January is the one month of the Premier League season that can generally make or break a team’s season.
Those at the top end of the table can add sensibly to their ranks, whether it’s a solid back-up player or perhaps a youngster that will breakthrough at a later date. However, those signings don’t always work out.
Teams at the wrong end of the table typically panic buy – good decisions are rarely made in January – and new acquisitions more often than not don’t have the desired effect.
There have been a whole host of January transfer flops, with some of the worse January signings coming from the bigger teams in the Premier League. Let’s take a look at the best of the worst.
Worse Premier League January Signings
Who is the first Premier League January transfer flop that springs to mind? The likes of Fernando Torres, Alexis Sanchez, Andy Carroll, Chris Samba, Kostas Mitroglou, Savio Nsereko and Guido Carrillo will likely be the main contenders.
The aforementioned list of players – Torres and Sanchez in particular – were arguably world class talents at the time of their January transfers and they were pretty terrible at their respective new clubs. Not only were they two of the worse January signings, but the worst signings in Premier League history.
Players such as Mitroglou, Nsereko and Carrillo were perhaps the biggest January transfer flops in terms of players who weren’t experienced or perhaps even heard of before their torturous tenure’s in the Premier League. Carroll and Samba had great spells in England‘s elite, before they fell into the worse January signings category.
7⃣
Name: Chris Samba 🇨🇩
Transfer: Anzhi Makhachkala to QPR
When: 2013 📅
Price: £12.5m💰 #QPR #DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/xhYQvk0Caq— FourFourTwo (@FourFourTwo) August 31, 2017
Worse Value For Money January Signings
In terms of the worse value for money Premier League January signings, all of the players previously mentioned can arguably fall into this category. Chris Samba for example set Queens Park Rangers back a club-record £12.5m when they signed him from Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013. He was also reportedly earning £100,000 per-week. Crikey.
Alexis Sanchez didn’t cost Manchester United anything in terms of a transfer fee, but they shelled out an eye-watering £560,000 per-week for his services. He repaid the Red Devils by scoring just three times in 32 Premier League appearances. That worked out to approx £186,000 per-goal. Again, ouch.
Kostas Mitroglou joined Fulham on transfer deadline day in 2014 and promptly went on to score no goals in just three appearances for the Cottagers. The £12.4m fee paid for the Greek international was the west Londoners record transfer at the time but injuries and fitness concerns hampered his stay. Rene Meulensteen’s men were relegated that season.
Biggest Ever Premier League January Transfer Flops
10) – Jean Makoun to Aston Villa (£6.2m in 2011)
9) – Savio Nsereko to West Ham (£9m in 2009)
8) – Kostas Mitroglou to Fulham (£12.4m in 2014)
7) – Chris Samba to QPR (£12.5m in 2013)
6) – Afonso Alves to Middlesbrough (£12.5m in 2008)
5) – Jean-Alain Boumsong to Newcastle (£8m in 2005)
4) – Guido Carrillo to Southampton (£19.1m in 2018)
3) – Fernando Torres to Chelsea (£50m in 2011)
2) – Andy Carroll to Liverpool (£35m in 2011)
1) – Alexis Sanchez to Man Utd (Swap deal in 2018)
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