The Afflicted 40 | Worst transfers of Premier League history

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Doing business is a crucial part of modern football. That includes doing well in the transfer market. But, having a lot of money in your pockets sometimes means spending carelessly. In this article, we are going to rank the top 40 worst transfers in the Premier League.

Premier League is the best league in the world and has been like this for many years, and almost every footballer’s dream is to play in England, but not all of them that fulfil that dream, were a success.

40. Tomas Brolin

One of the worst signings in Leeds United history was definitely Tomas Brolin. He signed for The Whites in 1995, for £4.5 million.

His spell at Leeds was nothing but a disaster.

It’s unbelievable for a player who starred at World Cup in 1994, to the player who walked away from Leeds in 1997.

And the Premier League giants thought they bought a world-class player, Brolin thought that he was still one – and that he should be treated as one. When he met Leeds manager Wilkinson, Brolin was asked “How much money do you want”, and the Swede replied with: “Money it’s not important, but the position that I will play on the team” and then Wilkinson described that Brolin is going to play as an Attacking Midfielder, so then he signed and the rest was history (in a bad way).

39. Robbie Fowler

One of the greatest players of Liverpool, Robbie Fowler signed for Leeds United in 2001 for £11m. But the two years that he played for the team from Yorkshire, were nothing but a disaster.

Because Emilie Heskey and Micheal Owen created a partnership at Liverpool, Fowler was forced to find a team, which was Leeds, after refusing several big teams.

He was occasionally injured, which led to a transfer to Manchester City in 2003.

38. Alberto Aquilani

Xabi Alonso was sold to Real Madrid in 2009 and Liverpool under Rafael Benitez were looking for a replacement for the Spanish and they decided to sign Alberto Aquilani from Roma for £18 million.

But that was a failure as well, he only made his Premier League debut on the 9th of November and as a late substitute and scored his first goal on the 15th of March.

The Italian played only one season at Liverpool as he was loaned to Juventus and Milan in his three years under Liverpool’s contract, before being sold to Fiorentina in 2012.

He finished his career as a 33-year-old at Las Palmas in Spain.

37. Wilfred Bony

In 2015, £28m were around £50m in today’s market. That’s how much Manchester City paid for Wilfred Bony to Swansea City.

Bony started good, he scored goals and helped the team win the games, but an injury in January of the first year that he debuted, started to downgrade his career at Manchester City.

The Ivorian played only 36 games there, and he scored only two goals, before going to Stoke as a loanee and later to go back to his previous club, Swansea.

36. Jo

After being a sensation in Russia at CSKA Moscow, Jo was bought by Manchester City in 2008 for a club-record then, £19m.

But, he only played one year there, as he was loaned to for the rest of his contracts to Everton twice and in Turkey at Galatasaray.

For that kind of money, he was expected to shine, but in the end, he finished his Manchester City career with only four goals, and bear in mind that he was a striker.

35. Adrian Mutu

A modern Diego Maradona, obviously not by the way of playing, but Adrian Mutu got a positive test for using cocaine while playing for Chelsea.

He came to Londoners from Parma for £16m in 2003.

We have to put the Romanian this low as he actually wasn’t that bad, as he started his Chelsea career with four goals in three games.

After some beef with his coach (obviously Mourinho) as the latter lied that he was injured to prevent him from playing in World Cup qualifiers for Romania, Mutu’s career at Chelsea was going downgrades.

Adrian Mutu was released from his contract after snorting some coke.

34. Shaun Wright-Phillips

After a successful spell at Manchester City, Chelsea spent £21m in 2005.

But from scoring 26 goals in Manchester City, to being a bench player at Chelsea, he was one of the worst transfers in the history of the Blues, and obviously, this isn’t the last time that we are going to mention them.

The adopted son of English Legend, Ian Wright, scored only four goals in three years playing for Chelsea, and couldn’t find a life in London, so he moved back to Manchester City.

33. Rhian Brewster

Haven’t played a single game for Liverpool, Brewster was loaned to Swansea City in Championship, where he scored 10 goals in 20 games – a goal every second game.

The Champions League winner was bought by Sheffield United for a fee reported to be around £24m.

He scored zero goals in 27 games for The Blades, and they got relegated and went on history for one of the worst teams in the Premier League.

32. Andre Schurle

Some players have the highest peak of their career at around 29 years old. While, Andre Schurle retired from football at that age – strange, right?

He played in Germany for Mainz and Bayer Leverkusen, before joining Chelsea in Premier League, where he had a good career, after winning the Premier League in the 2014/15 season.

Schurle moved back to Germany, where he played one season in Wolfsburg, before being bought by Dortmund.

In 2018 he was loaned to Fulham, and that’s what we think is the worst transfer (even tho it wasn’t really a transfer).

31. Adebayor

Adebayor played for Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. But his transfer to Crystal Palace was strange and was worse than expected (which was bad).

He is remembered by football fans for that celebrating run at Etihad after scoring against his former team Arsenal, playing for Manchester City.

Adebayor claimed that his worst mistake was signing for Crystal Palace, where he scored only one goal in 15 appearances.

30. Ayoze Perez

Ayoze Perez moved to Leicester City from Newcastle United for £30m in 2019.

We can say that he started ok at Leicester, he bagged a hat-trick on that infamous 9:0 win against Southampton, but after that fans and the coach began to lose their faith in the Spaniard.

He was slammed at social media for being that expensive and not worth a penny of it.

29. Joelinton

£40m. That’s how much Newcastle United paid for the Brazilian.

Since 2019, the striker scored only SIX goals in 69 appearances for The Magpies.

Joelinton’s market value dropped to £17m at the moment, and £23m lost on the market it’s a big worry for Newcastle.

28. Ilie Dimitrescu

After having a sensational time at his hometown club, Steaua Bucuresti, Tottenham decided to pay £2,5m for Ilie Dimitrescu in 1994.

The Romanian who was a striker scored 71 times for Steaua. Before joining Spurs, where he was nothing but a disaster.

He scored 4 goals in 18 appearances for the English club, but it was nothing as it was hoped for.

27. Jean Michael Seri

In 2018, Fulham was trying to be big by spending a lot of money. One of them was Jean Michael Seri, who came from Nice for £30m.

Before that, he was linked with Barcelona and was dubbed as the next Xavi.

Fulham supporters thought that he was a saviour, but then he turned to be a disappointment after they finished second bottom in the Premier League and then Seri was loaned to Galatasaray.

He is still a Fulham player, but he was loaned to Bordeaux last season.

26. Charles N’Zogbia

The last player to be signed by the late Sir Bobby Robson, Charles N’Zogbia came to England from Le Havre of France. Newcastle was his first destination.

He stayed at The Magpies from 2004 until 2009 and expressed the desire to leave with the quote “After four years at Newcastle, I want to reach a higher level, I don’t think it’s possible here”.

But he went to Wigan Athletic, which was actually lower level than Newcastle.

Aston Villa signed him in 2011 for £9m and that was a nightmare for him and for the club.

25. Lucas Perez

Arsenal is known for making mistakes on transfers. And one of them is Lucas Perez.

The Gunners paid £17.1m to Deportivo La Coruna for the Spanish striker.

After having a sensational season at the Spanish side, where he scored 18 goals in 37 games, his time at Arsenal, was nothing but a disaster.

The Spaniard scored only one goal in 11 appearances.

West Ham bought him for £13m less than their neighbours paid for him.

24. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was a part of a swap deal between Alexis Sanchez and him.

His time at Borussia Dortmund lured Manchester United to buy him for £30m in 2016.

At Dortmund, he scored 23 times in 90 games, before joining The Red Devils, where he scored FIVE in 39.

Manchester United requested a swap between Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sanchez after the Chilean having four good seasons at Gunners.

The Armenian didn’t perform any better at Arsenal.

23. Thomas Vermaelen

Thomas Vermaelen started really well at Arsenal becoming one of the favourite signings.

He scored goal after goal in the first few weeks in the Premier League. But, a defender should defend, right? And that’s where the struggle began.

First, he was unable to defend himself from all the injuries and high intensity of the Premier League matches. Then, he lacked consistency. And consistency, not goals is what makes a defender great.

22. Jack Rodwell

It was August 2012 and Manchester City made yet another mistake by signing Jack Rodwell from Everton, for a fee reported to be around £13m.

For two years being at the Citizens, Jack only played 16 games and scored 2 goals, so that’s almost £1m per appearance.

That’s nothing more to say!

21. Firmino

Roberto Firmino has created a name for himself in Anfield, but not by scoring goals.

He has been pivotal in some of the matches but obviously has failed to impress whenever Salah and Mane did that too.

His role has been described as a “false nr. 9” but is that just a label to cover his lack of goals?

We believe he is a false nr.9 in a literal sense of the word.

20. Diego Forlan

Diego Forlan was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in Winter Transfer Window of 2002 for £7m from Independiente.

Even though that he won the Premier League, it was expected a lot from Diego Forlan.

He only scored 10 goals in 63 appearances for The Red Devils, before he went to explore at Villarreal and then later even more at Atletico Madrid.

19. Yannick Bolasie

A French-born, but started his career in England from the academy of Rushden & Diamonds, Yannick Bolasie played for several teams in the lower leagues of England, before joining Crystal Palace in 2012, where he played for four years until Everton bought him.

Everton paid £25m in 2016 for the striker, but that was a waste of money. Basically, after poor performances at the club from Liverpool, he was loaned from the 2nd year of his 5-year contract, and since then he didn’t come back to the club, to become a free agent in 2021.

He made 29 appearances for Everton and only scored 2 goals.

18. Alexis Sanchez

As we mentioned earlier, Alexis Sanchez was a part of a swap deal between Arsenal and Manchester United, between him and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

For Arsenal, he had decent performances, where he helped the team win two FA Cups, with 60 goals in 122 appearances – almost a goal, every 2nd match.

Manchester United was looking for a winger and his time at their rivals lured them to buy, so they offered the Armenian National Team captain in a swap deal.

And nowadays fans still don’t know who got the worst deal.

The Chilean scored only THREE goals for the Red Devils in 32 appearances.

17. Robinho

Before coming to Manchester City, Robinho had a brilliant career in Santos and Real Madrid, a thing made the Citizens splash £32.5m for the Brazilian.

He came to the club in 2008, right at the beginning of the oil money of Manchester City.

City thought that they got a top striker, but the nightlife of his pretty much destroyed his Premier League career.

He managed to play 41 times for them and score only 14 goals. 

16. Elaquim Mangala

Eliaquim Mangala came to Manchester City in 2014 from Porto for an astronomic fee of £42 million, which is a lot for a defender.

Mangala won the Premier League one time and that’s the only trophy he won there, as he was loaned to Everton when they won the other Premier League trophy.

He only made 2 assists in 59 appearances in Premier League and not scoring a single goal.

In 2019, Mangala went back to his former club, Valencia as a free transfer.

15. Memphis Depay

The Dutchman who was born in 1994, had an amazing time in PSV Eindhoven, where he started his career, Memphis Depay was bought by Manchester United for £25m, and the rest his history – but in the worst way possible.

For the four years that he played in the Netherlands, he scored 39 goals in 90 matches, which includes winning some domestic trophies.

At the Red Devils he played only 33 times and scored only two goals – which means £12.5m for a goal.

14. Granit Xhaka

Arsenal was struggling a lot with their central and defensive midfielders when Granit Xhaka came. He was considered one of the best defensive midfielders in Bundesliga at that time.

It was the year of 2016 when Arsene Wenger paid £30–35m to Borussia Monchengladbach for the Swiss International.

His passing was as super as his vision of the pitch and his vision of the game. But, his time at Arsenal was all but good.

He was a chaotic midfielder who made many errors in passing, that showed a lack of vision and that made a lot of terrible mistakes. Last season, Mikel Arteta used Xhaka as a left wing-back.

13. Danny Drinkwater

When Leicester won the Premier League in 2016, one of their main players was Danny Drinkwater and his great skills lured big clubs of the Premier League, and one of them was Chelsea, who signed him for £34 million in 2017.

He was injured when he came to London, so he made his debut on the 25th of October playing for 60 minutes against Everton in the EFL Cup when they won it with 2:1. Drinkwater made his Premier League debut one month later against Liverpool on that 1:1 draw.

The Englishman made only 22 appearances in his first season. And that’s it, as he wasn’t in new coach Maurizio Sarri’s plans.

The 30-year-old is still a Chelsea player but he is out on loan at Turkish side Kasimpasa, after one season each at Aston Villa and Burnley.

12. Alvaro Morata

One of the most overrated strikers in football is Alvaro Morata. He has no outstanding skills at all.

When he was having an average season at Real Madrid in the 2016/17 season, Chelsea decided to spent astronomically as they used to.

£60m is the price that Chelsea paid for the Spaniard, but his 16 goals in 47 games was not as near as expected from him – almost £4m FOR A GOAL? Can you imagine? That’s insane. Chelsea never had luck with strikers, we can only mention one Didier Drogba.

11. Andriy Shevchenko

The Balon D’Or winner of 2004, Andriy Shevchenko spent seven years at Milan, where he won everything.

In 208 appearances he scored 127 goals and that lured Chelsea owners when they splashed £40 million at the Milan bank account.

He came to London in 2006 as a replacement for Hernan Crespo, who went to Milan as a loan.

The Ukrainian scored only 9 times in his three years at Chelsea, before going back to his youth club, Dinamo Kyiv.

10. Shkodran Mustafi

A World Cup champion by accident! Shkodran Mustafi is one of the worst defenders in the Premier League in recent years.

Arsenal paid £35m for him in 2016, but he did more bad than good for the team from London.

During his tenure at Arsenal, Mustafi developed a reputation for errors.

9. Mario Balotelli

He came to Liverpool in 2014 to replace Suarez, funny huh? But, he made clear in the very beginning that he wasn’t the one.

Brendan Rodgers said that “He was the last choice of strikers to replace Luis Suarez” and SuperMario scored only one Premier League in nearly 1000 minutes for the Reds.

The Italian was one of the reasons that Brendan Rodgers got sacked, and after Jurgen Klopp came, Balotelli wasn’t in the German’s plans.

He signed for the French Club, Nice, for free.

 8. Owen Hargreaves

After one year of negotiations between Manchester United and Bayern Munich, the Germans finally decided to sell him for £23 million in 2007.

In Alex Ferguson’s autobiography released in 2013, he called Hargreaves one of his most disappointing signings as he played for four years for them and made only 27 appearances and only scored two goals.

The English international went to City for just one game and he retired at the age of 30.

7. Christian Benteke

In 2015, Aston Villa accepted a £32.5m bid from Liverpool for the services of Christian Benteke.

The Belgian came as a replacement for Luis Suarez but was nothing like him.

He played for Liverpool for a year and scored only nine goals in 29 appearances.

Benteke was sold the later year to a much lower team Crystal Palace for pretty much the same price, but they still fight for relegation every year.

6. Andy Carroll

Andy Carroll came to Liverpool in January alongside the much cheaper transfer Luis Suarez.

Carroll was signed to replace Fernando Torres in 2011, but he failed big. The real replacement was Luis Suarez, who turned to be a much better striker even than club legend Fernando Torres.

The English lasted only two years at Liverpool, one of them was a loan at West Ham, before being sold the following year.

He scored only 6 goals in 44 appearances for the Reds, making him the worst transfer of the club.

5. Nicolas Pepe

In modern football, almost every player has incredible dribbling skills, even centre backs.

But, the skills of Nicolas Pepe it seems that fooled Arsenal.

They paid a lot of money (£72m) for a player who had serious problems with consistency and that didn’t have the right pace for the Premier League high-intensity games. Pepe has still something to show, but is dribbling everything?

4. Juan Sebastian Veron

He helped Lazio on that famous double of Seria A and Coppa Del Rey trophies in 2000.

This thing prompted Manchester United under Alex Ferguson to bring him to Old Trafford in 2001.

The Scottish coach was trying to break the famous Ryan Giggs – Roy Keane – Paul Scholes and David Beckham midfield by bringing the Argentine to Manchester, but that was a failure as he couldn’t adapt at Red Devils.

The Midfielder struggled to settle into the club as he made only 51 appearances and scored only 7 goals.

He, later on, moved to Chelsea and spent four years there, but that included a two-year loan spell at Inter Milan and another at Estudiantes, where he was sold in 2007, after making just seven appearances for Chelsea.

3. Anderson

Anderson was tipped to be the next big thing. In 2008 he won the Golden Boy award, but that was that.

In 2007 Manchester United paid £20m to Porto for Anderson.

He stayed at the club for eight seasons, and despite that, the Brazilian never fulfilled his potential and we think he should have gone to some lower team, but he eventually went back to Brazil.

2. Angel Di Maria

Louis Van Gaal came to Manchester United in 2014 and his first signing was Angel Di Maria, who came from Real Madrid for £68 million.

Di Maria was never a bad football player either before at Real Madrid or later at Paris Saint-Germain.

But at Manchester, he didn’t fit at all. His performances were very poor and we think, that was a result of Louis Van Gaal asking him to play in many different positions.

He lasted just one year there, before going to Paris, where Manchester United lost £16 million.

1. Fernando Torres

Liverpool’s one of the greatest strikers ever Fernando Torres left Liverpool, looking for trophies, so Chelsea paid £53 million for him and wasn’t as expected.

After scoring in an average of every second match for Liverpool, his next club was a disaster for him as he scored 20 goals in 110 appearances for the Blues.

His tenure didn’t live up to expectations, but fans still have some fond memories of his time with the club, most notably his goal at Barcelona that sealed a place in the 2012 Champions League final.