Our worst transfers ever?

Emilson Cribari summed up our shambolic transfer strategy in the third division.

‘Experienced’ Brazilian centre-back looking completely lost against part-timers. Torn to shreds at Tannadice. I’d hate to know what we were paying him.

Completely unnecessary. Was never going to work.
Never understood why he was so bad great player for Empoli and Lazio , champions league player but he was just terrible.
 
The Flo shouts are laughable, honestly.

Yes he wasn't a great signing and everyone clings to the £12m price. But then those same people conveniently forget we sold him for £7.5m so the total outlay in transfer fees was only £4.5m.

Now, had we only bought him for £4.5m initially, I seriously doubt anyone would be saying he was our worst ever signing. A Norwegian international who scored 38 goals in 70 games for £4.5m? Aye what a shocker.
 
Pena and Herrera for a combined £5m plus wages at a time we didn't have the finances to challenge was virtually criminal.
Konterman for nearly £5m plus wages to make the team 10x worse than it was will anger me forever.

But if we go back a lot further, what about the huge money we spent in the early 80s on players who gradually made us the 4th and 5th best team in Scotland with the biggest outlay?
Gregor Stevens, Ian Redford, Craig Paterson, Iain Ferguson, Cammy Fraser, Sandy Clark, etc all cost massive money for the time, and all were abysmal value for where they took us. And were all sold for a fraction of what we paid.
To add to your list - Colin McAdam and Jim Stewart. Both came for fees of over £100k (at a time when we only spent that amount of 2 or 3 times previously), contributed not very much and departed on frees
 
I'm bored so anyway lol just been sitting here thinking about our worst transfers ever? Who you got? Now mine will only be since I've been a Rangers fan so quite sure ya'll might offer different choices. From my perspective since I've been a fan these are my top three in no particular order:

Joey Barton-I thought at the time he still had something in the tank and could be quite good here. Yes, was a prick then as he has always been but I could overlook that. However, as well all know he was a total bust in more ways than one.

James Beattie-Past his best when we got him and it showed.

Carlos Pena-Horrific, simple enough.
When he was totally bossed by lego muncher in that 5-1 disaster it truly showed him up for the fake f@nny, plastic hard man and fraud he was, never ever fit to wear our shirt.
 
The Flo shouts are laughable, honestly.

Yes he wasn't a great signing and everyone clings to the £12m price. But then those same people conveniently forget we sold him for £7.5m so the total outlay in transfer fees was only £4.5m.

Now, had we only bought him for £4.5m initially, I seriously doubt anyone would be saying he was our worst ever signing. A Norwegian international who scored 38 goals in 70 games for £4.5m? Aye what a shocker.

It's more the fact he was symbolic of the Murray era excess and we had no real idea what to do with him. £12M for a big flat track bully who wasn't even trusted to get on the pitch against Celtic in his final months. Rubbish.
 
Ramsey has to be up there. Given the expectations that he was here to secure the title and the reputation he came with the return was nothing short of shocking.

13 appearances totalling 632 minutes means his appearances averaged 45 mins per game.

2 goals and 2 assists gives him a goal contribution every 158 minutes, worse than the much maligned Sakala who had a goal contribution every 115 mins.

Then to top it off missing the crucial penalty in Seville.
 
Ramsey has to be up there. Given the expectations that he was here to secure the title and the reputation he came with the return was nothing short of shocking.

13 appearances totalling 632 minutes means his appearances averaged 45 mins per game.

2 goals and 2 assists gives him a goal contribution every 158 minutes, worse than the much maligned Sakala who had a goal contribution every 115 mins.

Then to top it off missing the crucial penalty in Seville.
Sakala is a striker

I think anyone suggesting a loan signing who made a small contribution but ultimately didn’t work out is our worst signing is mental, and their judgement is being clouded by a recent penalty miss.
 
Sakala is a striker

I think anyone suggesting a loan signing who made a small contribution but ultimately didn’t work out is our worst signing is mental, and their judgement is being clouded by a recent penalty miss.

Ramsey is an attacking midfielder and Sakala often played on the wing, quite comparable in that I would expect both to be contributing in attacking areas.

Its not as if Ramsey was contributing much going back the way?

Obviously he isnt anywhere near out worst player ever, but in terms of expectation vs reality he deserves to be part of the dicussion for worst signing ever in my opinion. Possibly harsh but its the same reason Flo appears in these threads.
 
Ramsey is an attacking midfielder and Sakala often played on the wing, quite comparable in that I would expect both to be contributing in attacking areas.

Its not as if Ramsey was contributing much going back the way?

Obviously he isnt anywhere near out worst player ever, but in terms of expectation vs reality he deserves to be part of the dicussion for worst signing ever in my opinion. Possibly harsh but its the same reason Flo appears in these threads.
Ramsey is literally only being mentioned in this thread because of a penalty miss.
 
I always find Black to be the lazy go-to answers in threads like this. He’s a player who should never have played for us but there was always a lot worse in the sides he played for.

He always gets called every name under the sun yet, (I might be wrong here) he’s never been one to publicly tear into the club/fans like others have.
 
Ian Black (still to this day can't believe he pulled on our shirt)

Barton (badly wanted him to be a success)

Eduardo Herrera. I'll qualify this one by saying he was a very good pro who respected the club and fans but, my God he was awful. I remember watching him warm up before the 5-5 game at Easter Road. He couldn't even kick the ball properly.
Herrera is the only player I can remember us signing who had a YouTube compilation showing how bad he was rather than how good.
 
Fashion Sakala, wouldn’t even get a game for livi
Aye, I'm sure Livi has had barrel loads of players who hit double figure goals over the years....actually, in the last 20 years of Livi being in the top flight they've had a player hit double figures twice. Bruce Anderson this season and Derek Lilley in 03/04.
 
Ramsey, Barton, Bertie Bombscare, Sebo and Prodan to name but a few. Surprised no-one's mentioned a Goalie so I'll pitch in Ally Maxwell. Cost us back to back trebles so he's Doomed for eternity in my book.
 
Not even sure how that makes sense! He wasn’t value for money, but with a very respectable goal return he was never a disaster either.

Also I'm sure we got decent enough money when he moved on so I tend to give Flo a pass on these threads
 
Even without the penalty miss you could say Aaron Ramsey but for me though it’s Joey Barton.

He talked too big a game to be getting nutmugged and dribbled past and tackled off the ball as consistently at he did. Some of the challenges were OTT but with his reputation they were always going to come
 
Nnamdi Ofoborh has got to be up there if Prodan is
One cost 4ook and is a youth player who has been here a year on about 4k a week.

The other cost 4 million 20 years ago, on 20k a week and took 4 years wage out the club.

10 times the money and you could be talking 25 times relative to inflation over that time.
 
Ramsey, penalty miss aside, the fact he was never available for us when we really needed him but able to play for Wales just cements him as the worst signing in recent times.

And yes, when you sign a player with his pedigree and experience, you expect him to to step up in a Euro final and score from 12 yards.
 
Letizi, Bernard, Senderos, Svensson, Fanfan, Cribari, Argyriou, Ostestadt, Sandaza, Ramsey, Herrera.
Certainly been a few “unsuccessful“ additions to say the least.
 
Guivarch has to be up there for me. Definitely challenges for one of the most disappointing signings we’ve had.
 
Not even sure how that makes sense! He wasn’t value for money, but with a very respectable goal return he was never a disaster either.
Didn't score too many important / match winning goals from memory. Often scored a couple in 4 or 5 goal victories. Agree he wasn't a disaster, but he's not someone you look back on and marvel at his match winning performances either, so for the money paid I think he was a disappointment.
 
One cost 4ook and is a youth player who has been here a year on about 4k a week.

The other cost 4 million 20 years ago, on 20k a week and took 4 years wage out the club.

10 times the money and you could be talking 25 times relative to inflation over that time.
Still not a good signing by any stretch of the imagination, something lacking in the medical procedures especially since we got lucky with big Goldsons heart issue.
 
Michael Ball.

Cost over £6.5m, barely kicked a ball for us then we let him go for nothing.

Think he remains the biggest single loss we’ve ever made on a player.

More recently, Carlos Peña.

£2.7m at a time when we were still struggling to make ends meet after the ravages of liquidation and the litany of charlatans and crooks with their snouts in the trough was just insane, especially so when the warning signs were so glaring.
 
Michael Ball.

Cost over £6.5m, barely kicked a ball for us then we let him go for nothing.

Think he remains the biggest single loss we’ve ever made on a player.

More recently, Carlos Peña.

£2.7m at a time when we were still struggling to make ends meet after the ravages of liquidation and the litany of charlatans and crooks with their snouts in the trough was just insane, especially so when the warning signs were so glaring.

Both would be top 5, maybe even top 3, for me. In Ball's case we didn't even need him.

Pena was just a complete shambles on every level.
 
It's more the fact he was symbolic of the Murray era excess and we had no real idea what to do with him. £12M for a big flat track bully who wasn't even trusted to get on the pitch against Celtic in his final months. Rubbish.

Michael Ball was really the peak of the Murray/Advocaat madness, when you have one of the best LB's in the world in Arthur Numan what you don't need or do is splurge £6.5 on another overpriced LB with a dubious injury record and isn't remotely in the same class as Numan.
 
Michael Ball.

Cost over £6.5m, barely kicked a ball for us then we let him go for nothing.

Think he remains the biggest single loss we’ve ever made on a player.

More recently, Carlos Peña.

£2.7m at a time when we were still struggling to make ends meet after the ravages of liquidation and the litany of charlatans and crooks with their snouts in the trough was just insane, especially so when the warning signs were so glaring.
Wouldn’t say Ball hardly played.
76 times in 4 seasons and injured for one of the seasons.
 
The most disappointing signings for the money paid during my time are

Salenko
Prodan
Hendry
Flo
Garner
Pena
Grezda

I know they were free transfers, but I wonder the amount of money that was given to the likes of

Capucho
Emerson
Vanoli
Berg
Kyle
Sandaza
Cribari
Bell
Alves
Krancjar
 
Back
Top