The WORST Premier League signings of the season?

With the Premier League season at an advanced stage, we are now at a point where we can sit back, and collectively have a good laugh at those signings which we feel didn’t quite work out as expected. With this in mind, here are some of the worst Premier League signings this season

Michael Owen

Ok, he cost nothing. Further, 9 goals in 11 starts in all competitions isn’t exactly a bad return. However, Owen has spent most of the season out injured, and has hardly had any impact on the first team in crunch matches. Further, if Ferguson thought Owen’s signing would supplement the strike force of Berbatov and Rooney, he was wrong. Rooney has carried Manchester United this season, and Owen was not the player to assist United in their quest for top honours. A poor signing.

Alberto Aquilani

This is an obvious choice. 5 starts and 9 substitute appearances in the league, with one goal and one assist. Oh and he cost £20m. Need I go on?

I hope he proves the doubters wrong next season, but this year, he’s been a flop.

Yury Zhirkov

Now then, now then. Whilst I do not believe the Russian international left sided defender/midfielder to be a bad player, a little birdie tells me it cost Chelsea £18.6m to prise him away from CSKA Moscow.

Come on. £18.6m? He’s only blooming made two starts in the league! That’s £9.3m per league start. Further, even if it does turn out that Zhirkov is mustard, he’ll never fit into the side anyway, because Ashley Cole is first choice at left back, and in midfield, Florent Malouda tends to play on the left of the diamond. Ergo, the better of £20m was wasted. Why didn’t they bring in an out and out winger?

Mido

He cost nothing, he earns less than a plumber a week (those bloody tradesman, with their Ferrari’s and cashmere sweaters tied neatly over their shoulders), and yet still he’s getting booed by his own fans. The Egyptian forward, who is on-loan from Middlesbrough, missed a penalty against Everton at the weekend, and had his own fans chanting ‘off, off, off’ and booing the referee after failing to send Mido off.

I believe the words ‘fat’ and ‘useless’ are being bandied about in East London fairly liberally these days.

Benedict McCarthy

The 32 year old South Africa striker cost £2.5m, and is on a two year deal worth £38,000-a-week. So far, McCarthy has made two substitute appearances, and seems to be struggling to overcome the knee injury he sustained in his first match for West Ham against Burnley.

When McCarthy left Blackburn Rovers in January, Sam Allardyce suggested McCarthy’s legs had gone, and it looks like Big Sam was right. If McCarthy and Mido were signed collectively to score the goals to keep West Ham in the Premier League, the Hammers could be in a spot of bother…

Stewart Downing

Downing was a bad signing not because he is a particularly bad player, but more because the £12m Aston Villa paid Middlesbrough could have been better invested by Martin O’Neill. Villa could have really done with signing a top quality centre forward, or even a centre midfielder. Instead, they bought another winger.

Downing is an out and out left winger, yet Ashley Young is surely first choice for the position? The result is that either Young or Downing has to play out of position. Not the greatest use of £12m methinks.

Roque Santa-Cruz

£17m sure doesn’t buy you a lot these days. In fact, if you’re Manchester City, it buys you three league goals, one cup goal, and five Premier League starts. So that’s £4.25m per goal then. When you consider that Cristiano Ronaldo has so far scored 25 goals for Real Madrid, technically, at £3.2m a goal, the £80m fee Los Blancos paid actually looks like value for money. What a bargain!

Santa-Cruz was injury prone at Blackburn Rovers in his second season, and has continued to enjoy further bad luck this term. However, Manchester City knew of his problems before he signed, and so the £17m they paid is one bad piece of business. They should have bought Ronaldo…

Well, there you have it, some of the worse signings of the season. Perhaps I’ve been harsh, blinkered, or even ill-informed. Well, that just means there’s no excuse for you not to abuse me verbally in the comment box below… Enjoy!

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