With the 2022-23 Premier League now done and dusted, fans and media alike will continue to wax lyrical about the achievements of Manchester City, and rightly so after being crowned champions for the fifth time in six seasons.
The appointment of Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea will also lead to attention being turned to next season, but we cannot reach that stage before deliberating over some of the worst signings of the season.
As you would expect, Chelsea feature on the below list given the sheer amount of players that they have signed over the past two transfer windows, many of which have so far proven to be failures.
Nevertheless, there are offerings from many clubs up and down the Premier League table and here, Sports Mole ranks our top ten choices from 10th to worst.
When it became apparent that Manchester United required a new striker in January, supporters had their ideas of who they wanted to sign and it was certainly not Wout Weghorst on loan.
Despite his impact for the Netherlands against Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals, Weghorst had failed to make an impact at Burnley before his loan switch to Besiktas for the first half of 2022-23.
To the 30-year-old's credit, he has proven to be a valued team player, his pressing from the front contributing to some high-profile victories, yet he has to feature on this list through his lack of goals.
Just two strikes and three assists have come from 30 appearances totalling 1,666 minutes, and he will inevitably return to Burnley in the summer.
With Chelsea having committed to paying £88m for Mykhaylo Mudryk, he will naturally come under more scrutiny than most throughout his time at Stamford Bridge.
Although it should be stressed that the winger has produced enough bright moments for Chelsea fans to be optimistic about the future, just two assists from 17 outings totalling 747 minutes tells a different story.
There have been plenty of occasions when the Ukraine international's pure speed has got him into advantageous situations, but his end product has generally been abysmal.
That was particularly the case versus Man United last week, the 22-year-old having chances to end his goal drought, yet it is left for Chelsea supporters to hope that Pochettino can unlock his potential over the coming years.
Pretty much the entire footballing community scoffed when Newcastle United chose to pay up to £45m for Everton winger Anthony Gordon in January, the opinion being that he would not break into the starting lineup of a team chasing Europe.
That has generally proven to be the case with just four starts and 12 substitute appearances coming in the Premier League, the England Under-21 international being given 482 minutes by Eddie Howe.
Gordon has not played more than 69 minutes in a single game for the Magpies, that occasion coming in Newcastle's dead-rubber versus Chelsea on Sunday.
Although he scored his first goal for the North East giants in that fixture, he has much work ahead if he is to justify his price tag at St James' Park.
Manchester City paid a similar fee to acquire the services of Kalvin Phillips, the expectation being that he would be provided with regular game by Pep Guardiola.
Instead, Phillips has endured a highly frustrating first year at the Etihad Stadium, with his only two starts in the Premier League coming after the title had already been secured.
While injuries and the form of other players have played their part, the England international made just nine substitute outings in the top flight before the final week of the campaign.
The 27-year-old has also rarely been called upon in the cup competitions, yet there is a determination about the former Leeds United man to move himself up the pecking order during 2023-24.
Such was the lack of money at Leicester City last summer that the £15m addition of relatively unknown Wout Faes was warmly greeted by supporters.
With constant injuries to other defenders, the presence of the Belgium international was required with a total of 31 starts being made in the Premier League.
However, Leicester kept just six clean sheets during that period, a return which proved a key factor in the club's relegation from the top flight.
The 25-year-old will also be best remembered this season for the two own goals that he scored against Liverpool on December 30, contributions which saw the Foxes go down 2-1 at Anfield having initially taken the lead.
Chelsea appeared to be making one of the more shrewd signings of the summer when they brought in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona, with the forward then linking up with a former acquaintance in Thomas Tuchel.
However, the German was sacked a week later and it undoubtedly contributed to the former Arsenal man making little to no impact at Stamford Bridge.
The 33-year-old did provide a goal or assist in four of Chelsea's six Champions League group-stage fixtures, a statistic which has been lost in discussions about his other performances.
That said, Aubameyang has barely featured since the turn of the year, and the Gabon international will surely leave the club as a free agent over the coming weeks having played just 960 minutes of football.
At one point last summer, Manchester City were prepared to pay in the region of £50m for Marc Cucurella, who wanted the move, but Brighton & Hove Albion held out for more money and it led to Chelsea committing to shelling out £62m.
With all due respect to Cucurella, he does not belong in that price bracket, and the expectation has evidently weighed him down during a disappointing first year in West London.
In fairness to the left-back, he made 66 successful tackles in the Premier League this season - 20 more than any of his teammates - although that is not enough to make up for his ineffective efforts further up the pitch.
Both of Cucurella's two assists came in August, and Chelsea fans will argue that, aside from his influential performance during the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie against Borussia Dortmund, the Spaniard has offered very little else and will never become a first-team regular at the club.
Liverpool's midfield issues will be resolved this summer but on the final day of last year's equivalent window, they managed to secure a season-long loan deal for Juventus midfielder Arthur Melo.
While the Brazilian's form has dropped off since his exit from Barcelona, it was still regarded as a coup, but the transfer has proven to be a waste of everyone's time.
Since a 13-minute substitute outing versus Napoli on September 7, the 26-year-old has not made another senior outing, largely owing to a thigh injury that he sustained in October.
However, even when he proved his fitness in a number of Under-21 games, Arthur was left on the periphery of Jurgen Klopp's plans, and he will now return to his parent club with uncertainty over his future.
In January, Leeds United took everyone by surprise by opting to pay a club-record fee - which could reach £36m - for Hoffenheim forward Georginio Rutter, despite the fact that he had netted just twice in the Bundesliga during the first half of the season.
As a France Under-21 international, Rutter arrived with potential, yet not with what Leeds actually required to get themselves out of a relegation battle.
The 21-year-old made just one Premier League start, in a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, with 10 substitute outings, and his solitary contribution was an assist during the 4-1 reverse to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Given the level of investment, Rutter will seemingly be given responsibility to fire Leeds back up to the top flight, and achieving that target is the only current way that can prevent this piece of business being among the worst in the club's history.
In signing Richarlison for a fee which could rise to £60m, Spurs felt that they were getting a player who could play across the forward line and provide the necessary backup to Harry Kane.
However, the Brazil international has proven to be an almighty flop, chipping in with just three goals and three assists from 17 starts and 18 substitute outings in all competitions.
Two of the strikes in question came in the same Champions League fixture versus Marseille in September, the other a scrappy effort in the 4-3 defeat at Liverpool at the end of April.
Injuries and what appeared to be a mixed relationship with Antonio Conte did not help, yet Richarlison's lack of quality in the final third effectively proved to be the difference when it came to Spurs missing out on European qualification by a point.
body check tags ::
