2008-09 season
Players Bought: Philipp Degen (Free), Andrea Dossena (£7m), Diego Cavalieri (£3.5m), Robbie Keane (£19m), Vitor Flora (Free), Alberto Riera (£8m), David Ngog (£1.5m)
Players Sold: Anthony Le Tallec (Und.), Peter Crouch (£10m), Danny Guthrie (£2.5m), John Arne Riise (£4m), Scott Carson (£3.25m), Steve Finnan (£1m), Robbie Keane (£12m); Released: Harry Kewell
Performance: As disastrous transfer windows go, this one was right up there. Robbie Keane – our new major arrival – flopped and was sold back to Spurs for a loss within six months. We lost Finnan and Riise and replaced them with Degen and Dossena, while Crouch’s replacement was the infamous David Ngog. Not good this one.
Rating: 2/10
2009-10 season
Players Bought: Glen Johnson (£17.5m), Chris Mavinga (Free), Stephen Sama (Free), Alberto Aquilani (£17m), Sotirios Kyrgiakos (£1.5m), Maxi Rodriguez (Free), Raheem Sterling (£600k)
Players Sold: Paul Anderson (£250k), Sebastian Leto (£3m), Albaro Arbeloa (£3.5m), Xabi Alonso (£30m), Andrea Dossena (£4.5m), Andriy Voronin (£1.8m), Chris Buchtmann (£100k), Nikolay Mihaylov (£1.5m); Released: Sami Hyypia, Jack Hobbs, Astrit Ajdarevic, Jermaine Pennant, Shane O’Connor, Adam Hammill
Performance: Things didn’t get much better for us the following season. Rafa splashed the cash on Johnson and Aquilani – with the latter, like Keane, barely making an impact before being shipped out. We also lost Alonso and Hyypia, two of our longest serving players. The one plus point was the signing of Maxi, who did well for us.
Rating: 3/10
