The best 5 are probably about right. I'd argue you could chuck Cabaye in. It was the first time of this era the club bought a Champions League level player, a real coup at the time, and he made us a lot better to watch - particularly around that era where we beat Arsenal 3-0. Andersen probably isn't far behind either.

Not so sure about the worst 5.

Sakho wasn't great in hindsight but the fans signed him as much as the club did. Everyone was baying for that to take place after how good the loan spell was. I'd argue the loan spell could be in our top 5 transfers as it kept us in the league.

Wickham was just unfortunate. He was doing alright until the injury and probably would have had a good career with us. Sometimes injuries happen.

The club's got a good record on signings. You can point back to some horrors during the first promotion summer including Kebe, Marange, Fryers, Hunt etc. but none were particularly expensive. Of the current crop Ahamada and Franca are possible risks to enter that list purely because their fee was fairly high but time is on their side.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

Could easily put about 20 players we signed on loan or perm during the 2010-2013 period down as worst.

There we some shockers in there:

Pablo Couñago (loan 2010-2011)
Andy Dorman (2010-2012)
Jonathan Obika (loan 2010-2011)
Edgar Davids (2010-2011) - Just Bizarre
Antonio Pedroza (2011-2012)-loves palace in interviews he gives!
Andrew Davies (Loan 11-12)
Aruna Dindane (12-13)
Florian Marange! (13-14)
Jimmy Kebe (13-14)
Jerome Thomas (13-14)
Elliot Grandin (13-14)
Erdal Rakip (18-19)

Value for money has to be Ward and Ayew.

One more point

To an extent it depends upon how you evaluate it.
In terms of service to the club and consistency over a long period Ward , Speroni and McArthur would have to be up there as best signings.
In terms of impact in keeping us in the Premier League , Zaha has to be an outstanding candidate (we couldn’t win without him).

If , on the other hand , you’re looking at bargains there are a few in the current team who have quadrupled in value if we were to sell , but it’s too soon to evaluate their overall contribution because they haven’t had the longevity and consistency in performance of the likes of the aforementioned longer service players.

Benteke must be one of the worst for what he actually cost us, £30 mill plus £120.000 a week for six years and he had one good season. £6 million a year in wages we were paying that lazy lump

Wasn’t it around £13 million? I seem to remember us paying around that sort of fee for three players back then, Schlupp and PVA being the other two