We pick 5 of the worst Premier League transfers!
1. Jo
CSKA Moscow to Manchester City, Undisclosed fee.
Cast your mind back to 8 years ago where City didn’t have the likes of David Silva or Sergio Aguero, before they won the league and when Sven Goran Eriksson was their manager. He signed Jo on the back of a successful time at CSKA where he hit 30 goals in 52 games, but his time at City was a complete disaster. For a fee that is thought to be around £20 million, a return of one goal in 21 games was not what City had in mind. Loan spells at Everton followed where he fared slightly better, before a loan to Galatasaray and eventually a return to Brazil. Incredibly enough, Jo played back up striker to Fred for Brazil at the 2014 World Cup. Says it all really.
2.Fernando Torres
Liverpool to Chelsea, £50 million.
Purely on value for money, this was one of the biggest transfer flops of all time, never mind the premier league. To be fair to Torres, he did win the Champions League and scored a crucial goal VS Barcelona in the semi finals as well as winning other trophies. He scored a terrible 20 goals in 110 games for Chelsea, something that greatly aggravated their fans considering he had scored 65 goals in 102 games for Liverpool. Torres had looked out of sorts towards the end of his time at Liverpool so it is unknown why Chelsea splashed out. In the end, Liverpool made a good amount of money off a player who had peaked- although they spent a large chunk of that an Andy Carroll, who is an honourable mention for this list!
3. El-Hadji Diouf
Lens to Liverpool, £10 Million.
El Hadji Diouf was supposed to turn Liverpool into title contenders. The club had signed Nicolas Anelka on loan the previous season but apparently opted against signing him after seeing Diouf perform for Senegal in the 2002 World Cup. Signing a player of the back of a good World Cup can be a terrible move as Liverpool found. He scored three goals in 55 games whilst Anelka joined City, scoring 37 goals in 89 games over the course of his time there. The two were eventually team mates at Bolton, where Diouf fared somewhat better, but at Liverpool he was a complete flop and is disliked for numerous controversies by fans everywhere.
4.Radamel Falcao
AS Monaco to Manchester United, Chelsea (both loans).
We really did not want to have to put Falcao on this list. We remember that just a few years ago he was one of the best strikers in the world. His goals for Porto (41 in 51 games) and Atletico Madrid (52 in 68 games) was extraordinary, and who can forget his demolition of Chelsea in the European Super Cup in the 2012-2013 season? How Chelsea could have done with a player with that kind of ruthless finishing this season. Instead, they have a player who has spent much of the season injured, with just one goal in 10 games to go with his four goals in 26 games on loan at Manchester United last season. What makes this one of the worst transfers beside his goal tally are his wages which are estimated to be around £250,000 a week!
5.Owen Hargreaves
Bayern Munch to Manchester United, £17 million, Manchester United to Manchester City, Free.
Ah Owen Hargreaves. A very talented but injury prone midfielder who made over 100 appearances for German giants Bayern Munich as well as 40 appearances for England. So what is he doing on this list you may ask? Injuries and extreme bad luck completely ruined his time in the Premier League. Owen joined Manchester Utd first from Bayern, Sir Alex Ferguson later called Hargreaves one of his most disappointing signings. After making around 30 appearances for the club in four seasons, United decided against offering Hargreaves a new contract. In response released a series of videos on Youtube (Head over to his Youtube Channel, owenhargreavescb, if you want to see some very bizarre exercises) in a bid to prove to any potential suitors that he was still fit. Who took a risk on him? None other than rivals Manchester City. How many league games did he manage to play for them? One. Enough said.
We found it very hard to limit this list to just five players and we can think of many more players who would be deserving of a place on this list! Who would be on your worst Premier League transfers list? Let us know in the comments!
