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In football, there’s very little worse than a ham-fisted panic buy.<\/p>\n
Transfers are a tricky business and as much as they’ve become the lifeblood of modern football culture, a large chunk of them are ill-thought-out and hastily completed.<\/p>\n
The Premier League is 31-years-old and over the past three-and-a-bit decades panic-stricken clubs have pissed away cash on over-expensive, unnecessary or just downright bad players hundreds upon hundreds of time.<\/p>\n
That said, allow Daily Star Sport<\/b> to run you through each Premier League’s biggest and\/or worst panic buy and how those players fared. Some of these will really make you wince \u2026<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Football’s 10 best transfers ever completed – according to ChatGPT<\/b><\/p>\n\n\nArsenal – Kim Kallstrom<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nArsenal lived out the dream of every circa 2007 Football Manager player by signing Sweden star Kim Kallstrom on loan, but the dream quickly turned into a nightmare.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/p>\n
Injuries and suspensions forced the club to sign a stop-gap midfielder on deadline day in January 2014, and their desperation forced them to overlook a back injury discovered during Kallstrom’s medical.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/span><\/p>\nHe didn’t make his debut until late March, by which point the Gunners’ title hopes were long dead, and Kallstrom ended up playing just three more times for the club before sent back to parent club Spartak Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span> (Image: Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span>1<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nAston Villa – Bosko Balaban<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nBosko Balaban was an absolute disaster for Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
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The Croatian striker cost them £5.8m – which was close to a club record at the time – and failed to score a single goal before being released on a free in 2003, just two years after he joined.<\/p>\n
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He didn’t even manage to complete a full 90 minute match until eight months into his stint in England – and it was a reserve game!<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)<\/span>2<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nBournemouth – Jordon Ibe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nBournemouth’s decision to sign Jordon Ibe from Liverpool in 2016 wasn’t necessarily panic-induced, but given the fee they paid for him there’s no denying it was ‘ill-thought-out’.<\/p>\n
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The youngster joined for a club-record £15m despite having just one full season of semi-regular senior football at Anfield under his belt.<\/p>\n
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He spent two underwhelming years in the Cherries’ first team before being dropped for ‘inconsistency’ according to manager Eddie Howe, and in 2020 the club let his contract expire and he left for nothing.<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: John Walton\/PA Wire)<\/span>3<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nBrentford – Nick Proschwitz<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nThere was plenty of expectation on the shoulders of Nick Proschwitz when he arrived at newly-promoted Championship side Brentford in 2014.<\/p>\n
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The German arrived off the back of a successful career in Bundesliga 2 and, desperate to make a splash in the transfer market after reaching the second tier of English football for the first time in over 20 years, the Bees took a punt on him.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/span><\/p>\nBut it didn’t work, and Proschwitz bagged just two goals in 20 games before being sent back to his homeland a year later.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span> (Image: Hounslow Chronicle)<\/span>4<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\nBrighton & Hove Albion – Jurgen Locadia<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nOver the past few years Brighton have been the undisputed kings of the transfer market, but that wasn’t the case back in 2018.<\/p>\n
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They signed Jurgen Locadia from PSV for a club-record £14m in an attempt to flare their nostrils at their new Premier League opponents following their promotion from the Championship, but the Dutchman was a total flop.<\/p>\n
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He scored just three league goals in two years before being sent out on a couple of loans, and he left the club on a free transfer in 2021.<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: Getty Images)<\/span>5<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nBurnley – Ben Gibson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nSean Dyche usually has an eye for a shrewd signing, particularly given Burnley’s limited transfer budget, but he made a monumental mistake after shelling out a club-record £15m on Ben Gibson in 2018.<\/p>\n
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The defender played just six times for the club, and only once in the league, before he was sold to Norwich three years later for half the price they bought him for.<\/p>\n
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Gibson’s miserably forgetful stint at Turf Moor makes him quite possibly the least-impactful club-record signing in the history of the Premier League.<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: EMPICS Sport)<\/span>6<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nChelsea – Danny Drinkwater<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nChelsea are no strangers to a gloriously unsuccessful panic buy. Both Fernando Torres and Kepa Arrizabalaga could have got the nod here but we’ve gone for Danny Drinkwater, whose £35m arrival is arguably the Blues’ worst purchase in Premier League history – and that’s saying something!<\/p>\n
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In the summer of 2017, Chelsea were desperate for English stars to fill their ‘home grown’ quota following the departures of John Terry, Nathaniel Chalobah and Nathan Ake (and a failed moved for Ross Barkley), and Drinkwater was airlifted in from Leicester on deadline day for a frankly astronomical fee considering his distinct lack of elite-level quality.<\/p>\n
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He spent one season in the first team squad before being shuffled off to a dusty corner of Cobham to see out his contract in the reserves and he left for nothing in 2022.<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: Chelsea FC via Getty Images)<\/span>7<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nCrystal Palace – Emmanuel Adebayor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n Crystal Palace were desperate for goals when they nabbed Emmanuel Adebayor on a six-month loan in January 2016.<\/p>\n
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The Togolese striker was a free agent having been happily released by Tottenham four months prior, but that red flag didn’t dissuade the Eagles from handing him a £100,000 a week contract.<\/p>\n
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He scored just one goal in 15 painfully forgettable matches and his arrival coincided suspiciously with a run of nine defeats in 11 league matches.<\/p>\n
<\/span> (Image: GETTY)<\/span>8<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\nEverton – Denis Stracqualursi<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nAfter selling Yakubu to Blackburn on deadline day, Everton scrambled around for a last-minute replacement and unfortunately landed on unknown Argentine Denis Stracqualursi, who them brought in on a season-long loan.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/span><\/p>\nComing off the back of a 21-goal campaign in Argentina’s Primera Division, hopes were initially high that the forward could come in and make a big impact \u2026 but they weren’t high for very long.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/span><\/p>\nHe had to wait until January to start his first match, and was shunted down the pecking order a few days later when Everton signed Nikita Jelavic. He ended the season with one goal in 20 league appearances, and although Toffees fans appreciated his hard work, very few called for his loan move to be made permanent, to no one’s surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span> (Image: 2012 Getty Images)<\/span>9<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nFulham – Konstantinos Mitroglou<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nFulham pinned their hopes of Premier League survival on Konstantinos Mitroglou when they signed him for a club-record £14m on deadline day in January 2014.<\/p>\n
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The Greek striker had netted, on average, 19 goals a season over the previous four years, but his form, and admittedly his fitness, totally dried up once he arrived at Craven Cottage.<\/span><\/p>\n—<\/span><\/p>\nHe played just three times for the club and failed to score a single goal as Fulham were relegated. He was loaned back to his native Greece that summer and was sold to Benfica in 2015, where, annoyingly for Fulham fans, he would go on to score 52 goals in two seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span> (Image: Getty Images)<\/span>10<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nShare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/li>\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/path><\/svg>Comments<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\nLiverpool – Andy Carroll<\/h3>\n<\/p>\nLiverpool didn’t want to lose Fernando Torres when Chelsea came sniffing around in January 2011, so when the player forced the move through late in the window they needed to find a replacement, fast.<\/p>\n
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Andy Carroll had been on fire for Newcastle at the time, but only for a matter of months, and his inexperience really ought to have prevented the Reds from splashing £35m on him on deadline day.<\/p>\n
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The big man scored just six league goals in two years before being loaned, and eventually sold, to West Ham. Luckily for Liverpool, their other deadline day signing, Luis Suarez, picked up the slack.<\/p>\n
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