These stars should have stayed where they were
With the January transfer window about to come to a bleak halt, most Premier League fans will be disappointed that their clubs have not been active enough in acquiring new players.
Yet, based on the following horror shows, it may be a blessing in disguise as we look back to some of the worst mid-season captures in the history of the league…
13. Jean II Makoun
Details: Lyon to Aston Villa for £6m in 2011
A seasoned international with Cameroon with Champions League experience, Jean Makoun looked to be a quality signing as Villa brought him in to the club midway through the 2010/11 campaign.
Makoun’s eagerness earned him a straight red card just weeks into his time in the Premier League and the suspension earmarked his difficulty to hold down a first team spot. Two loan spells away from Villa Park later, Makoun was gone.
12. Michael Ricketts
Details: Bolton Wanderers to Middlesbrough for £3.5m in 2003
A deadline day deal on the first ever January transfer window, Boro opted to break the bank for Bolton Wanderers striker Michael Rickets, less than a year after Sven-Goran Eriksson had given him a debut for England in a friendly against the Netherlands.
The giant target man could only manage three goals during his one and a half year spell on Teeside though and unsurprisingly it would be his last ever season in the top flight of English football.
11. Hossam Ghaly
Details: Bolton Wanderers to Middlesbrough for £3.5m in 2003
A deadline day deal on the first ever January transfer window, Boro opted to break the bank for Bolton Wanderers striker Michael Rickets, less than a year after Sven-Goran Eriksson had given him a debut for England in a friendly against the Netherlands.
The giant target man could only manage three goals during his one and a half year spell on Teeside though and unsurprisingly it would be his last ever season in the top flight of English football.
11. Hossam Ghaly
Details: Feyenord to Tottenham Hotspur for £3m in 2006
The Egyptian midfielder started life at White Hart Lane full of promise and seemed a decent acquisition, yet the minute that he threw his shirt to the ground when being subbed off after coming off the bench himself earlier that game, things were never the same.
In fact, Ghaly would never play for Spurs again after that incident although Harry Redknapp came close to bringing him on after a loan spell with Derby County, but opted not to once the Tottenham faithful booed him warming up.
10. Jimmy Bullard
Details: Fulham to Hull City for £5m in 2009
Bullard’s bust up with Fulham over a new contract saw Hull City move in to swoop for the comical midfielder for a hefty £5m midway through the 2008/09 season, giving him four and a half year deal worth £40,000 a week.
Aside from a celebration that mimicked Phil Brown’s on-pitch half time team talk at Manchester City, the former Wigan man did very little in an injury-ridden spell on Humberside.
9. Benni McCarthy
Details: Blackburn Rovers to West Ham United for £2.2m in 2010
Somehow the former South African international is not even the worst striker to be bought by West Ham in the January transfer window, which is saying something considering the complete disaster that summed up McCarthy’s time as a Hammer.
Having proving himself as a goalscorer in the Premier League with Blackburn, McCarthy failed to register a goal in his time in East London and was better known for being shunned from the team for being overweight or injured.
8. Alfonso Alves
Details: Heerenveen to Middlesbrough for £12.7m in 2008
​10 goals in 41 games doesn’t sound too bad, but when you consider that the Brazilian international broke the club’s transfer record and didn’t really do much to help Boro survive in the Premier League, it is comfortably one of the worst January transfers ever made.
Alves had been scoring for fun in the Eredivisie, yet he was largely absent for the Teeside club during his 18 months with the club. Desperate to get rid of him, Alves left to join Al Sadd in the Qatari league.
7. Oumar Niasse
Details: Lokomotiv Moscow to Everton for £13.5m in 2016
Technically still an Everton player following his loan move to Hull City, it has only been a year since Niasse signed for the Toffees for a pricey £13.5m, but his time on Merseyside has been such a nightmare that it warrants a spot in this list.
Five measly league appearances is all that the Senegalese striker got in the 2015/16 season and after being arrested for assault as the season ended, new Everton boss Ronald Koeman informed Niasse to find a new club.
6. Andy Carroll
Details: Newcastle United to Liverpool for £35m in 2011
Liverpool needed to fill the void of a top drawer striker and they decided to take a risk in the Magpies’ Andy Carroll, who had shown enough promise in front of goal to warrant a whopping £35m transfer fee.
However, the England international failed to have the intended impact and managed just 11 goals in all competitions during his time on Merseyside, before being loaned and eventually sold to West Ham.
5. Fernando Torres
Details: Liverpool to Chelsea for £50m in 2011
On paper it seemed like a good deal, with Torres one of the finest strikers in Europe at the time. Yet somehow the Spaniard’s form dropped considerably after making the switch to Chelsea and is rightly billed as a flop despite some significant goals.
Part of the crazy 2011 transfer saga, which involved Andy Carroll brought in to replace Torres, the Atletico Madrid man was ridiculed throughout his five years at Stamford Bridge, ruining the reputation he had carved out during a glorious spell with Liverpool.
4. Jean-Alain Boumsong
Details: Rangers to Newcastle United for £8.3m in 2005
The French centre back only needed six months in Glasgow for the Magpies to shell out that kind of money, with Newcastle United boss at the time, Graeme Souness, hoping for him to form an impregnable partnership with Titus Bramble.
However, the calamitous displays from Boumsong mean that the Tyneside faithful were happy to see the back of him within 18 months, where he somehow blagged a move to Italian giants Juventus.
3. Savio Nsereko
Details: Brescia to West Ham United for £9m in 2009
10 Premier League games, 1 start and 0 goals. That is what £9m gets you, when you are a West Ham fan it seems, after the Hammers invested heavily in German under 20 international striker Savio Nsereko.
Somehow the East London club were convinced to pay such a figure for a player who registered just three Serie B goals in his career and it came as no surprise that journeyman is now without a club.
2. Christopher Samba
Details: Anzhi Makhachkala to Queens Park Rangers for £12.5m in 2013
With QPR in serious danger of losing their top flight status, Christopher Samba was brought in from Russia for an eye-watering £12.5m to shore up Harry Redknapp’s back line and save the club from going down.
A shadow of his former self from his Blackburn Rovers days, Samba was a total mess as the Hoops were relegated. Although the West London club sold the giant Congolese back to Anzhi for almost all of what they bought him for, it was a disastrous signing.
1. Konstantinos Mitroglou
Details: Olympiakos to Fulham for £12m in 2014
Undoubtedly one of the strangest decisions from a footballer in recent years, the Greek international striker swapped the Champions League knockout stages for a Premier League relegation battle.
Despite his prolific nature in Europe’s premier club competition, Mitroglou couldn’t find the back of the net for the Cottagers in his measly three top flight appearances as the West London club went down.
