Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has named former Nigerian striker Ade Akinbiyi as the club’s worst signing ever, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Jordan became the youngest chairman of a Football League club when he purchased his Crystal Palace in 2000, aged 32.
During his 10-year reign at Selhurst Park, the former Palace CEO oversaw the Eagles promotion to the Premier League, leaving in 2010.
In his second year in charge of the club, Jordan signed Adebiyi, but the England-born former Nigeria striker never lived up to his £2.2m price tag.
In a conversation on talkSPORT, the businessman, who remained adamant he wouldn’t get back into football ownership, named Adebiyi the worst signing he ever made.
“Ade Akin Bad Buy [Akinbiyi]. He just was useless,” he said.
“I wasted my time and money, and he wasted his own time.
“The reality is how weak one can be when one says ‘I don’t want to do this’ and is worn down by the processes of the manager, eventually knowing something is wrong but you continually do it and then you’re surprised by the outcome.”
Akinbiyi was purchased from Leicester City for a reported £2.2m, and the London-born Nigeria striker only managed three goals in 24 games.
Asked who was at fault for such a disastrous transfer, Jordan spread the blame equally.
“It was on the player, it was on the manager, and it was on me,” he said.
“I should’ve said no, but the problem is when you’re the owner of a football club, you have to back him or sack him.
“I’m in a situation where this is my champion, and he says he wants him. This guy looks useless to me and is going to cost me a fortune.”
Manager Trevor Francis got his way, though, and Akinbiyi was an Eagle. But Jordan was already having buyer’s remorse.
He hilariously recalled, “I remember standing on the side of a pier in the south of France next to Eddie Jordan.
“I was looking at the boat he was buying, thinking, ‘I could buy that boat if I wasn’t buying that club-footed clown that I know isn’t going to be of any use to me.”
“And that’s what I ended up doing, and so he proved to be. I got neither the boat nor a decent player.”