It’s the January transfer window, and clubs will be scouring the market for big names or bargains to turn their seasons around.
We do sometimes see some truly superb purchases made in the middle of the season, with Luis Suarez, Virgil van Dijk and Bruno Fernandes perhaps the best examples of these.
However, we’ve also seen some horrific flops at this time of year, and we’ve put together ten of the worst of the Premier League era for you in our list below.
In no particular order, here are our 10 worst January transfer window signings ever…
Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal to Manchester United)
A deal that attracted so much hype…an unveiling video with a piano…the Alexis Sanchez transfer saga of 2018 was something special to behold.
It looked like Man Utd had pulled off the ultimate power move by signing yet another star player from their rivals Arsenal, whilst also notably beating Manchester City to Sanchez with their unexpected late bid.
Unfortunately, the Chile international bizarrely flopped at Old Trafford and it later emerged (via Sky Sports and others) that he wanted to quit the Red Devils after just his first training session with the club.
An absolute disaster for United, but don’t scoff too much Arsenal fans, it didn’t work out too well for you either…
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United to Arsenal)
Heading to the Emirates Stadium as part of the Sanchez deal was Man Utd flop Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who initially looked like he could be a much better fit for the Gunners.
The Armenia international joined at the same time as former Borussia Dortmund team-mate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and they briefly showed signs of working well together in the Arsenal attack, but only briefly.
Mkhitaryan will not go down as a good buy for Arsenal, and it didn’t take long for him to fall out of favour and leave for Roma.
Andy Carroll (Newcastle to Liverpool)
What were Liverpool thinking? It doesn’t seem like much money these days, but the Reds forked out £35million to sign Andy Carroll from Newcastle (fee via BBC Sport), and it was a total failure.
The gangly striker looked like a top young talent at Newcastle, but this big transfer came much too soon for him and he looked totally out of place at Anfield almost straight away.
In the same transfer window, Liverpool also signed Suarez from Ajax, and we’d love to meet the scouting team that somehow got it so right and so wrong in the same month.
Fernando Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea)
At least Liverpool fans can afford to laugh at the fact that Carroll was brought in with a bit of help from the frankly ludicrous money Chelsea paid for Fernando Torres.
The Spaniard had been a world class performer for Liverpool, but seemed to instantly lose it when he made the move to Stamford Bridge, becoming one of the club’s worst signings at a staggering £50million (fee via BBC Sport).