15 Worst West Ham Signings Ever
4. Simone Zaza
Simone Zaza arrived with big hopes after featuring for Italy at Euro 2016, even if his most memorable contribution was missing a crucial penalty. Apparently, his confidence was now an all-time low and his spell at West Ham was nothing short of dreadful.
He was signed on a €5m loan fee with a €20m obligation to make the move permanent should he reach a certain number of appearances, which didn’t happen. Zaza’s most famous contribution was probably having a shot on goal at Old Trafford that went out for a throw-in.
3. Savio Nsereko
There was a huge expectation from fans when West Ham splashed £9 million for an unknown 19-year-old from Brescia in January 2009. However, the Ugandan-born striker failed to impress after only starting one game and not scoring at all during his time at the Hammers.
Nsereko was probably more famous for a controversial arrest in October 2012 than when he was playing for West Ham. The German was arrested for faking his own kidnapping. West Ham sold him to Fiorentina soon. He is among the worst West Ham signings ever.
2. Allen McKnight
I’ll keep this short and simple. Just ask any West Ham fans and they’ll fill out the gaps. During his West Ham United career, he was known by the fans as McKnightmare because of his frequent goalkeeping errors.
Signed from Celtic in the summer of 1988 McKnight made his West Ham debut on 10 September 1988 in a 1–0 away win against Wimbledon. Competing for the goalkeeper’s place with an ageing Phil Parkes, McKnight played all his 23 league games for West Ham in his first season.
He played his last league game coming on 23 May 1989, a 5–1 away defeat to Liverpool which saw West Ham relegated to the Second Division. He had to wait eighteen months for his next game, also a 5–1 defeat, away to Luton Town in the Full Members Cup.
1. Roberto Jimenez
The 33-year-old Spaniard joined the Hammers from Espanyol in the summer of 2019 and deputised for the injured Lukasz Fabianski in the autumn. But a series of high-profile mistakes blighted his time in the Premier League, he did not win a single one of the seven games he featured in and committed a number of absolute howlers, most notably punching the ball into his own net against Burnley.
During his time at West Ham, Roberto conceded 17 goals, including three in three successive games in December. In the last appearance of that run, against Tottenham, he was ridiculed by his own supporters. He is definitely one of the worst West Ham signings ever.
Roberto was loaned out to Alaves until the end of the season after just 10 appearances. He later moved to Real Valladolid on a free transfer in 2020.
Roberto 20 times worse than Matt Jarvis.
Ill get a lot of moans about this but i think Fornals has been a poor buy might score one goal but misses ten more
Lee Chapman
Masuaku