West Ham United made a disappointing early exit in the third round of the FA Cup after losing 5-0 at home to Manchester City on Friday evening.

Slaven Bilic’s side have failed to live up to expectations so far this season. To make matters worse, the Hammers are currently 13th in the Premier League table.

West Ham are only seven points clear of relegation, with less than half of the season remaining.

Since moving to their newly refurbished London Stadium, Bilic’s side have won just four of their ten league games at home.

The Hammers have seriously struggled in this campaign as a number of their first-team squad have been getting injured on a regular basis.

The Croatian manager is likely to make a number of new signings in this season’s January transfer window.

The East London side have been to known to make a lot of signings in previous January transfer windows, but here are their WORST THREE January signings over the past 14 years…

Benni McCarthy

In January 2010, South African striker Benni McCarthy joined West Ham from Blackburn Rovers. Then manager Gianfranco Zola paid Rovers a fee of £2,221,000 for the forward’s services.

Despite signing as an experienced international, McCarthy was released 14 months later by the Hammers in April 2011.

During his time at the Boleyn Ground, McCarthy failed to score in any of his 14 appearances.

Zola’s signing proved to be a real waste of money as his Champions League winning striker failed to deliver during his time in London.

Calum Davenport

In January 2007, English centre-back Calum Davenport arrived in East London from Tottenham Hotspur. The claret and blue side paid £3,570,000 for the defender who had previously played 10 times for the Hammers on loan back in 2004.

Despite his hefty transfer fee, Davenport only made 14 appearances after making his move permanent. The defender did score once for West Ham, which is more than can be said for McCarthy.

His career was put under serious threat in August 2009 after being stabbed in both legs, losing 50% of the blood in his body at the time.

Davenport did return to West Ham and had recovered to play football again. Unfortunately for Davenport, his contract was terminated in March 2010.

Savio Nsereko

In January 2009, the Hammers signed young German forward Savio Nsereko from Brescia for a reported club-record fee of £9m.

Nsereko proved to be another one of Zola’s catastrophic signings. He made just 11 appearances under Zola, with nine of them coming as a substitute.

In August of that year, Nsereko was sold to Fiorentina for just over £5m.

Nsereko was probably more famous for a controversial arrest in October 2012 than when he was playing for West Ham. The German was arrested for faking his own kidnapping.

McCarthy and Davenport may have not worked out for the Hammers, but Nsereko’s signing is by far the worst January signing ever made by West Ham.