According to the UK's Daily Telegraph, the 31 million pounds sterling transfer of Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham to United at the beginning of last year's campaign was the season's second worst football transfer in the Premier League.

"The Bulgarian may have scored more goals than Stoke's Dave Kitson (then again, who hasn't?), but he edges out the former Reading striker because he cost six times as much, and has made a similarly negligible impact for his new club," the Telegraph said, in a blog by Rob Kelly.

"Expected to add an extra dimension to Alex Ferguson's attacking trident, Berbatov only actually appears to have created headaches for the United boss, all for a great value price of just £30.75million".

The Telegraph named the David Bentley transfer from Blackburn Rovers to Tottenham as the worst of the season, followed by Berbatov in second place, Jimmy Bullard (from Fulham to Hull City) in third, Fabio Coloccini (signed by Newcastle from Deportivo La Coruna) in fourth, and, finally, Ricardo Quaresema (from Inter Milan to Chelsea) in fifth.

No mention was made of the disastrous transfer of Robbie Keane from Tottenham to Liverpool - also at the beginning of last year - who was hailed as the final piece of the jigsaw in the Reds' striking force. The Irishman's transfer proved to be so dubious, that he was promptly sent back to White Hart Lane just after Christmas with a 50 per cent discount from the initial 20 million pounds sterling Liverpool paid Spurs.

The five best transfers of the campaign, according to the Telegraph, were Maurouane Fellani's arrival at Everton from Standard Liege in fifth place, Wilson Palacios's transfer from Wigan to Spurs in fourth, Abdoulaye Faye's move from Newcastle to Stoke City in third, Andrey Arshavin's switch from Zenit St Petersburg to Arsenal in second and Mark Schwarzer's arrival at Fulham from Middlesbrough in first.