Spurs, Aston Villa, West Ham flops in worst Premier League signings of the season ranking

Using WhoScored average match ratings, these are the ten worst Premier League signings of the season.

Although injuries and more so sitting on the bench are important factors, we are not going to include players with a ridiculously low minutes played total.

10) Carlos Soler (West Ham)
West Ham had a very West Ham summer. Niclas Fullkrug was such a West Ham signing and then there were Crysencio Summerville, Max Kilman and Carlos Soler – who the algorithm has down as the tenth worst signing of the 2024/25 Premier League with significant enough minutes to qualify.

Soler did strike us as an underwhelming loan signing and he has been just that. Premier League starts and goal contributions have been a rarity, recording one goal and one assist, which matches his number of errors leading to a goal.

9) Eddie Nketiah (Crystal Palace)
Crystal Palace have made some very shrewd signings in recent years. Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, Daniel Munoz and Marc Guehi come to mind. They spent big (£30million) on Eddie Nketiah and it’s not quite worked out. Perhaps they should leave the big-money transfers to the silly buggers over at Old Trafford.

Just when Nketiah was experiencing A Good Moment, he goes and gets sent off against Brighton. That, coupled with Jean-Philippe Mateta’s return to fitness, is bad news for the England international. He will be lucky to start another match this season but should still feature off the bench and has an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley to look forward to.

8) Fabio Carvalho (Brentford)
Like with Soler and Nketiah, starts have been few and far between for Carvalho at Brentford this season. The former Liverpool playmaker cost a little less (£22.5m) than Nketiah and has managed to have less of an impact at his new club.

Carvalho has scored three and assisted three in 24 appearances across all competitions this season and has not played since scoring a salt-in-the-wounds goal at Leicester after being an unused substitute against Everton before suffering a shoulder injury.

7) Kalvin Phillips (Ipswich)
This felt like a perfect move for Ipswich and Phillips when it happened, but it has been a complete disaster for everyone involved, with the player’s value somehow decreasing even more after an abysmal loan spell at West Ham last term.

Just as Ipswich’s season has been a massive failure, so has Phillips’ anticipated renaissance. His time at the top level is clearly over and the next move is clearly to return to Leeds United, whether they get promoted or not.

6) Yukinari Sugawara (Southampton)
Southampton have been really, really, really bad and are the earliest team to be relegated in Premier League history. They only need one point to match Derby County’s record low points total of 11, yet it is hard to see where that point is coming from. The Saints knew it would be a difficult season but they did not expect to be this sh*t.

They had a fairly ambitious summer, just as Burnley did last season, with the signings of Cameron Archer, Flynn Downes, Aaron Ramsdale, Ben Brereton Diaz, Mateus Fernandes and Sugawara, but no new player has been able to give the St Marys’ faithful a glimmer of hope at any point this season.

In fact, Sugawara seems to have done everything in his power to make things worse for the club, with some questionable defending and two penalties given away – only Wolves’ goalkeeper Jose Sa has conceded more spot-kicks.

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5) Archie Gray (Spurs)
We think this is harsh but the algorithm has had an issue with young Archie Gray all season. The teenage midfielder joined Tottenham Hotspur from Leeds United for around £40million in the summer transfer window and has been thrust here, there and everywhere in a very difficult season for the Ange Postecoglou and his players. Playing an inexperienced and scrawny teenager centre-back is far from ideal, and in our eyes, Gray has performed admirably under extremely testing circumstances.

WhoScored begs to differ and here Gray is, bang in the middle of a very unfortunate place to be.

4) Oliver Skipp (Leicester)
From a Spurs signing to a Spurs sale, we have a much more justifiable inclusion in Leicester City flop Skipp.

Skipp landed in third in our opinion-based ranking of the worst 2024/25 Premier League signings in December and is one spot better off here. Leicester spent £25m to partner Skipp with his former Spurs team-mate Harry Winks in the middle of the park. It seemed like a crazy investment at the time and it somehow looks even worse now.

Leicester are catastrophically bad and their relegation is a case of when, not if. Having impressed for Norwich City in the second tier, we do see Skipp gaining confidence and shining in the Championship next campaign, to be fair to him.

3) Cameron Archer (Southampton)
Two goals in 28 matches is a very poor return for a £15m striker and the fact they both came in consecutive matches, both of which ended in defeat. Three in three in the Carabao Cup provided some respite but Southampton were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of that competition.

Archer spent last season at another historically awful Premier League team, Sheffield United, and following their relegation, re-joined Aston Villa, only to be sold to a doomed Southampton. He cost a decent amount of money and will probably be a very good player in the Championship in 2025/26, but this season has been disastrous for him and the Saints.

2) Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Leicester City)
Nothing but the algorithm is being taken into account, which means the fact De Cordova-Reid cost Leicester nothing means exactly that… nothing.

It has no doubt been a season of regret for the Jamaican international. He was a very useful squad player at Fulham, making 209 appearances in four-and-a-half years at Craven Cottage and featuring in 33 of the club’s 38 league fixtures in his final season there. De Cordova-Reid has gone from that to only starting seven matches for one of the worst teams in Premier League history.

The Foxes have lost to nil in eight consecutive top-flight matches and have only won twice under Ruud van Nistelrooy. It has been a shambolic season for them, while De Cordova’s former employers are dreaming of Europe under Marco Silva.

1) Jaden Philogene (Aston Villa)
Admittedly, we have cheated a bit here. Philogene did not meet the minutes played threshold but for the fee paid and the fact he only lasted six months at Villa Park means we are turning a blind eye.

Philogene came through the Aston Villa youth academy and spent time on loan at Stoke and Cardiff City before securing a permanent transfer to Hull City. He did very well there in 2023/24 and the Villans decided to bring him back when Ipswich agreed an £18m transfer fee with the Tigers. Due to a sell-on clause, he only cost around £13m.

Ipswich would finally get their man in the January transfer window for £20m plus add-ons. Philogene provided zero goal contributions in 13 matches for Villa during the first half of this season and was sent off for the first time in his career against Fulham on matchday eight. D’oh.

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