Tottenham Hotspur certainly have a chequered past in the transfer market, with much of the inconsistency since last tasting silverware owing to a repetitive cycle of misfires.
To this day, the club's record signing, Tanguy Ndombele, is arguably the worst in modern times, joining from Lyon with a weight of expectation but now floundering on loan with Galatasaray and having been branded "one of the worst signings Tottenham have made" by journalist Paul Brown, such was the calamity of the venture.
Gareth Bale's world-record £85m sale back in 2013 saw the notorious 'magnificent seven', for the most part, fail to live up to the hype, while the several seasons between Mauricio Pochettino's sacking and Ange Postecoglou's appointment have seen rotten luck on the transfer front.
Postecoglou's arrival last summer has seen the strategy streamlined, and improvements have been made. Harry Kane still hasn't been directly replaced since his sale to Bayern Munich however and Spurs must ensure they spend their money wisely when they do invest, avoiding a repeat of the signing that saw Roberto Soldado join the club.
How Roberto Soldado got on at Spurs
Soldado joined Tottenham from Valencia in a club record £26m transfer back in 2013, targetted to counter the departure of Bale and considered a positive move after harvesting 30 goals from 46 appearances in all competitions during the 2012/13 campaign.
He fell quite flat in London, however, with reporter Kevin Palmer calling him "useless" for his abject shooting efforts in the Europa League, hardly producing the kind of shiny displays needed in the Premier League either.
Premier League
52
7
6
Europa League
13
4
1
FA Cup
4
0
3
League Cup
5
2
1
Europa League Qualifying
2
3
0
Journalist Sam Tighe even went as far as to claim that the Spaniard was the "flop of the season" after joining Tottenham, so miserable was he in emulating the previous phenomenon of Bale.
While he flattered to deceive on English shores and was shipped back off to his homeland just two years after signing for Villarreal in a £7m transfer in August 2015, he at least enjoyed a small measure of goalscoring success with the Lilywhites.
He's not the worst to lead as the spearhead over the past decade or so, with that tag pinned to Vincent Janssen's signature.
Vincent Janssen was truly terrible
Janssen might just be the biggest disappointment of the Spurs era, completing a truly wretched spell in north London before fleeing to Mexico with Monterrey.
Spurs signed the Netherlands star in a £17m deal – approaching £20m – back in 2016 after he scored 32 goals from 49 games for AZ Alkmaar in 2015/16 – there's something of a theme, there.
Janssen endured a wretched time with Tottenham, scoring six times from 42 appearances before conclusions were made that he was not, in fact, up for the task at the front of the ship.
Reporter John Leverty even rebuked him for his "dreadful" spell at the club, with such views reinforced when, in 2017, Lille manager Marcelo Bielsa rejected the opportunity to sign the centre-forward, holding major reservations over Janssen's technical quality and decision-making in crucial moments.
While he didn't rake in the largest of pay packets at Tottenham, his £34k-per-week earnings over the three campaigns spent at the club – with an unsuccessful loan spell with Fenerbahce sandwiched in the middle – earned him around £3.5m during his stay.
Spurs lining up move for “world-class” £310k-p/w Kulusevski upgrade
Ange appears to be eager to bolster his team with some added firepower.
ByAngus Sinclair Apr 19, 2024
In total, this marks the outlay for Janssen at around £20m in relation to the salary and £17m fee, and when considering the return for the outlay, it can only go down as a horrible misfire, worse even than Soldado's time at Tottenham. The Spaniard, at least, secured a prominent role in the starting line-up at one stage and clinched 27 goal contributions from 76 fixtures.
Postecoglou will not want to make the same mistake when he moves to sign a Kane replacement this summer.