Worst transfer windows in our history

[dmayne7]

1 minute ago, foxile5 said:

Hmmm.

 

I'd need to sit down and consider this but I really don't want to.

Fun times 

[Dan]

Summer 2024 window I think is the worst transfer window a club has had basically ever.

[The Year Of The Fox]

We’ve not made a decent signing since Tielemans/Maddison sort of era

[Heathrow fox]

4 hours ago, foxile5 said:

This is just emotional self-harm.

 

But in the spirit of misery:

 

The transfer window after we won the Premier League has to be probably the most catastrophic. 

 

We bought in:

 

Islam Slimani

Ahmed Musa

Nampalys Mendy

Bartosz Kaputska

Ron Robert Zieler

Luis Hernandez

 

Out of all of them we can count Slimani as a semi-success (his goals were valuable in the Champions League and if we played entirely to his strengths he might have been okay) and Nampalys Mendy whom, after fracturing his ankle, did go on to play a good number of games.

 

£92ish Million on that lot.

 

Criminal.

Silva was linked as one half of a €50 M double deal with Slimani a day or two before Slim signed.Surprise surprise he turned up 12 months and 14 seconds later.

[Heathrow fox]

5 hours ago, Pliskin said:

The one after winning the PL. scandalously wasted a best opportunity we ever had to strengthen beyond our wildest dreams. Instead signed Ahmed ****ing Musa.

Who had been heavily linked and I presume extensively scouted for months.

The obvious target that window was someone like Mane.Mane goes to a crap Liverpool side over champions Leicester every single time.Klopp or no Klopp.

So being unable to buy the PLs top talent we are forced to gamble and buy from abroad.

I imagine that window was a scenario the club really hadn’t expected 

[SpacedX]

10 hours ago, bovril said:

Can't remember if they had 'windows' back then or the old transfer deadline day but summer 2000 takes some beating. Rowett, Davidson, Benjamin, Akinbiyi, Cresswell, then later that season Jones, Lewis and Marshall. Not long after we lost Heskey and around the time we lost Lennon. 

Without doubt, it's this. 

 

Although amongst the worst business we've done as the club was with Coventry City, inexplicably exchanging Jim Melrose for Tommy English. 

[SK3Blue]

Going back to 94/95 I think we had a bad window, only Mark Draper worked out and he stayed 12 months. 
 

Worst has to be Cooper, Skipp is the biggest waste of cash in recent memory. 

Edited 23 August by SK3Blue

[tylesta]

12 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

Nothing beats summer 2022.  Replacing Schmeichel with nobody, ready for Ward to replace him. The only incoming being Faes. Has cost us hundreds of millions. 

I still remember after ward saving a few penalties alot on here wanted him to replace kasper as number 1

[CornwallFox]

The two winter transfer windows when we were in champions League positions and just needed a proper right winger to finish the team. Not buying one to place Perez stopped our peak being inside the champions League.

[Stadt]

24/25!

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

2 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

The two winter transfer windows when we were in champions League positions and just needed a proper right winger to finish the team. Not buying one to place Perez stopped our peak being inside the champions League.

 

In 19/20 I don't think we even needed that — we were pretty light at centre half and had really encouraging and strong links to Tapsoba (who that window went to Germany and has since gone on to play the best part of 300 games for Leverkusen), instead we signed Ryan Bennett on loan. 

 

[Muzzy_no7]

Pooper window 

[jim5000]

All of Steve Cooper’s signings. They’ve set us back a decade

[jim5000]

That January window with RVN when we only brought that nobody right-back who never played a single match and then left 

[Dames]

5 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

In 19/20 I don't think we even needed that — we were pretty light at centre half and had really encouraging and strong links to Tapsoba (who that window went to Germany and has since gone on to play the best part of 300 games for Leverkusen), instead we signed Ryan Bennett on loan. 

 

Funny how things work out. The club wanted to avoid overpaying and running into financial trouble but if they had just took the risk and put their hands in their pockets the difficulties we’ve had in recent years likely wouldnt have happened. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 22/08/2026 at 22:03, foxile5 said:

This is just emotional self-harm.

 

But in the spirit of misery:

 

The transfer window after we won the Premier League has to be probably the most catastrophic. 

 

We bought in:

 

Islam Slimani

Ahmed Musa

Nampalys Mendy

Bartosz Kaputska

Ron Robert Zieler

Luis Hernandez

 

Out of all of them we can count Slimani as a semi-success (his goals were valuable in the Champions League and if we played entirely to his strengths he might have been okay) and Nampalys Mendy whom, after fracturing his ankle, did go on to play a good number of games.

 

£92ish Million on that lot.

 

Criminal.

There's always been a lot of hate for Slimani, but we absolutely misused him. He'd have been a beast right now

 

[King Claudio]

On 22/08/2026 at 21:46, bovril said:

Can't remember if they had 'windows' back then or the old transfer deadline day but summer 2000 takes some beating. Rowett, Davidson, Benjamin, Akinbiyi, Cresswell, then later that season Jones, Lewis and Marshall. Not long after we lost Heskey and around the time we lost Lennon. 

cant argue with this

 

Also dishonourable mention to the one that brought us Soumare, daka and bertrand

Edited 24 August by King Claudio

[surrifox]

Paying a fortune in loan fees for Edouard not playing him then Palace refusing to take him back 

[Lillehamring]

On 22/08/2026 at 22:43, Pliskin said:

The one after winning the PL. scandalously wasted a best opportunity we ever had to strengthen beyond our wildest dreams. Instead signed Ahmed ****ing Musa.

You mean the one where we were still bound by championship spending restrictions?

It was a great opportunity, yes, unfortunately the nature of the financial rules meant we hadn't the budget to take advantage.  Newly/recently promoted teams back then didn't spend like forest and ipswich and sunderland have done in recent years.  For their sins, our owners did actually stick to spending limits at that time.

[Blue ROI]

On 22/08/2026 at 22:03, foxile5 said:

This is just emotional self-harm.

 

But in the spirit of misery:

 

The transfer window after we won the Premier League has to be probably the most catastrophic. 

 

We bought in:

 

Islam Slimani

Ahmed Musa

Nampalys Mendy

Bartosz Kaputska

Ron Robert Zieler

Luis Hernandez

 

Out of all of them we can count Slimani as a semi-success (his goals were valuable in the Champions League and if we played entirely to his strengths he might have been okay) and Nampalys Mendy whom, after fracturing his ankle, did go on to play a good number of games.

 

£92ish Million on that lot.

 

Criminal.

Only Slimani of those got anywhere near the champions league quarter final game

hat season too. Says it all.

 

You could tell we were lost without the guidance of Pearson.

 

In defence of that summer at least we got back on track with NDidi and Maguire. Iheanacho eventually hit form too for a while so it turned out OK

 

5 years after the Bertrand, Vestegaard,Daka, Soumare fiasco we are still paying the price so I'd go with that 

[STEVIE B]

Summer of 2016. 

We'd just been crowned Champions, had a spot in The Champions League to look forward to.

Dreadful window given the context of where we were. 

[RumbleFox]

There might be worse actual windows in terms of objective quality but for “impact”

it has to be the window after O’Neill left and the the one after we won the league. Both of those were watershed moments. Huge “what ifs”. Fvck me we’ve fallen so far. 

[lookwhaticando]

On 22/08/2026 at 16:56, kingfox said:

You could pinpoint pretty much every transfer window since 21/22, and for me the summer window of 21/22 is the worst in my eyes.

 

Daka, Soumare, Vestergaard, Bertrand.

 

That was the start of our downfall.

This.
 

If the answer isn’t the Summer of 21, then I’m not sure I understood the question. 

[Winstonthedog]

On 22/08/2026 at 21:51, honeybradger said:

In recent times we've had

 

1. Vestergaard, Bertrand, Daka, Soumare

2. Wout faes

3.kristiansen, Souttar, tete

4. Skipp, Okoli, Ayew, BDCR

 

These windows truly f'd us.

 

Not a fan of the window we've just had so far either. As of yet none of the new signings have really improved us and in the case of Cullen has made us weaker by him taking the place of Page.

Bertrand .... now that's a footballer.... still have the DVD of his best moments in a city shirt

[lcfc_forever]

I'd say January 2023 was our worst window. 

 

Things were still salvageable, but wildly, instead of going for a goalkeeper, we focused on trying to spend over £20m on Harrison because Rodgers thought we needed another creative player! Yep, Ward had a decent run before the international break but was woeful again after the league resumed. 

 

Not only that, all 3 signings we made - Tete, Kristiansen and Souttar - were failures. The fact we had such high wages, and were expecting a European spot started the spiral. Bournemouth had similar challenges and they signed Zabarnyi, Dango, Vina and Semenyo, while Forest went all in to get Navas from Real Madrid - both sides finished above us. 

 

I'd say Summer 2024 was our 2nd worst, we're still paying the price now but at least we got Bilal who was decent signing, albeit not particularly loyal! 

 

And then the Summer 2016, when we spunked the opportunity to build on our PL winning season, and wouldn't get to competing at the top for another 3 years. 

 

Summer 2022 was pretty bad too - all the signings failed - which meant we failed to get European football, and screwed us when it came to PSR, leading to a lack of activity in Summer 2023, and an alienated Rodgers. Actually, think that's worse than Summer 2016 as at least we recovered from it within a few years. 

So overall:

1. January 2023

2. Summer 2024

3. Summer 2022

4. Summer 2016

 

Edited 24 August by lcfc_forever