Crystal Palace's worst 15 signings of all time | OneFootball

Highlights

Following their promotion to the Premier League in 2013, Crystal Palace have established themselves as a solid top-flight outfit, and they've done so with some pretty wonderful recruitment throughout the decade. The likes of Vicente Guaita, Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha were all signed by the club and played significant roles in transforming the team into a decent Premier League team.

They've very rarely been troubled with the threat of a potential relegation and are almost always comfortably sat in the middle of the table. Still, they've also made some pretty woeful signings over the years. Whether they were big money moves that disappointed, or talent that just didn't fit in, they've had some stinkers and here are the 15 worst.

15 Zeki Fryers

Signed for £3m from Tottenham Hotspur, Zeki Fryers never quite made the grade at Selhurst Park and struggled to ever really make an impact at Palace. He was limited to just nine league games over three years with the Eagles.

After a couple of loan spells at Rotherham United and Ipswich Town, he joined Barnsley on a permanent deal in 2017. Having signed just three years earlier, it was a disappointing tenure for the defender and a pretty poor signing.

It feels a little harsh calling Jairo Riedewald one of Palace's worst transfers of all time. After all, the midfielder has played over 70 times in the league for the club, so he can't have been that bad, can he? Well, no, the issue is that he should have played even more. The Dutchman was bought for £8m back in 2017 from Ajax, but has only had one season as a regular in the club's first team since.

Having played 33 times in the Premier League during the 2020-21 season, he fell out of favour shortly after and has largely been relegated to a spot on the bench ever since. Over the last two years, he's made just nine appearances in the league and for £8m, his move has been pretty shocking.

In hindsight, the £2m move for Jaroslaw Jach was just a massive waste of time for all involved really. The centre-back was signed by Palace in 2018 but didn't make a single appearance in the league for the club across four years.

Instead, he made just one appearance during a League Cup match and his time at Selhurst Park was pretty non-existent. He left in 2022 and Palace fans would be forgiven for already forgetting he ever joined the side.

12 Jordon Mutch

After joining Palace from Queens Park Rangers in January 2015 for £4.75m, Jordon Mutch never really settled in at Selhurst Park and couldn't replicate the level of form he'd shown at previous clubs. He couldn't solidify a spot in the first team on a regular basis and played just 31 league games across four years.

It wasn't the tenure that the club had been hoping for, and he left in January 2019 when the club released him from his contract, ensuring they didn't get a penny back of the money they'd blown bringing him in.

11 Max Meyer

Max Meyer had been incredible for Schalke 04 before his move to Crystal Palace. The midfielder played 146 times for the German side in the Bundesliga and scored 17 league goals, convincing the Eagles to pay him some serious money when he moved to Selhurst Park in 2018.

Meyer earned a gargantuan £170,000 a week during his time at Palace but was a shell of the player he'd been in Germany. Across three seasons, he played just 46 league games and scored once, which is horrendous considering the wages they'd paid the midfielder every single week for three whole years. Eventually, they released him from his contract in January 2021, but not before blowing millions of pounds on his salary and getting very little in return.

10 Jonathan Benteke

Shortly after signing Christian Benteke, Palace signed his brother, Jonathan, on a free contract. Now, we wonder why they did that. Was it because they thought he was a solid player who had something to offer the side, or was it solely done to appease their new striker? Well, we think we know the answer.

The Belgian made his Premier League debut for the Eagles as he replaced his brother late in a game against Middlesbrough. It was the first time that two Belgian brothers had played together in England's top flight and would be the last. He never played for the side again and after just one season, he was released from his contract.

9 Connor Wickham

Considering how much Palace paid for Connor Wickham, his goal return and lack of impact in the Premier League has to make him one of the club's worst-ever signings. The Eagles splashed out £9m for the forward in 2015, and he just never came close to offering them a player worth that sort of money.

While his first campaign at the club wasn't terrible, with five league goals in 21 games, he then scored just three league goals in the next four years at Selhurst Park and offered very little in front of goal. After a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday failed to really do much for his form either, he was released in 2021 and quickly dropped down to the Championship. Departing with eight goals in 41 Premier League appearances, he wasn't as bad as some other names on this list, but he was a huge waste of money.

8 Patrick Bamford

While he's gone on to have a solid career at Leeds United, Patrick Bamford's career didn't always look destined for that. At one point, it seemed his future belonged at the very top of English football, and he was quite a highly regarded prospect during his time at Chelsea. A loan spell at Palace should have brought his progression along nicely and given him valuable top-flight experience.

Instead, it was a disaster, and he just couldn't quite cut it at Selhurst Park. He'd looked really impressive for Middlesbrough in the Championship one season prior but just wasn't ready for the step-up just yet. He made just nine appearances for the Eagles, six coming in the league, before he asked to be returned to Chelsea instead of seeing out the rest of the season. Eventually, he would thrive in the Premier League with Leeds, but he wasn't up to the task at Palace and failed to score a single goal.

7 Loic Remy

Another Chelsea loanee, Palace brought Loic Remy to Selhurst Park in 2016 after the Frenchman had built a solid legacy in the Premier League for Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle United and the Blues. He had a proven goalscoring record in the league, so was a decent gamble.

Unfortunately, he was a shell of the player he'd once been once he joined the club and was largely ineffectual during his loan spell. After an injury meant he didn't even make his debut for the side until January 2017, five months after he joined, he played just five times in the league for the Eagles and didn't score once. Considering the impact he'd had for other sides in England in the past, he was a massive disappointment. Paying him £80,000 a week during his loan and getting so very little back in return makes him one of the worst signings ever.

6 Jimmy Kebe

Following Palace's promotion to the Premier League, Ian Holloway made Jimmy Kebe one of his first signings as he prepared to fight against relegation. Unfortunately, the manager left not too long afterwards and the winger quickly fell out of the first team. He made just six appearances in his first campaign with the Eagles and then failed to play a single game from there onwards.

He was never quite up to the standard that Palace needed and that was glaringly obvious once he donned the shirt. He only cost £1m, so it wasn't a huge loss, but he should never have been brought into the fold in the first place. Terrible signing.

5 Yaya Sanogo

Any Football Manager addict will be well aware of the talent that Yaya Sanogo COULD have possessed. He was a phenom on the 2013 edition of the game, but very rarely replicated that sort of form in reality. A stint at Arsenal really brought any sort of dreams that the forward would become a world-class player crashing down.

His loan move to Palace certainly didn't help either. In the 2014/15 season, the Eagles loaned the striker from the Gunners and hoped to unearth some of the talent that had made him so popular to video game players. Instead, they got a forward who didn't know where the goal was, and he played just 10 times in the league, going goalless. He was sent back to the Emirates in the summer and never played in the Premier League again. A worthy gamble, but one that didn't even come close to paying off.

4 Kevin Doyle

Like Remy, Kevin Doyle is another name that had a proven goalscoring track record in the Premier League. So, on paper, bringing him to Palace on loan wasn't a bad move. Unfortunately, they didn't bring in the Irishman who had scored regularly for the likes of Reading and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Instead, they brought in a forward who was heading towards his twilight years and had pretty much nothing to offer them in a league as fast-paced and competitive as the top flight of English football. He played just three times in the Premier League for Palace, failing to find the back of the net and was swiftly sent back to Wolves once the season ended. It was no surprise to see him retire just two years later after a stint in MLS.

3 Shola Ameobi

We're not even sure what Alan Pardew was thinking when he signed Shola Ameobi for Palace in January 2015. Sure, the pair worked together at Newcastle just a couple of years earlier, but the forward was never really a prolific scorer in England, so the decision to turn to him was a baffling one.

It was immediately obvious that Ameobi wasn't good enough to play a significant role for the team in the Premier League and in no time at all, he was dropped from the side and released just six months after he joined. What makes this one of the worst signings in Palace history is the fact it was pretty obvious from the very first minute of his arrival that he wasn't good enough. Just an absurd decision from Pardew.

2 Emmanuel Adebayor

Man, Palace do love taking a chance on an ageing striker just for it to backfire massively, don't they? Over the years, Emmanuel Adebayor had built up a decent record in the Premier League. For teams like Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, he showed that he knew exactly where the goal was in England, so the Eagles tried to capture some of that form when they brought him in on loan in 2016.

Unfortunately, he'd lost that touch in front of goal by the time he joined the side and scored just once in 12 league appearances for Palace. Not only was he a major disappointment, but they paid him £70,000 a week to do pretty much nothing of note for six months. Yikes.

1 Alexander Sorloth

Undoubtedly the worst Palace signing of all time, Alexander Sorloth has offered so much to a variety of teams throughout his career, just not the Eagles. Which is why, spending just under £10m on the forward was a huge mistake. It's a shame as before and after Palace, he's shown the ability to score goals for fun and has done so for several different teams.

He just couldn't quite perform in England and played 16 league games across two seasons with the club, failing to score a single goal. The club thought they were buying a promising young forward who could potentially lead their front line for years to come. Instead, they got a player who didn't hit the back of the net once and was gone within two and a half years.

Check out the table below to look at the statistics that all 15 of the worst Crystal Palace signings ever put up during their time at the club.

All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt.