Every Premier League club's worst panic buys - including record signing who never scored
Whether sparked by a badly-timed injury or a poor run of form, every single Premier League club is susceptible to a panicky transfer whopper. And we have the proof...
In football, there's very little worse than a ham-fisted panic buy.
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.
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.
That said, allow Daily Star Sport 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 …
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Arsenal - Kim Kallstrom
Arsenal 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.
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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.
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He 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.
(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)1 of 20Aston Villa - Bosko Balaban
Bosko Balaban was an absolute disaster for Aston Villa.
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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.
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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!
(Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)2 of 20Bournemouth - Jordon Ibe
Bournemouth'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'.
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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.
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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.
(Image: John Walton/PA Wire)3 of 20Brentford - Nick Proschwitz
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There was plenty of expectation on the shoulders of Nick Proschwitz when he arrived at newly-promoted Championship side Brentford in 2014.
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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.
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But it didn't work, and Proschwitz bagged just two goals in 20 games before being sent back to his homeland a year later.
(Image: Hounslow Chronicle)4 of 20
