5 of the worst transfer campaigns in the Premier League era

#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.