Whenever footballers, managers or supporters suggest their club needs new players, it is tempting to point out that recruitment can make things worse, not better. As ESPNsoccernet's worst 10 signings of the season show...
10. Tal Ben-Haim
Since excelling at Bolton, Tal Ben-Haim has managed the sort of sequence
of underachievement that might be some kind of record. He has passed
through five Premier League clubs without impressing at any. West Ham
clearly ignored his immediate past when they borrowed the defender from
Portsmouth in August. What they got was a plummet to the foot of the
Premier League, not helped by Ben-Haim's form: his first five league
games produced just two points, while his last was a 5-0 hammering at
Newcastle.
9. Sebastien Squillaci
When Arsene Wenger discarded his usual strategy by paying a sizeable sum
(around £6 million) for a 30-year-old, the question was if the Arsenal
manager had ignored his youth policy for a good reason. Eight months
later, the answer appears not: Squillaci, unlike most Arsenal recruits,
has a lower resale value. But, more pertinently, he has not performed on
the pitch. The centre-back appears especially incompatible with his
fellow Frenchman Laurent Koscielny - the Gunners' first five Premier
League defeats occurred when they were paired - and when Thomas
Vermaelen is eventually fit, will probably rank as the fourth-choice
central defender.
8. Alexander Hleb
"Here you just need to fight, run, not too much passing," Alexander Hleb
said. "This, for me, is something new." As Birmingham have rarely been
confused with Barcelona, what did he expect? And as Hleb appears the
antithesis of no-frills workaholics like Craig Gardner and Lee Bowyer,
what did the club imagine he would do? From the start, Birmingham and
Hleb were a marriage of convenience that was doomed to end in divorce:
he needed a club, they a flair player after Charles N'Zogbia's wage
demands ended a bid to bring him south from Wigan. It is unsurprising
that he rarely starts for Alex McLeish's side and, in its own way, just
as predictable that Birmingham's battling qualities, rather than Hleb's
skill, will keep them up.
7. James Milner
A staple diet of unofficial awards is the choice of the most improved
player. Last year, it may well have been James Milner. This season,
however, Milner appears the prime contender for whatever the opposite
is: the player who has regressed most, perhaps. Factor in a £26 million
fee in an almost uniquely unsuccessful swap (Stephen Ireland, who went
to Aston Villa in the same deal, was another contender for this list)
and a player who was supposed to have cemented his arrival at the
division's top table instead seems to have made one of the misguided
moves of the year. No longer in the Manchester City team, he has only
played well on a handful of occasions, and one of those was his
valedictory appearance for Villa.
6. Roque Santa Cruz
Blackburn's January quest for a galactico earned ridicule aplenty, and
rightly so. When David Beckham, Ronaldinho and Juan Roman Riquelme took
the utterly unexpected decisions that an offer from Ewood Park was one
they definitely could refuse, the returning Roque Santa Cruz became the
biggest name to arrive in East Lancashire. But fame isn't everything and
Rovers' bizarre attempts at recruitment are backfiring. Santa Cruz is
yet to score since returning to the club who somehow pocketed £18
million when selling him to Manchester City; apart from one header that
hit the bar, he has rarely looked like finding the net. Predictably, he
has seldom appeared fit and his struggles are one cause of Blackburn's
descent down the table.
5. Mauro Boselli
Wigan's low profile can be a benefit. At most of their rivals, rather
more questions would be asked about the failure of the club record
signing to muster a solitary league goal. Instead, Mauro Boselli
disappeared on loan to Genoa without too many noticing. Yet should
Wigan's six-year spell in the Premier League come to an end, the £6
million man's drought - incorporating a crucial missed penalty in a
potentially decisive defeat at West Ham - will be the major cause,
especially in a squad that lacks scoring strikers.
4. Christian Poulsen
In a department of the Liverpool team where the recent alumni include
Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Dietmar Hamann while Steven Gerrard
and Raul Meireles are among the current competition, the standards are
high. To say Christian Poulsen fell short is an understatement. Anfield
has seen few less positive passers than the Dane and, while his long
association with Roy Hodgson was one explanation of his unpopularity,
Poulsen's performances were another. His first season on Merseyside
seems certain to end with youngster Jay Spearing ahead of him in the
queue for the central midfield places.
3. Paul Konchesky
Liverpool's summer business was so poor that they could fill much of
this list. In the end, unimpressive as they have been, there was no room
for Joe Cole or Milan Jovanovic. So there was stiff competition for the
title of the worst signing at Anfield, but Paul Konchesky is a
deserving winner. Quite how, having worked with Konchesky for
two-and-a-half seasons at Fulham, Roy Hodgson deemed him a Liverpool
player is a mystery, but the left-back's mistakes were a constant:
defeats at Stoke and Tottenham can be attributed to his errors.
Tellingly, Liverpool have looked far more secure with anyone else on the
left of the defence.
2. Bebe
The strangest signing of the season, Bebe continues to astonish. Not in
the right ways, however: utterly dismal displays in the Carling Cup
defeat at West Ham and the FA Cup win over Crawley provoke a sense of
surprise that anyone could deem him a Manchester United player. Sir Alex
Ferguson, famously, had not seen the Portuguese winger before buying
him but he paid more for Bebe than he did for Javier Hernandez. Barring a
remarkable improvement in the remainder of his United career, the
callow forward may go down as one of Ferguson's worst signings.
1. Fernando Torres
The long wait was ended 14 games and 732 minutes into his Chelsea career
when the most expensive player in the history of English football
finally scored. Yet the verdict on the £50 million man this season may
be that his signing cost Chelsea their chance of winning the Premier
League and the Champions League; it might inadvertently result in Carlo
Ancelotti's departure. Because, while Chelsea have generally fared
better with Torres on the bench, his move appears to have revitalised
Liverpool and caused his new club no end of problems.
u 4got one more ppl
Milan Jovanovic
Originally posted by Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1):u 4got one more ppl
Milan Jovanovic
Joe Cole too.
To a certain extent, Andy Carroll - He's came in with a hefty price tag to replace Torres but he cant seem to shake off his persistent injury and only played a couple of games since January! Liverpool could have gotten a cheaper deal should they wait till the end of the season.
Originally posted by Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1):u 4got one more ppl
Milan Jovanovic
haha maybe he in the top 25 worst sigining? =D
Originally posted by CKeer:Joe Cole too.
To a certain extent, Andy Carroll - He's came in with a hefty price tag to replace Torres but he cant seem to shake off his persistent injury and only played a couple of games since January! Liverpool could have gotten a cheaper deal should they wait till the end of the season.
I agree with Joe Cole but not Carroll. He was injured when he joined Liverpool and the last injury, he was out for a game only! He has scored 2 goals so far...I know most strikers are just on their goals but Carroll has help to link up play upfront with his height..and create a fear factor when Liverpool having a corner.
The owner has instructed to pay 15m lesser on what Liverpool can get for Torres. So if Torres fee was 60m, Carroll will be bought for 45m...simple as that. Also, those who write Torres off is just simply naive...am sure he will banging on lots of goals for Chelsea next season.
why not just buy and play david luiz as striker? bet he'll score at least 10 by now?
Liverpool is a good nursing home for injured players.
Just look at aquaman in Juventus now, he is flying.
They did magic on Kewell also.
Carroll will take a while to justify his price tag.
As for Cole, he should leave by himself as he is not contributing at the moment.
Torres need Rafa to take over Chelsea to get him to be 1st team.
When Rafa take over Chelsea, it will be a interesting season.