The Premier League's worst January deadline day signings of recent years - Carroll, Torres, Hugill…

Cameron Loftus
31 January 2022

With fans demanding signings and clubs battling it out at the top and the bottom, the winter window often comes to a frenetic conclusion, sometimes with disastrous results.

Fernando Torres? Andy Carroll? Christopher Samba? There have been some awful last-minute signings in the Premier League in years gone by, and a whole lot of money that's gone down the drain.

We look at some of the craziest and most unsuccessful transfers that have taken place on the last day of the winter window.

Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres

The winter transfer window of 2011 had arguably the best deadline day of all. Throw in Luis Suarez moving from Ajax to Liverpool on the same day as these two calamitous moves, add in a bit of Robbie Williams (Stockport to Rochdale) and you've got everything you need barring Peter Odemwingie in a car park.

Suarez was the unknown quantity of the four transfers, having never played in England, but it was his transfer that proved to be the most successful by some considerable distance.

Liverpool rejected a transfer request from Torres on January 28, but three days later he was sold to Chelsea and with Suarez not guaranteed to fire straight away, the Reds also captured a man who had scored 11 goals in the first half of the season in the shape of targetman Andy Carroll.

Spain's Euro and World Cup winner Torres proved a massive flop at Stamford Bridge and is best remembered for missing an open goal against Manchester United, having rounded David de Gea.

Carroll was captured for £35million from his boyhood club Newcastle United - a British transfer record - but only played 44 times in the league for Liverpool, scoring six times.

He was sold to West Ham for less than half the fee Liverpool paid and has since struggled with injuries, most recently turning up at Championship side West Brom on a short-term contract.

Christopher Samba

The most astonishing part of this transfer was the wages that QPR were reportedly paying Samba - £100,000 a week. A pay cut, apparently.

An influx of riches at Loftus Road prompted Rangers to break their transfer record, splurging £12.5million on the former Blackburn defender who was at Russian club Anzhi.

"This is an unbelievable signing," said manager Harry Redknapp.

Unbelievably bad as it turned out. The Congolese centre-back lasted just half a season in London before returning to Anzhi.

Samba played just ten games for Rangers of which they won two and kept one clean sheet. Struggling on the pitch, he didn't endear himself to the fans off it either, tweeting after a poor performance against Fulham: "Fed up with the money Tweets, get over it."

Kostas Mitroglou

The Greek striker traded a last-16 tie in the Champions League with Olympiacos for a relegation scrap with Fulham. It was the wrong decision.

The Cottagers broke their transfer record to bring in Mitroglou, splashing out £11million in 2014. He arrived with decent pedigree having scored 14 goals in 14 league games in the first half of the Greek Super League season.

He made no impact whatsoever at Craven Cottage, however, making a grand total of three appearances before being loaned back to whence he came.

Juan Cuadrado

Currently the Juventus right-back, Cuadrado joined Chelsea in 2015 as a winger from Fiorentina for over £26million.

Things didn't go to plan for Cuadrado though, with the Blues shipping him out to Juventus after just four appearances for the Premier league club.

A slight figure whose game was based on pace, Chelsea clearly didn't think Cuadrado's game was up to the rigours of the Premier League.

Cuadrado eventually made his move to Juventus permanent and has gone on to make 181 league appearances for the Italian giants, proving he is at least up to the demands of Serie A.

Benni McCarthy

Gianfranco Zola could spot a pass, but January 2010 proved he couldn't spot a striker.

Determined to take the goalscoring burden off Carlton Cole at West Ham, he brought in Egyptian Mido, Brazilian Ilan and South African Benni McCarthy to swell their attacking ranks to nine.

His three strikers brought in just four goals in the remainder of the season, with Ilan scoring all four and he was gone by the August. Mido's nine-game contribution failed to result in a goal but at least he was only on loan.

McCarthy, meanwhile, arrived for £2.4million having made a huge impact at Blackburn, where he scored 52 times. He departed West Ham just 14 months into his two-and-a-half year contract having failed to net in 13 appearances.

Jordan Hugill

The Hammers managed to do it again in 2018. Another striker, another flop.

Signed from Championship side Preston for a reported £10million, Hugill must have felt like he had won the lottery. He now had the pleasure of playing each week at the London Stadium in the Premier League.

Or so he thought. The striker amassed three appearances for West Ham totalling 22 minutes across more than half a season.

Loans back to the Championship with Middlesbrough, QPR and Norwich followed, with the Irons eventually recouping £3million for the striker when selling him to the Canaries in 2020.

Jordan hugill waiting to play for West ham pic.twitter.com/6QCjDshsop
— Gurdz (@Gurdz2012) July 27, 2019

Badou N'Diaye

Stoke City signed midfielder N'Diaye for £13.9million in January 2018 from Turkish outfit Galatasaray.

He became the club's third most expensive signing of all time but was unable to prevent the Potters bowing out of the Premier League at the end of the season.

N'Diaye played 13 times for the Potters in the top flight, scoring two goals but was unable to even cement a place in the Championship side, often being left out of the matchday squad by manager Michael O'Neill.

Loan moves to Galatasaray, Trabzonspor, Karagumruk and Al-Ain followed before Stoke finally got shot of him in the summer of 2021.