1996

Fell out with Brian Little, the manager, amid accusations of a wild lifestyle off the pitch.

15 Alex Nyarko, Lens to Everton, £4.5m, July 2000

Complained that the English league was too physical. Walter Smith, his manager, appeared to side with the Everton fan who ran onto the pitch at Highbury to confront the Ghanaian over a supposed lack of effort.

14 Ade Akinbiyi, Wolverhampton Wanderers to Leicester City, £5m, July 2000

Known to some Leicester supporters as Ade Abadbiyi, he was lampooned by fans across the country for his desperate misses.

13 Chris Sutton, Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea, £10m, July 1999

The striker was a regular goalscorer with Norwich City, Blackburn and Celtic but never recovered from missing a couple of sitters on his debut for Chelsea, for whom he scored once in 28 Premier League appearances.

12 Jean-Alain Boumsong, Rangers to Newcastle United, £8m, January 2005

Somehow made it into France’s World Cup finals squad last year but Newcastle fans were relieved when the error-prone central defender left for Juventus.

11 Juan Sebastian Veron, Lazio to Manchester United, £28.1m, July 2001; United to Chelsea, £15m, August 2003

To spare the Argentinian from appearing twice, these two moves have been placed together. If anything, Chelsea’s signing was worse, given that they knew Veron had failed to adjust to English football.

10 Darko Kovacevic, Red Star Belgrade to Sheffield Wednesday, £2m, December 1995

The forward made no impression at Hillsborough but promptly became a prolific goalscorer in the Spanish league with Real Sociedad when he left.

9 Robert Fleck, Norwich to Chelsea, £2.1m, August 1992

The Scottish striker was a cult hero at Carrow Road but a carthorse at Stamford Bridge, where he scored five times in 40 league appearances.

8 Bosko Balaban, Dynamo Zagreb to Aston Villa, £6m, August 2001

The Croatia forward did not start a league game in his two and a half years at the club.

7 Sergei Rebrov, Dynamo Kiev to Tottenham Hotspur, £11.5m, June 2000

The player who formed an outstanding attacking partnership with Andriy Shevchenko at Dynamo Kiev lost his radar after joining Tottenham.

6 Marcelino, Real Mallorca to Newcastle United, £5m, June 1999

Dubbed the “lesser-spotted Magpie”, he played just 17 Premier League games in three and a half years at St James’ Park.

5 Steve Marlet, Lyons to Fulham, £11.5m, August 2001

The Frenchman provided just one goal per five league games, fell out with Chris Coleman over his refusal to play out of position and spent two years on loan to Marseilles.

4 Tomas Brolin, Parma to Leeds United, £4.3m, November 1995

Injury had left Brolin overweight and over the hill but Leeds paid well over the odds for the Sweden striker. He left two dismal years later when his contract was cancelled.

3 Albert Luque, Deportivo La Coruna to Newcastle United, £9.5m, August 2005

One of a host of expensive signings by Newcastle to have disappeared down a black and white hole. The Stevens Inquiry placed a question mark over the transfer and the rest of the world placed a question mark over why Newcastle bought him at all.

2 Valerien Ismael, Strasbourg to Crystal Palace, £2.75m, January 1998

Hopeless in South London, the French central defender has since won the German league and cup double both with Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.

1 Per Kroldrup, Udinese to Everton, £5m, June 2005

Everton paid a fortune for the Denmark central defender but then showed no interest in actually playing him amid suggestions they had suddenly discovered he couldn’t head the ball. Made one league appearance before returning to Italy.

[account deleted by request]

I think its a disgrace that Diao didn't make the top 20 at least. He not only cost a chunk of cash to buy but then we couldn't get shut and had to pay his pension for years.

[The Manhattan Project]

How much did Diouf cost us?

[account deleted by request]

How much did Diouf cost us?

About £10million I think, and we got about £2.5 from Bolton. If you include wages I think Diao actually us cost more per game played though.

[The Manhattan Project]

Didn't that guy Taibi only play one game for Man Utd?

They lost 5-something to Chelsea.

[SoppMeister]

I wonder who'd win out of Rafa's worst signings and Houllier's worst signings...if it weren't past 3 in the morning I'd be tempted to draw out a teamsheet for that one.

[LFC2007]

Houllier and his dodgy expensive Africans take the biscuit

[bigmick]

When you read through the list and consider others just from our own club that are not even given a mention (14 million for Cisse, 4.5 million for Bruno Cheyrou, 10 million for Diouf) it makes you realise just why so many of us are extremely sceptical when it comes to buying foreign players. Yes many of them succeed, but the fact that the English Premiership is absolutely unique in the demands it places on a players character as much as anything else means that many fall by the wayside, sometimes even good players.

I sense sometimes that some of our non-British supporters find this reluctance to get over excited about players until we've seen them do the business "over here", a little bit frustrating. There will continue to be many who fail though, and I can't help feeling sometimes that managers are guilty of plumping for exotic sounding "Carlos kickaballs" to quote Alan Sugar without being willing to take a chance on home-grown players who have potential.

I'm not necessarily talking about us here as we arguably require a better standard of player, but I can't help thinking for instance that Everton aquiring Phil Jagielka for £4 million is a purchase without an ounce of risk attached, a smallish sum for a good young player who has proven his abilities. Where was the competition from unimaginative managers for his signature? Similarly, the excellent David Nugent was allowed to sign for an unopposed £6 million at Portsmouth. Once again, very little risk at his age as if he doesn't work out, they will probably get 2/3 at least of the fee back when they sell him on. I do wonder sometimes at these managers of middle ranking clubs. They can seemingly lose one job and then be taken on by another club within weeks and far from complaining about the Chairman lacking knowledge, they should be thanking their lucky stars in my view that their employers aren't more knowledgeable.

[woof woof !]

8 Bosko Balaban, Dynamo Zagreb to Aston Villa, £6m, August 2001

The Croatia forward did not start a league game in his two and a half years at the club.

That takes the biscuit for me . 

[crillylfc]

wt about dat pelligrinio chap we gt frm valencia...he was pretty helpless to say d least!!

[ivor_the_injun]

These Times lists are a bit rubbish, I reckon. It's almost as if they've crowbarred some older deals into the list in order to make it look like they've thoroughly researched it.

Robert Fleck at number 9, for example? Eoin Jess? Eddie McGoldrick?

They've plucked those last two from absolutely nowhere as far as I'm concerned. I could rattle you off a thousand disappointing transfers before I got anywhere near Eddie f*cking McGoldrick.

[ivor_the_injun]

Some off the top of my head that should've been in there...

Nigel Clough to us from Forest
John Scales to us from Wimbledon
Phil Babb to us from Coventry
David Platt to Arsenal from Sampdoria
Michael Ricketts to Middlesbrough from Bolton
George Weah to Chelsea from AC Milan
Scott Parker to Chelsea from Charlton
Mateja Kezman to Chelsea from PSV

[66-1112520797]

These Times lists are a bit rubbish, I reckon. It's almost as if they've crowbarred some older deals into the list in order to make it look like they've thoroughly researched it.

Robert Fleck at number 9, for example? Eoin Jess? Eddie McGoldrick?

They've plucked those last two from absolutely nowhere as far as I'm concerned. I could rattle you off a thousand disappointing transfers before I got anywhere near Eddie f*cking McGoldrick.

Robert Fleck wasnt a bad striker when he was at Norwich, I remember him cleverly gettin Glenn Hysein sent off at a Carrow road one time.

One player that isnt on the list and played for us a good few years back was that defender Kvarme fella. Absolutely awful, he made Bramble look like Baresi.

[weringo]

Can't believe Asprilla is in there, he was a fantastic player, I still remember that hat-trick he scored against Barca. Above Diao as well!!!!

[Lando_Griffin]

Didn't that guy Taibi only play one game for Man Utd?

They lost 5-something to Chelsea.

No. He played against us when JC scored 2 own goals. The scummy f*cking b*stards won 3-2, I believe Andy chuffing Cole scored the other, with Sami and Berger (I think) scoring the consolations.

Taibi let a 30-yard pea-roller go under his body, I know that. A save an asthmatic Granny could have made in her sleep.

Pity the c*nt didn't stick around longer...