Simon Jordan reveals his worst Crystal Palace signing and wishes he'd bought a boat instead

Simon Jordan is renowned for his honesty as a football club owner, which has led to one of his former strikers ending up in the firing line.

The talkSPORT presenter became the youngest chairman of a Football League club when he bought his boyhood club. Crystal Palace in 2000, at the age of 32.

Jordan would oversee the Eagles' rise to the Premier League in his ten years at Selhurst Park, leaving in 2010.

Despite his many ties to other teams in recent years, the businessman remains firm in his position of not owning a football team again.

There may be one player more responsible for that decision than any other, and Jordan was in no doubt when asked about his worst signing at Palace.

“Ade Akin is a bad buyer (Akinbiyi). He just didn’t do any good,” the White and Jordan host responded emphatically. “I wasted my time and my money, and he wasted his own time.

“The reality is how weak you can be when you say 'I don't want to do this' and you get worn down by the manager's processes, eventually knowing something is wrong but you do it continuously and then you are surprised by the result.”

Akinbiyi was purchased from Leicester City for a reported £2.2m and the London-born Nigerian striker only managed to score three goals in 24 games.

When asked who was to blame for such a disastrous transfer, Jordan spread the blame evenly.

“It was the player's fault, it was the coach's fault and it was my fault,” he said.

“I should have said no, but the problem is that when you own a football club you have to back him or fire him.

“I'm in a situation where this is my champion and he says he loves him. I think this guy is useless and he's going to cost me a fortune.”

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Manager Trevor Francis got his way, however, and Akinbiyi was selected as an Eagle. Jordan, however, was already regretting his purchase.

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 I was buying and thinking, 'I could buy that boat if I wasn't buying this clown with deformed legs that I know isn't going to be of any use to me.'”

“And that's what I ended up doing and that's how it turned out. I didn't get the boat or a decent player.”