With the January transfer window open for business, Premier League sides will be hoping to bring in new faces to give them a boost in the second half of the campaign.
The summer market seems a long time ago but some serious cash was spent by top-flight sides at the time. It would appear, with the season half gone, a fair portion of that outlay was wasted.
Here are some of the signings that could still be giving the club accountants sleepless nights…
Idrissa Gueye
It’s unfair to single out one person to take the flak for the mess Aston Villa seem to be in but Tim Sherwood and his scouts surely need to absorb a fair portion of the blame after their disastrous summer recruitment.
The Christian Benteke millions were squandered on a host of new faces, most of them form France’s Ligue 1 and most of them seemingly called Jordan.
£9 million for Idrissa Gueye though, stands out as particularly poor business. The Senegalese has been a virtual ever-present for the midlands outfit this term but has struggled to get to grips with Premier League opponents as Villa’s midfield has been regularly and disastrously over run.
There is no doubting the holding player’s endeavour, which was perhaps one of the reasons the club chose to purchase him from Lille, where he looked a far more accomplished anchor man.
The 26-year-old may yet make a career for himself in England but at the moment his sizeable transfer fee looks to be wasted resources.
Radamel Falcao
Unfortunately for Falcao, circumstances mean he could well have made this list two years running.
The 29-year-old first arrived into the Premier League at Old Trafford bringing one of the most formidable goal scoring records on the continent with him.
A disappointing loan spell in Manchester did not dissuade Jose Mourinho from arranging a similar deal with his parent club AS Monaco.
The Colombian now however seemingly travels with nothing more than extremely hefty wage demands.
The forward has featured on only a handful of occasions and scored only one goal for Chelsea.
Currently he is struggling with a thigh injury and with the champions eager to cut him from their payroll, the loan deal could end early this month.
There is no doubting the quality of the man but does he have the desire to have one last crack at the Premier League under Guus Hiddink? With Diego Costa finding form again his chances look increasingly bleak.
Eder
Swansea have showed some encouraging signs of revival of late but there is no doubting that their lack of a consistent goal scorer in the post-Wilfried Bony era has badly hurt their league position.
What then was the club thinking when they chose to spend over £5 million of the funds from the Ivorian’s sale, on Ederzito Antonio Macedo Lopes?
Eder was a summer recruit from Braga but the big man, in the kindest way possible, is the Portuguese answer to Emile Heskey.
Just one international goal in 21 caps for his country speaks for itself.
In club football the forward’s record is somewhat better but a games to goal ratio of four to one in the Portuguese League should hardly have convinced the South Wales outfit that the 28-year-old had the required talents for the Premier League.
Eder has yet to find the net for the Swans and has largely been used as a substitute for the more convincing but by no means consistent Bafetimbi Gomis.
At 6 ft 3, the former Braga man has the physique to worry defenders and bring his team-mates into play but goals win games and so far Eder has none.
