In what will undoubtedly be a cause for celebration for the majority of Tottenham fans, £17million flop Paulinho has joined Chinese outfit Guangzhou Evergrande, as confirmed by the club – and The Daily Mail – this afternoon.

The Brazil international arrived at White Hart Lane in summer 2013 following his impressive performances at the Confederations Cup and the £87million departure of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, but needless to say he’s struggled to live up to his billing in north London.

Indeed, Paulinho’s managed just 45 Premier League appearances for Spurs, with around half of those outings coming from the bench and the majority of them spent disappearing in the middle of the park.

So what better way to celebrate the 26 year-old’s departure than reminiscing over some equally terrible Tottenham signings? In honour of Paulinho, we’ve created Tottenham’s Transfer Flop XI of the Premier League era – detailing their biggest deals that turned the most sour.

How does the flopped Brazilian compare to this mob?

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GOALKEEPER – HEURELHO GOMES

Heurelho Gomes certainly had his moments in a Spurs jersey and the Brazil international’s exemplary shot-stopping abilities were never in doubt.

Yet every stellar save was counteracted by sudden sprees of goalkeeping madness; with fluffed parries into the back of his own net, inexplicable expeditions thirty yards from the goal line and hilarious attempts to skill his way past onrushing strikers galore. More shots passed through his body than Charlie Sheen on a Friday night.

The now-Watford No.1 made nearly a centenary of Premier League appearances for the Lilywhites and ended up becoming a bit of a cult hero at White Hart Lane. Rather interesting, he’s also the only person on Wikipedia with the first name ‘Heurelho’.

But at a cost of £7.8million – which actually makes him one of the most expensive Premier League goalkeepers of all time – Spurs never got anything close to their money’s worth.

RIGHT-BACK – ALAN HUTTON

Many will point to Paul Stalteri as Tottenham’s worst right-back of the Premier League era, a Canadian international famed for playing several positions equally terribly yet juxtaposing it by a rather incredible goal to clinch a 4-3 win against London rivals West Ham in 2007.

But it’s long forgotten the infamous Juande Ramos (also the purchaser of Heurelho Gomes) once coughed up a rather incredible £9million for Alan Hutton – which, back in January 2008, made him the most expensive defender in White Hart Lane history.

He was billed as some sort of Scottish Dani Alves after proving particularly formidable going forward for Rangers in the SPL. But what turned up in north London was a right-back about as ordinary and unexceptional as you can get in the Premier League.

Hutton stuck it out for three years with Spurs, eventually making 51 Premier League appearances, before being flogged to Aston Villa for a pittance in 2011, who quickly decided to loan him out to Mallorca, Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers.

CENTRE-BACK – RAMON VEGA

Back in 1997, £3.75million was a heck of a lot of money – especially for a Spurs side who hadn’t finished higher than 7th since the turn of the decade – so naturally, fans expected big things from Swiss international Ramon Vega.

He was billed as an intelligent centre-back who could speak five languages and had a degree in banking but with a rough-n-ready side comparable to Tony Adams, according to Gerry Francis.

Unfortunately, neither the savvy Vega nor the thuggish Vega turned up at White Hart Lane. Instead, the Lilywhites fan-base witnessed five arduous years of bumbled, calamitous defending to the point Vega became the benchmark all woeful Tottenham centre-halves have since been judged upon.

He did, however, win the League Cup with Spurs in 1999, and has made £15million as a city trader since retiring. Tottenham fans will argue they’re due nearly a quarter of that in compensation.

Centre Back – Mbulelo Mabizela

In the grand scheme of things, £1.5million, even back in 2003 when a bus ride was just 40p in London, isn’t a huge sum of money. But at the resulting cost of £214k per league appearance and eventually seeing his Spurs contract put through the shredder due to disciplinary problems, there is no doubt the once highly-rated Mbulelo Mabizela was a huge flop at White Hart Lane.

Indeed, Glen Hoddle saw great potential in the former Orlando Pirates prodigy, who had become the youngest ever captain of the South African national team at the age of 20 and produced an apparently incredible Man of the Match display against Spurs during their 2003 pre-season tour. Never mind that he’d never kicked a ball in Europe before. Never mind that he was a centre-back who measured in at just 5 foot 10.

Needless to say, Mabizela’s north London stay didn’t work out as planned. He managed just seven Premier League outings, producing a sensational goal against Leicester City, before deciding to skip several training sessions and resultantly see his contract terminated by ‘mutual’ consent. A few months earlier, he’d also gone AWOL during an international break, ending his Bafana Bafana captaincy.

After an unsuccessful trial at Fulham, Mabizela joined Norwegian outfit Valerenga (who?) before returning to South African football for the remainder of his career.

LEFT-BACK – GILBERTO

A by no means unanimous decision here at Football Fancast. Many Spurs fans hold a particular disliking towards Crazy Gang graduate Ben Thatcher, who joined the club from Wimbledon for £5million in 2000 and spent the next decade committing GBH on a weekly basis in the Premier League, shattering shins and cheekbones for fun and infamously almost severing Pedro Mendez’ head in 2006 whilst at Manchester City.

But Thatcher can at least lay claim to 46 appearances for the Lilywhites. Brazilian Gliberto, on the other hand, despite representing Selecao on 35 occasions, managed just 10; seven in the Premier League, and three of which he was hauled off at half time.

After 18 months at White Hart Lane the £2million signing was shipped back to Brazil, costing Spurs £200k per woeful appearance.

RIGHT MIDFIELD – DAVID BENTLEY

David Bentley’s Tottenham tenure was so terrible it forced him into retirement at the age of 30.

The seven-cap international was billed as the next David Beckham during his time at Blackburn Rovers, sharing Golden Balls’ unique free-kick style and potency from dead ball situations, convincing Spurs to splash out a whopping £15million fee for his services in summer 2008.

Unfortunately, however, Bentley echoed more the Beckham of the socialite modelling world than on the pitch during his lengthy north London stay, and barring one sensational appearance against former club Arsenal spent the rest of the time flicking his admittedly rather luscious parting from side to side for the cameras.

After falling out of favour under Harry Redknapp – probably due to him throwing a water keg over the Spurs gaffer during an end-of-season interview – the midfielder went out on loan to Birmingham, West Ham, FC Rostov and Blackburn Rovers as his Tottenham contract wound down, before calling it quits (and pocketing five years’ worth of wages) last summer.

Most humiliatingly of all, almost half of Bentley’s transfer fee – the eighth largest in Spurs history – went to local rivals and ex-employers Arsenal through a sell-on fee agreement.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD – PAULINHO

The inspiration for this list and the definition of the word ‘fraud’. Half of the continent were linked to Paulinho after his impressive performances for Brazil at the 2013 Confederations Cup, where his robust box-to-box style and knack of hitting the onion bag seemed perfect for European football.

So when he arrived at White Hart Lane for a then-club record £17million in the wake of Gareth Bale’s departure to Real Madrid, Spurs thought they were onto a real winner – beating some of Europe’s top clubs to one of summer 2013’s most sought-after players.

Yet, the Paulinho heralded as a world-beater at Corinthians never truly turned up in north London. Far from an all-action box-to-box, the 26 year-old’s individual style seemed to be based around doing as little as possible before ghosting in for the very, very occasional goal. More passive than Joe Allen in a friendly; less aggressive than a Buddhist peace rally.

After playing a pivotal hand in getting Andre Villas-Boas sacked for his woeful performances and left out in the cold by Tim Sherwood and Mauricio Pochettino, Paulinho has now agreed a move to China – cementing his reputation as one of the biggest disappointments in both Tottenham and Premier League history.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD – Milenko Acimovic

Unlike the rest of the players in this flops XI, free signing Milenko Acimovic didn’t disappoint in price. Rather, the attacking midfielder emphatically failed to live up to his reputation as one of the best talents outside of Europe’s leading top flights at the time.

Indeed, he’d generated quite the hype at Red Star Belgrade, netting 34 times in 102 league appearances, and also impressed at Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup with Slovakia, leading to a bosman move to White Hart Lane in summer 2002.

Far from transitioning his goal-scoring displays to the Premier League, however, Acimovic found himself continually overpowered in midfield and disastrously short on confidence – by no means helped by him committing what is regarded as one of the most shocking Tottenham misses of all time.

In total, Acimovic made just 17 league appearances in two years, before being offloaded to Lille.

LEFT WING – ERIK LAMELA

Erik Lamela’s certainly had his moments for Spurs – most particularly, his Europa League Rabona goal against Asteras Tripoli last season.

But considering the 23 year-old’s prior reputation from his days with Roma as a future Ballon d’Or contender and his status as Tottenham’s most expensive signing of all time – costing the club £30million including potential add-ons – he’s undoubtedly fallen some way short of the mark.

Indeed, the flopped winger has managed just 38 Premier League appearances since his arrival in summer 2013, scoring only twice and providing eight assists; hardly what you’d expect from a player dubbed ‘the Argentine Ronaldo’.

If Lamela still has one thing working in his favour, it’s his youth. He’s still nowhere near his footballing peak and Spurs appear adamant the ten-cap international will eventually fulfil his potential at White Hart Lane.

STRIKER – SERGEI REBROV

Spurs have endured a hilarious amount of flops in the striker department throughout the Premier League era, ranging from infamous loanster Andy Booth to England international Darren Bent, with the likes of Grzegorz Rasiak, Bobby Zamora, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Heider Postiga somewhere in between.

But purely in terms of transfer fees combined with performances on the pitch, ten-in-sixty frontman Sergei Rebrov, who arrived at White Hart Lane for a whopping £11million back in 2000, has to top the list.

They say every great partnership is made of one sensational footballer and another mediocre one in the right place at the right time. Rather tellingly, Rebrov made his name as partner to Andriy Shevchenko at Dynamo Kiev.

And whilst the latter went on to become one of the greatest goalscorers of a generation, the former ended up costing Spurs £1.1million per Premier League goal, before joining bitter rivals West Ham on a free transfer, just to rub in that extra little bit of salt.

Rather incredibly, Rebrov took things a step further in 2008, when he warned Pavlyuchenko about all the ‘dark skinned people’ and ‘high crime rate’ around White Hart Lane. Racist flop.

STRIKER – ROBERTO SOLDADO

We’ve had the third-most expensive signing in Spurs history, the first-most expensive signing in Spurs history and now the second-most expensive signing in Spurs history – Roberto Soldado – completing the trifecta of unforgivably woeful flops from summer 2013.

In the interests of fairness, it’s worth pointing out the Spain international was considered to be one of the best finishers in Europe before arriving in north London, generating 101 goals in 207 appearances throughout his La Liga spells with Real Madrid, Getafe, Osasuna, and Valencia.

There were always doubts over the pintsized striker’s compatibility with the Premier League, however, especially at the age of 28, and they soon proved justified.

In stark contrast to his successes in Spain, the £26million signing has managed just seven goals in 52 league outings for Spurs, four coming from the penalty spot.

Soldado’s performances have transgressed from promising to unfortunate and hardworking to Fernando Torres level hopeless, epitomised best by his harrowing fluff against Fiorentina in the video above.

He’s now being linked with a move to Galatasaray, with Spurs taking a £15million loss in the process.