Bosko Balaban In 2001, the Aston Villa manager John Gregory spent £6m on Balaban, a player who didn't start a single league game in two-and-a-half years and was given a £1m pay-off when he left in 2004, announcing that "Villa is all bullshit". Gregory thought Balaban was the last piece of the jigsaw. He might well have been, but it was a completely different puzzle: Balaban was one of a number of signings around the period who were palpably not suited to the muck and bullets of English football

Photograph: Matthew Ashton/EMPICS Sport