Worst Signings of the 2021/22 Premiership season (part 2)

The players ranked 25 to 11 can be found here.

Before we move on, there has to be an honourable mention for Caleb Chukwuemeka, whose exploits for Livingston had escaped me before I published the first part of this double-bill. Chukwuemeka, on loan from Aston Villa, suffered the ignominy of being subbed just seven minutes after coming off the bench against Aberdeen with David Martindale criticising his work-rate. That was less than a month after arriving; the forward has made a couple of appearances off the bench since but has disappeared in recent weeks, suggesting Martindale's opinion of him hasn't improved. So he probably should have been in the top 25 somewhere...

Anyway, on to the top ten!

10 ALEX SAMUEL (ROSS COUNTY)

Striker Samuel claimed on arrival in Dingwall that he hoped to use his move to Ross County to force his way into the Wales squad. Given he hasn't started a league game since October and has played more minutes in the cup (sixty) than in the league (fourteen) since then, I'd say he's probably not on Robert Page's radar right now. Samuel may well have had injury problems but County do tend to be Pyongyang-esque in their levels of secrecy (the joke about Dingwall is far too obvious and has therefore been removed - Ed.) so it's not clear whether that is the case, or that he is just out of the picture.

9 BEN WOODBURN (HEARTS)

Woodburn isn't on this list because he's been a waste of space; he's on it because he was playing in the Premier League at age 17 and has eleven caps for Wales, so expectations were appropriately very high. But he's been in and out of the team - mostly out since Ellis Simms arrived in January - and has managed just three goals and a single assist. Whoscored.com rates him about the same as James Brown and Eamonn Brophy for this season, which is not a good look.

8 JACK GURR (ABERDEEN)

What can you say about Gurr, other than to feign horror and shock that a guy who was a fringe player for Atlanta United's reserves would turn out to be out of his depth in the Scottish Premiership? Thankfully Stephen Glass realised this quickly so that he didn't take precious minutes away from the talented youngster Calvin Ramsay. He returned to the USA in January, and Dons fans will never speak of him again.

7 JAMES MCCARTHY (CELTIC)

Following on from Shane Duffy, it now appears to be enshrined in law that every season Celtic must acquire a Premier League player who was a boyhood fan of the club. I'm pretty sure Ange had nothing to do with this signing, given his attempts to strengthen the midfield area in January. McCarthy is an okay option off the bench for Celtic and he's largely managed to stay fit for the first time in a number of years...probably because he's only started six games all season. The trouble is that he's on decent money that's out of proportion with the gametime he's getting, and that a player with such an injury history was given a four year contract at the age of 30. Still, he's better than Ismaila Soro.

6 JAY EMMANUEL-THOMAS (ABERDEEN)

To be honest I was already prejudiced against Emmanuel-Thomas after he put 'JET' on his jersey at Livingston last season. The Dons thought they were getting a jet, but instead they got a Sopwith Camel (it was pointed out to me on Twitter that Sopwith Camels were relatively successful in WW1, but I thought it was a more polite comparison than calling him a Fokker). Emmanuel-Thomas managed one goal for Aberdeen; Bruce Anderson, who went to Livingston from Pittodrie last summer, scored nine. Most damningly, Jim Goodwin publicly called him out on his fitness, which improved so much that the player had his two year contract terminated before it was halfway through.

5 EETU VERTAINEN (ST. JOHNSTONE)

How Callum Davidson complained about the work permit delays that left Vertainen waiting several weeks before being able to play for St. Johnstone. How Davidson bigged up the Finnish striker as having bags of potential and loads of ability. How Davidson insisted for the next two months that Vertainen wasn't ready for more than the occasional cameo off the bench for a team struggling for goals. And how quickly Davidson turned on him, subbing him at half-time in his first start, and again a few weeks later as the scapegoat for a goal by Rangers scored after Vertainen gave away possession cheaply. At the time of writing that's his last appearance for the Perth Saints, as he is currently on loan at Linfield where he scored four in one game last month, but hasn't scored any other goals before or since.

4 LEIGH GRIFFITHS (DUNDEE)

Oh, Leigh. His return to Dundee on loan was clearly high-risk, high-reward; in the end it was all risk and no reward. He managed just a single goal from open play - though a free-kick goal at Pittodrie was insanely good - and was quickly restricted to the subs bench; to be honest he was lucky to be available at all after he was arrested for kicking a firework into the crowd during a cup game, but the SFA held off banning him until the end of the police investigation (and we're still waiting). Celtic activated an option in his contract to release him in January and Griffiths went on to become the marquee signing who would definitely fire Falkirk to promotion from League One...or not...

3 JAMES SCOTT (HIBERNIAN)

It feels like a long time since Hull City paid Motherwell £1.5m for Scott, but it's actually been just over two years. It looks like injuries have wrecked the 22 year old either physically or mentally, but he's been a shadow of the young starlet he was. Jack Ross dropped him due to his poor fitness and publicly called him "selfish" and "lazy". Shaun Maloney showed more faith in him, but the lack of impact during his sub appearances was such that Scott was actually booed when introduced late in a win over Ross County. And then in recent weeks, with the forward line decimated by injuries, Scott has finally got a run in the starting lineup. Number of goals scored? Zero. Number of Hibs fans who want him to make his loan move a permanent one? Probably about the same.

2 MAX BIAMOU (DUNDEE UNITED)

Biamou made more than thirty appearances in the English Championship for Coventry last season, so he looked like a pretty solid signing for United in October 2021. He made three sub appearances as he built up his fitness... and then in late November he injured his foot. And he hasn't played since. With Tony Watt brought in during January Biamou and United agreed he should leave...but then he injured his thigh just before the window ended, scuppering any move. So the Frenchman will finish his United career having played 55 minutes of first team football and having got pressure sores from spending so much time on the treatment table.

1 MATTY LONGSTAFF (ABERDEEN)

Longstaff spent the second half of the season at Mansfield Town where by most accounts he was the outstanding player in League Two during that period. He spent the first half at Pittodrie, complainingn afterward that Scottish football was "long ball" and "more of a fight, there's probably not as much quality there as there is in the Premier League". That last bit is obviously true, but the rest? Given how honking Longstaff - considered a potential star in the making ever since a Premier League goal against Manchester United in 2019 - was for the Dons I think we can store this away as powerful evidence that the Scottish Premiership is a higher standard than the English fourth tier. Stephen Glass' statement that "Matty would've liked more game time, clearly we would've liked better performances" had a mic drop feel to it. On the bench by October and out of the matchday squad by November, Longstaff left Aberdeen with three starts, five appearances in total and one Worst Signing Of The Season award.

Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly.

Worst Signings of the 2021/22 Premiership season (part 1)

Ten years I've been doing this. Man, there have been some duffers. Here, for the record, are the nine previous 'winners':

2012/13: Rory Boulding (Kilmarnock)

2013/14: Stephane Bahoken (St. Mirren)

2014/15: Jim Fenlon (Ross County)

2015/16: Rodney Sneijder (Dundee United)

2016/17: Joey Barton (Rangers)

2017/18: Eduardo Herrera (Rangers)

2018/19: Umar Sadiq (Rangers)

2019/20: Madis Vihmann (St. Johnstone)

2020/21: Shane Duffy (Celtic)

Here we go for year 10, with the countdown from 25 to 11.

24= LIAM SHAW (CELTIC)

24= OSAZE URGHOGHIDE (CELTIC)

The duo joined Celtic from Sheffield Wednesday, both costing compensation of around £300,000. With about forty Championship appearances between them, the young pair clearly have potential but they were signed before Ange Postecoglu pitched up. Both were trusted with a single start for the club - in a Europa League dead rubber - and both were loaned out in January. Shaw can't get into Motherwell's starting XI, but Urhoghide is at least playing regularly in Belgium. Neither have a future at Celtic.

23 MICH'EL PARKER (MOTHERWELL)

This writer had actually heard of Parker before he pitched up at Motherwell, having won the National League South in Football Manager 2020 with him at centre-back. The youngster, who'd remarkably been on the books of Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham at various times, was probably a low-cost, low-risk signing but he made the bench for three League Cup games in July and then was never seen in a matchday squad again. After his contract expired in January he signed for Linfield but can't get a game for them either.

22 COREY PANTER (DUNDEE)

Given Dundee couldn't defend worth a damn, it says something that Panter still couldn't get a game. His only league start was on Boxing Day, though he played - and scored - in both the League Cup and for their Colts side in the Challenge Cup. Luton recalled him in January due to lack of game time. 

21 YOSUKE IDEGUCHI (CELTIC)

Ideguchi looks worse because Ange Postecoglu's other Japanese signings have been so outstanding, but £850,000 is a lot of money for a benchwarmer. He has had some injuries but even when fit he seems to be well down the midfield pecking order - even behind James McCarthy! - and there's no sign of that changing soon. His previous foray into British football at Leeds United was a flop and so far his time in Glasgow hasn't been much better.

20 CURTIS MAIN (ST. MIRREN)

St. Mirren surely knew what they were getting from Main's previous spells at Motherwell and Aberdeen - a strong, willing runner up front who will press centre-backs all day...and who doesn't score many goals. Main seemed to prove the doubters wrong by hitting the net in his first two matches for the Buddies in the League Cup, but has managed one goal in the 29 games since then and finds himself behind New Zealander rookie Alex Greive in the pecking order now.

19 ALEX ROBERTSON (ROSS COUNTY)

Ross County fans were entitled to have reasonably high expectations for this loan signing for Manchester City, who is an England under-18 international; The Guardian even profiled him as one of the most exciting 60 prospects in the world in the 2020 edition of their 'next generation' series! For whatever reason, it didn't work out in Dingwall. One start and five sub appearances later, Robertson returned south.

18 NIALL MCGINN (DUNDEE)

It turns out that 77 is McGinn's squad number, not his age. Unfortunately the once lethal forward is rather past his best, which makes it strange that Dundee would offer him an 18 month deal and expect him to create or score the goals that would keep them up. At the time of writing his last league goal was in March 2020.

17 TIM AKINOLA (DUNDEE UNITED)

The midfielder was signed on loan from Arsenal in January, was subbed at half-time in his only appearance and then picked up an injury that caused his loan to be terminated early. That went well.

16 HARRY PANAYIOTOU (LIVINGSTON)

Livingston do like signing an interesting-sounding striker from the English lower leagues. Panayiotou - a St. Kitts international via his mother, who was born in England and has a Greek Cypriot father, making him (I think) eligible for four national teams - certainly sounds interesting. Unfortunately his 12 goals for Aldershot the previous year seem to have been an outlier. He made five sub appearances for Livi and was let go in January, 6 months into a two-year deal with the option of a third, and returned to his old club, where he claimed that things hadn't worked out in Scotland because the environment at Livingston was 'toxic', which seems harsh; I know those roundabouts get frustrating after a while, but still...

15 THEO BAIR (ST. JOHNSTONE)

Sure, maybe Bair will come good; Callum Davidson has made a big song and dance about how he just needs time to acclimatize, as he did with Guy Melamed (with some justification) and Eetu Vertainen (less so). As of now, he is a Canadian international striker who cost a significant fee for a club of St. Johnstone's size and who has so far failed to start a game or score a goal.

14 JAY CHAPMAN (DUNDEE)

James McPake didn't half big up Chapman, a Canadian international with plenty of MLS experience at Toronto and Inter Miami, as a real coup of a signing in January. The midfielder has so far played 35 minutes of first team action over two substitute appearances and has vanished from the bench in recent weeks. He might be injured, but if he is no-one is saying so.

13 NATHAN WOOD (HIBERNIAN)

Summed up pretty much perfectly by journalist Craig Fowler:

The centre-back Hibs signed who played once and was immediately deemed less reliable than a 36yo Darren McGregor.

I can’t even remember his name. I wanna say Nathan Wood but I might be plucking that from thin air.

— Craig Fowler ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿 (@craigfowler86) April 1, 2022

Wood went back to parent club Middlesbrough before the end of November.

12 AMAD DIALLO (RANGERS)

Manchester United paid around £20m for Diallo two years ago, so one would expect him to have rather more impact in a diddy league like ours...and when he scored just five minutes into his debut in Dingwall it looked like Rangers had found a gem. So much for that. The Ivorian was hooked at half-time four days later in the 3-0 thumping by Celtic and he hasn't been trusted for anything other than cameos off the bench since. One suspects Diallo, still only 19, will probably still go on to better things than the vast majority of his Ibrox contemporaries but this is has been a waste of a half season for him and probably of a loan fee by Rangers.

11 JAHMAL HECTOR-INGRAM (ST. JOHNSTONE)

St. Johnstone went on a striker binge at the end of the January window, with former Derby forward Hector-Ingram one of the many brought in. And after sitting on the bench a handful of times he seems to have disappeared into thin air.

The top ten will come soon, I promise...

Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly.