City's 20 worst transfers of all timeUpdated: March 26th, 2007

The table (below) is worked out purely in financial terms and only includes players who were later sold by the club:

Now having David Oldfield and Paul Futcher top the list just didn’t seem right, even if it is statistically correct. Futcher, in particular, was probably the product of Allison’s reckless selling policy rather than any misjudgement on Book’s part.

So I thought I’d compile a second table, which worked out the annual financial loss for each player then compared that to the total annual transfer spending for the league for the years the player was at the club.

Dusting down my copy of The Economics of Football, by Stephen Dobson and John Goddard, I found the figures for annual transfer spending from 1973 onwards. Players sold before 1973 are therefore excluded from the list.

And low and behold, the table now has a more reassuring look to it, with Steve Daley and Malcolm Allison deservedly taking the award for worst ever transfer:

The 20 worst City transfers of all timeUpdated: December 20th, 2006

Okay, after last week’s 20 best transfers of all time, we’re now back on more familiar ground.

The table (below) is worked out purely in financial terms and only includes players who were later sold by the club:

Now having David Oldfield and Paul Futcher top the list just didn’t seem right, even if it is statistically correct. Futcher, in particular, was probably the product of Allison’s reckless selling policy rather than any misjudgement on Book’s part.

So I thought I’d compile a second table, which worked out the annual financial loss for each player then compared that to the total annual transfer spending for the league for the years the player was at the club.

Dusting down my copy of The Economics of Football, by Stephen Dobson and John Goddard, I found the figures for annual transfer spending from 1973 onwards. Players sold before 1973 are therefore excluded from the list.

And low and behold, the table now has a more reassuring look to it, with Steve Daley and Malcolm Allison deservedly taking the award for worst ever transfer: