5 of the worst transfer campaigns in the Premier League era

Transfers - both outbound and incoming - usually play a huge role in determining how well a football club fares in a particular season. Weaknesses from the previous season are identified and a player/players suitable to iron out these weak links are purchased.

The importance of the summer transfer window (June to August) is impossible to overstate; do it right and a club can have an amazing season (a la Manchester City last season).

The winter transfer window is not as crucial for the big clubs. However, it tends to be the last-chance saloon for the smaller clubs, especially those battling relegation.

Jose Mourinho's recent comments already suggest that Manchester United fans can expect a difficult season ahead. Clubs that do poor business in the transfer market tend to pay the price as ambitions are derailed and the men in charge - managers and sporting directors - are often sacked.

Here is a look at 5 of the worst transfer campaigns (summer and winter) in the Premier League era:

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#5 Leicester City (2016-17)

Slimani's signing was one of many failures

After the modern day miracle that was the title-winning 2015/2016 campaign, expectations surrounding Claudio Ranieri's team were raised.

With the TV money and the backing of the Thai owners, it was expected that the Foxes would spend a bit of money to strengthen the side for both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League campaigns.

Money was spent, but it just wasn't spent well. A total of £82.44m was spent on players. Nampalys Mendy (£10m) came in from OGC Nice to replace the Chelsea-bound N'Golo Kante. Strikers Ahmed Musa (£17m from CSKA) & Islam Slimani (£20m from Sporting CP) were purchased to add variation to the team's attack.

On paper, it looked sound enough but the team never got going. Manager Ranieri understood the need for the team to evolve.

However, a lot of the players who made up the title-winning side were unable to adapt to this new style. Given the team’s newfound status as champions, they became the target that everyone aimed for. The new players also flopped badly with none of them making any sort of positive impact.

An implosion in the league followed; the team finished in 13th place. Before then, Ranieri had been sacked. The run to the UCL quarterfinal was the only silver lining in what turned out to be one of the most unfortunate season for the Foxes.

#4 Liverpool (2014-15)

Balotelli's time at Anfield was very forgettable

How to replace the verve, drive and goals of Luis Suarez proved a question too difficult for Brendan Rogers to solve.

Following the barnstorming run in the league spearheaded by the SSS strike force (Suarez, Daniel Sturridge & Raheem Sterling), the Uruguayan made the move to Barcelona for £65m.

To replace him, Rodgers and the Liverpool transfer committee (a big fat joke) decided the likes of Ricky Lambert and Mario Balotelli were good enough to replace El Pistolero.

The Reds spent a total of £117m that season as alongside Balotelli and Lambert, the likes of Lazar Markovic, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren amongst others were brought in for fees north of £20m.

It proved to be a really poor decision as the new players added little to the squad as the Reds ultimately finished 6th in the league. The attack which had papered over the defensive cracks failed to fire.

While Markovic and Lallana were obviously not ready to step up that season, the midfield never looked overtly creative with an aging Steven Gerrard and the defence got progressively worse.

With Sturridge constantly injured and Steven Gerrard unable to inspire the team once again, the Reds came nowhere close to the title while failing miserably in the UCL (where they crashed out in the first round itself).

#3 Arsenal (2011-12)

Arteta's signing was one of the few successes Arsenal had that season

Nobody except Arsene Wenger can explain the madness that came over the Gunners in the transfer market that season. The entire summer was dominated by the “will he, wont-he” transfer speculation surrounding then captain Cesc Fabregas.

The Spaniard did eventually move back to hometown club FC Barcelona for £30m. French enfant terrible Samir Nasri also left for Manchester City that season in a £25m deal.

All through the summer, fans were understandably upset about the lack of movement in the transfer window. When the league kicked off on August, only right-back Carl Jenkinson (£1m from Charlton Athletic) and winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£12m from Southampton) had been signed.

True to form, Wenger refused to panic and insisted on his satisfaction with the quality of the squad he had. Arsenal drew against Newcastle and lost 0-2 to Liverpool at the Emirates in the first 2 games.

The 8-2 mauling at Old Trafford at the hands of a rampant Manchester United forced Wenger’s hand and he dashed to the market in an attempt to rescue the Gunners’ season. Gervinho, Park Chu-Yung, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos were brought in with predictably mixed results.

To show the utter stupidity of the “net spend” argument (the exclusive domain of Premier League fanboys on Twitter), Arsenal brought in about 11 players for £51.2m and sold players for £75m.

The Gunners went on to finish in 3rd place that season, one point above North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. However, at no point did the side look like title challengers.

#2 Chelsea (2017-18)

Morata was symptomatic of the nonsense Chelsea did last season

If a book were to be written on how not to conduct a transfer campaign after a title-winning season, Chelsea’s 2017-2018 campaign would be the cover.

The Blues had stormed to the Premier League title in the 2016-2017 season in Antonio Conte’s debut year at Stamford Bridge.

Helped by a solid transfer campaign (Marcos Alonso, David Luiz, and others) as well as a lack of European football, Conte’s army beat all comers hands down. This included the favoured Manchester clubs with their new managers: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) and Jose Mourinho (Manchester United).

Going into the 2017-2018 season, it was expected that the wallet would be opened and qualify reinforcements brought in. However, the summer window was dominated by a barrage of news about Conte’s unhappiness with the club’s alleged failure to get him his targets.

The pursuit of a striker to replace the goals of Diego Costa who had gone AWOL was the primary aim. Alvaro Morata was brought in for a club-record £70m fee in the summer (Olivier Giroud also came in January for £18m). Both players formed part of a £252.3m outlay which included others like Antonio Rudiger, Emerson Palmieri, Tiemoue Bakayoko among others.

These transfers were not to Conte’s liking. He took the opportunity to moan about his team’s quality in every chance he got.

The Blues never really got going in the league as they were never in the hunt for the title. The team finished a disappointing 5th and was thrown out of the UCL by Barcelona. The F.A Cup came a little too late and was not enough to save Conte’s job.

#1 Tottenham Hotspurs (2013-14)

Soldado was never going to be able to lift the team to the level Bale had

A dog’s breakfast of a campaign. This and other less palatable phrases could be used to describe Tottenham’s transfer splurge in the 2013-2014 season.

The season before in Andre Vilas-Boas’ debut season as manager, a Gareth Bale-inspired side had come mightily close to getting a top 4 spot. The desire to go one better was the battle cry among the club’s fans in the summer.

Then came the news that everyone at White Hart Lane had been dreading, Bale was moving to Real Madrid in a then-world record £85m move. This presented Spurs with the problem of filling the huge void he was leaving. However, they had also been giving the means to fix the team by the finances of the move.

Chairman Daniel Levy and then head of football matters, Franco Baldini oversaw the spending of the Bale windfall to AVB’s consternation.

Erik Lamela, Roberto Soldado, and Christian Eriksen were the standout purchases in the £109m splurge that followed. It proved to be a disaster of epic proportions. The manager was unable to tweak the side to get the best of these new players and some of the new players just weren’t good enough.

Soldado had one of the worst seasons of any top striker in the Premier League era. The Spaniard who had been scoring for fun in Spain with Valencia managed only six goals for the entire season (4 of which were penalties).

Of the transfers, only Eriksen did anything of note as the Lilywhites were terrible in the league: finishing 6th in the league and losing out of the Europa League in the 2nd round.