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Transfer deadline day is one of the most anticipated days of the football calendar. Fans get excited, managers and chairmen run around frantic trying to do last minute transfer business to try and strengthen their teams for the remaining months of the season.
While there have been some amazing deadline day signings over the years, not all deals have worked out for the players and their new teams.
Here are five of the worst transfer deadline day deals in Premier League history.
1. Andy van der Meyde - Inter Milan to Everton, 2005
Manager David Moyes had just guided his Everton side to a top-four finish in the Premier League and he wanted to strengthen his squad for Champions League football the following season.
Andy van der Meyde found himself out of the team more than in it at Inter Milan, spending a lot of his time on the bench at the San Siro and in his two seasons with the Nerazzurri, he made only 32 appearances in Serie A.
Deadline day saw the Dutch and Inter winger move to Merseyside in a £2 million deal, after failing to impress with the Italian champions.
The signing of Van der Meyde raised eyebrows but it was seen as a shrewd piece of business and it was hoped at the club that the Dutchman would bring an extra spark to Everton’s midfield as they competed in European football.
He became one of the highest-paid players at Everton at the time. Minutes on the pitch became increasingly limited through injury and alcoholism badly effected the Dutchman's career. A red card against fierce local rivals Liverpool was his lowest point and he made just 24 appearances in all competitions.
In January 2013 the Dutch midfielder explained to BBC Radio 5 Live his reasons for turning to alcohol: “I didn’t go out until my second year in Italy when I knew I wasn’t going to play anymore. For me, it was like a getaway so I went out and drank and I wasn’t thinking about football. I was depressed, I wasn’t playing anymore. I was also checking the odds and betting frequently.”
2. Afonso Alves - Heerenveen to Middlesbrough, 2008
Afonso Alves' biggest moment in his football career probably came when he scored a last-minute header against England in 2006 and within a year of making his move to English side Middlesbrough who had been promoted to the Premier League.
The English side had lost both Mark Viduka and Yakubu in the same transfer window so they badly needed to replace those goals while trying to avoid relegation from the England's top flight league.
On deadline day in 2008, in a desperate search for goals, they secured the signing of the Brazil international from Dutch side Heerenveen for €20 million, on a four-and-a-half year contract.
Alves had a decent time in the Eredivisie as he found himself on the score sheet 45 times in just 39 league games before his move to the Riverside Stadium.
However, the forward struggled to adapt to the English style of football. His first two goals for Middlesbrough came at the Riverside Stadium on the 6th April against Manchester United in a 2–2 FA Cup draw. He finished his first season in England with a hat-trick in an 8–1 home victory against Manchester City.
Alves could not find the form which led to his record move. In his first season he managed just 7 goals in 33 games. 14 games and 6 league goals in his second season turned out to be an even bigger disappointment and lead to the Teesiders being relegated from the Premier League back down into the Championship.
July 2009, along with team mate Mido, the Brazilian went AWOL and missed pre-season training ending his dismal spell at the Riverside with Middlesbrough selling him to Qatari side Al-Sadd of Qatar for a fee of £6m.
3. Paul Konchesky - Fulham to Liverpool, 2010
Roy Hodgson arrived at Anfield in 2010 during a period of discontent at the club due to the ownership of American business men Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
With a limited transfer budget, Liverpool manager Hodgson signed the then 29 year old full-back Paul Konchesky from his previous club Fulham for just £5m on a four-year contract. Liverpool players Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic joined the Cottagers as part of the deal.
The English international left-back was always a very solid performer at Fulham, but he never impressed at Merseyside. He was never really wanted by a vast majority of Liverpool fans and he became the target of some serious criticism from the stands. This lead to his mother Carol branding the club’s fans “scouse scum” in a rant on Facebook after they criticised his playing displays.
After a failed tenure as manager, Roy Hodgson left the club which saw the return of Legend Kenny Dalglish until the end of the season. This lead to Konchesky falling out of favour and he was deemed surplus to requirements at Anfield.
In his only season at Anfield, he appeared in a shocking 18 games and the former England player was sent on loan to Championship club Nottingham Forest, and later joined Leicester City for an undisclosed fee on the 13th July 2011.
4. Andy Carroll - Newcastle to Liverpool, 2011
Liverpool were scouring the market looking to sign an attacking reinforcement to pair up with Spanish striker Fernando Torres and they decided to go for Newcastle United attacker Andy Carroll.
The tall forward had helped the Tyneside club gain promotion the season before and seemed to adapt to the Premier League scoring 11 goals in the first half of the league campaign.
His goal scoring form encouraged Liverpool to pay a then club-record 35 million pound to bring him to Anfield on a five-and-a-half-year-deal, though after the big-money move he failed to make an impact.
Injuries didn't help his time at Merseyside and after just scoring 11 goals in 58 games, the England striker left the club with Liverpool selling him to West Ham United for less than half the price they paid for him.
Carroll later returned to the St. James’ Park side in 2019.
Bizarrely in an interview with the Daily Mail back in December, the former English international revealed that he never wanted to leave in his boyhood club Newcastle to join Liverpool and hoped he would fail the medical.
5. Fernando Torres - Liverpool to Chelsea, 2011
At the age of 25, Spain′s Fernando Torres had already established himself as one of the greats to wear the number 9 shirt during his three and a half year stay at Liverpool.
In a surprise move to everyone, 'El Nino' completed a move to Chelsea on a five-and-a-half-year contract on 31 January 2011. His transfer saw Chelsea break the British transfer record, paying Liverpool £50m and it made him the sixth most expensive footballer in history. Torres caused outrage among the Liverpool faithful when he handed in a transfer request to leave the Reds.
The Spanish forward had a prolific time at Anfield where he managed to score 65 goals in 102 league appearances. The attacker did struggle towards the end of his time at Merseyside, but his downturn in form would only worsen at Stamford Bridge.
Torres scored his first goal for Chelsea against West Ham United in a 3–0 victory, which ended a run of 903 minutes of football without a goal and he never scored double figures in the league in any of the three seasons he spent in London.
The forward was a shadow of the player he was during his earlier playing days and in his first season at Stamford Bridge, he managed only 18 games scoring one goal. 2012-13 turned out to be his best season when he managed to score 22 in his 64 games
After 172 appearances and 45 goals, his four-year stay at Chelsea came to an end after joining Italian Serie club AC Milan on a two-year loan on 31 August 2014.
On 27 December 2014, it was announced that Torres' move to Milan would be made permanent during the winter transfer window in January 2015, but two days later, he agreed to rejoin La Liga club Atlético Madrid on loan until the end of the 2015–16 season. July 2016, Torres re-joined Atlético permanently on a one-year contract.
