Premier League’s worst spending sprees – from Man Utd flops to Spurs’ disaster

This might be a little harsh given we haven't even reached Christmas yet, but Manchester United's summer transfer window was a bit pants wasn't it?

Rasmus Hojlund has been painfully ineffective, Mason Mount has been painfully unnoticeable and Andre Onana has been, well, painful full stop. If the trio don't get their acts together sharpish it'll have to go down as one of the worst shopping sprees in Premier League history.

Reassuringly for the Red Devils, they're far from alone in terrible transfers town – despite being regular visitors. Here, Daily Star Sport runs through nine of English football's worst transfer windows in recent memory.

READ MORE: All 24 players Man Utd bought and sold post-Fergie at nearly £500m loss – with profit made just once

READ MORE: AI simulates Royal Rumble of Prem's hardest players ever – and Roy Keane's ganged up on

Liverpool – 2010

The period between the Rafa Benitez era and the Brendan Rodgers era was a grim one for Liverpool. Case in point: the nonsensical spending spree they went on in the summer of 2010 with managerial disaster Roy Hodgson and managing director Christian Purslow at the helm.

It wasn't so much the amount of money they spent but rather the players they brought in that made it so bad, with the likes of Christian Poulsen, Paul Konchesky, a washed up Joe Cole, Jonjo Shelvey, Milan Jovanovic and Danny Wilson arriving to effectively supervise the club's steep decline. Even after the Reds got rid of Hodgson, they sold Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll joined for £35million. Grim stuff.

Which of these nine is the worst? Let us know in the comments section below.

Man City – 2012

Abu Dhabi Group-era Manchester City almost never get it wrong in the transfer market, but they made a right hash of things in the summer of 2012.

After landing their first-ever Premier League title they attempted to consolidate their place as English football's top dogs by … (*checks notes) … signing Javi Garcia, Matija Nastasic, Maicon, Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell. They finished a distant second in the league that season. Quelle surprise.

QPR – 2012

After staying in the Prem by the skin of their teeth in 2012, QPR thought the best course of action would be to fill their squad with a bunch of unenthusiastic, ageing stars with previously lofty reputations. Shockingly, it didn't work.

In came Jermaine Jenas, Jose Bosingwa, Park Ji-sung, Julio Cesar, Esteban Granero and Chris Samba (and Harry Redknapp), all on massive wages – in fact, the R's had the seventh-highest wage bill that season. They ended the season rock bottom and relegated, with the majority of their expensive flops immediately jumping ship.

Tottenham – 2013

Tottenham reinvested the £86m they got from Real Madrid for Gareth Bale so badly that just one of the seven players they signed in the summer of 2013 can be deemed a genuine success. Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Vlad Chiriches, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Etienne Capoue all failed to make any sort of significant impact.

Christian Eriksen was the only success story, and while there's an argument to be made that Soldado's failings allowed a young Harry Kane to get vital first team minutes – minutes which previously seemed unattainable – they effectively threw £105m down the drain, so bad, bad business.

Liverpool – 2014

In an almost carbon copy of Tottenham's dreadful window the year before, Liverpool completely spaffed the £75m they got for star striker Luis Suarez up the wall by spending it recklessly on eight new arrivals.

Having come to close to winning their first ever Premier League title that summer, the Reds were keen to bolster their squad and keep pace with the big boys, but their form nosedived when the likes of Mario Balotelli, Lazar Markovic, Alberto Moreno and Rickie Lambert came into the team, and Brendan Rodgers paid for it with his job. They bought cult hero Divock Origi in that window too though, plus Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana who both played key roles in Jurgen Klopp taking the Reds back to the top, so it wasn't all bad.

Everton – 2017

We could have included any of Everton's last five or six summer windows on this list, but their shopping spree in 2017 is hands down the worst of this truly dismal period. They brainlessly splashed over £180m on Davy Klaassen, Sandro, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nikola Vlasic, Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun – all of whom did next to nothing of note.

Granted, they signed England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford that summer too, and Michael Keane hasn't been a total flop, but even nabbing Lionel Messi on a free transfer couldn't turn this abysmal window into a good one.

Chelsea – 2017

Chelsea have a habit of taking their foot off the pedal after winning the Premier League, and their response to being crowned champions in 2017 was predictably poor. They bizarrely discarded vital first team stars Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic, replacing them with Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko, before splurging close to £60m on Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta.

Little over two years later all four signings had either been sold or were rotting in the reserves. Drinkwater will arguably go down as Chelsea's worst-ever signing, and the club have spent the likes six years trying, and failing, to plug the gaping gap left by Costa. It was a bafflingly blundersome summer.

Man Utd – 2021

It didn't feel like a complete disaster at the time, but two years on there's no question that United's 2021 spending spree was one of their poorest. Jadon Sancho, who joined for £74m, has barely looked worth a quarter of that figure and is on the verge of an acrimonious exit following a bust-up with Ten Hag.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival, which only occurred because United wanted to keep him out of City's clutches, not only impeded United tactically but also caused a club-wide meltdown. The Portugal superstar threw his toys out of the pram after failing to get a move away before forcing United's hand by slagging the club off during an explosive interview with Piers Morgan. Sure, Raphael Varane was a decent signing, but in hindsight everything else about this window was terrible from top to bottom.

Chelsea – 2022

With Chelsea's hierarchy gutted following Roman Abramovich's departure, new owner Todd Boehly went into the summer window with plenty of enthusiasm, but not a lot of sense. The Blues splashed £270m on a bunch of new stars, most of whom they didn't actually need or end up using.

The boat-load of arrivals disrupted the squad to such a degree that Chelsea's form collapsed, costing both Thomas Tuchel and successor Graham Potter their jobs. It wasn't all bad, with the likes of Raheem Sterling, Carney Chukwuemeka and Wesley Fofana looking like sensible purchases, but considering the way the Blues limped to a 12th place finish, there's little use denying the apocalyptic ramifications of their silly spending spree.

Source: Read Full Article