The biggest Premier League flop of the season?
Like most men my age, I have an uncanny attraction to lists. Whenever I notice a copy of Q displaying the ‘100 Greatest Albums of All Time’ or a copy of Nuts with ’25 Best Big-Chested Girls’ emblazoned across the front page, I instinctively feel the need to go and have a gander at what they’ve picked (and to gawp at some pleasantly ample bosoms).
Being that there’s no midweek games left, and transfer talk is at a mere whisper at this point unless you’re associated with Manchester City Football Club, I’ve decided it’s only fair to compile a list of my own concerning the Premiership’s biggest flops this season. I’m physically bracing myself for the amount of abuse I may receive when I come to check my comments to be moderated, but hey ho; it’s my little bit of internet space and you’re all reading it, so here goes…
• Joe Cole – I’ll be honest, at the beginning of the season, this was what I considered to be the shrewdest move of the summer. Taking into consideration the way I watched Cole terrorize the wings when I could still afford to go to games, and his tendency to pop up with a vital goal, often of the very spectacular variety just when you needed him to, he seemed to be the perfect addition to a Liverpool squad who had slumped the previous season under the stewardship of seemingly now renowned balls-up merchant Rafa Benitez. Oh how it all tumbled so quickly though, a straight red on his debut and he just hasn’t looked the same since. I think the Reds are now beginning to see why Chelsea allowed their man to go for nothing; he simply isn’t the same player he was when he first arrived at Chelsea and could hold a place in their starting line-up, certainly not “better than Messi” as Lord Gerrard proclaimed at the beginning of the year. A special mention here also needs to go to Paul Konchesky; the left back who couldn’t defend. Probably not the wisest £4m Liverpool have ever spent; contributed nothing and was so bad even his mum complained. I would do a bit about Steven Gerrard too, however I’ve picked on Liverpool for long enough now, so moving swiftly on…
• The Entire Attacking Playing Staff at Tottenham Hotspur FC – Simply, where have they gone this season? This is essentially the exact same strike force that was thumping nine goals past Wigan last season, yet this time round they’ve been a shadow of the attacking force they used to be. Champions League group stage performances aside, this has been a major stumbling point for Auld ‘Arry this year. Whilst the four teams above Spurs are sitting on a tidy goal difference of +39, +37, +25, and +29 respectively, Redknapp’s boys are languishing on a paltry +8. Too many draws and a lack of being able to finish teams off has been their Achilles heel for 2010/11, and for Spurs sake in the summer, I hope they add a decent striker to their numbers.
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how about adding wayne rooney to that list.. he’s been sh*te all season…
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Rooneys AMAZING tap in Reply:
May 26th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Can’t do that mate it’s blasphemy
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Swoop is obviously a narrow minded Liverpool fan.
Rooney has been great in the latter part of the season which is why he isnt on this list.
As a spurs fan I completely agree with everything in this article, our strikers and keeper are tosh.
I think you couldve added Gerrard to that, he has been awful all year and when he got injured is when Liverpool started to perform
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Surely Fabagas has to be on the list all he has done all season is sulk about not getting his move to Barca.
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Good list. I too am attracted to lists with ridiculous regularity.
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suspect henry may be of the de-trafford cloakes. Where is Bebe ?
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Edin Dzeko has had 12 starts and scored 6 (2 EPL 2 Europa league 2 FA Cup) and had 3 assists hardly a flop. I really don’t know why he is on the list if your having a pop at a flop from City it would have to be Jo.
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Rooneys AMAZING tap in Reply:
May 26th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
No mention of the fact that 27m flop Dzeko hadn’t been playing for 5 weeks in Germany before he joined City. He was understandably a little rusty in the process of adjusting to a new club in a new country, a different football style, new tactics, team-mates and of course heavy scrutiny and still managed to make important contributions.
You can be sure that if he was wearing red it would be ‘he works hard for the team’…’the team gets so much more than goals from him’…it wouldn’t be a problem at United – the pundits would keep saying that they ‘can see glimpses of genius’ with every touch and the papers would defend that ‘every player needs time to settle’. However as its City playing fantasy football manager we are judged by ridiculous fantasy football standards.
City fans are well aware that at the moment he facts are often irrelevant when it comes to a good City bashing. Nothing that is written or spoken about Manchester City has to be true these days… as long as pleases the right parties and has the potential to unsettle the club or its players. It is after all an increasingly popular pastime among supporters of rival clubs with all their displaced jealousy. A prime example is this piece, according to the author It doesn’t matter what the paying City fans think of Dzeko even though their opinion is much better informed than the same old tiresome and biased reports that regurgitate such nonsense. Just because something is repeated so many times does not make it so, and certainly not because some jealous hack somewhere labelled him a flop under the guise of objectivity.
But then I would say that wouldn’t I?
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How about Carlo Ancelotti? One season he’s side is scoring for fun (still narrowly winning the league and FA Cup), and the next season shows a complete lack of motivation and tactical ineptitude that would make even ‘Arry blush.
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Careful bnbn, don’t argue vehemently, as Mr Cloke doesn’t like that.
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bnbn Reply:
May 26th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Well he wont like me very much
. CTID
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James Milner 32 Starts in the 3rd best team in the premier league 79% average pass completion. 7 assists. 1 goal. Again hardly a flop. Mr Cloke
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