It is a mystery at how much players are built up before they have even kicked a ball in the Premier League and here is a look at the top ten footballing mysteries that have occurred in the Premier League over the past 20 years.

Click on Mido to unveil the top 10 football mysteries

The Premier League has always been a mixed bag of players and I always welcome witnessing a mismatch on the field whether it is Ramon Vega looking to mark Dennis Bergkamp; Tony Hibbert attempting to shackle Cristiano Ronaldo, or simply Gregorsz Rasiak attempting to take on any Premier League defence; the bad will always play a major part in adding to the excitement of the league.

This current Premier League season has been no different and this is the FIRST PART in my look of  who I consider to be arguably the worst players plying their trade at present:

Click on Stefan Savic to unveil the top 10

The players now call the shots at football clubs and are controlling the contract situations, while parasite agents tout their client out from club to club in order to get a new club or bigger deal. I’m sure this wasn’t Bosman’s intention when he first set out in the courts to fight his right to freedom, but the subsequent change in EU Law has created the beast we are not witnessing now.

A staggering 109 players who were registered for Premier League football are out of contract at the end of this season resulting in many clubs looking to either move them on in the summer or risk making a loss in May. There will be plenty of chances to earn a new contract for the future Bosman players, but having now let their contracts run down to just over six months remaining, perhaps the clubs are eager to get rid of them.

The list of out-of-contract players is not just packed with squad players and bit-part first team members, but star internationals that have brought a lot to the Premier League in the past five years or so.

At the end of last season there was not a huge rush to snap up free signings from the Premier League as there was very little to choose from. Hargreaves, Ba and McFadden were about as glamorous as it got last May but this year a team could be built solely from free signings that could well finish in the top half of the league. A club could spend their whole transfer budget on wages for these players and have a better side than most in the Premier League next season.

Click on Tomas Rosicky to unveil the Bosman XI for 2012

So whether it’s team mates coming to blows, the paparazzi snapping players boozing it up or just stupid and bizarre actions, they make it onto the list. What didn’t make it was the England WAGS from the 2006 World Cup, they reportedly distracted the players during the tournament and although it wasn’t the players misbehaving themselves, they nearly made it into the top ten. Also, quite a few people recommended Cristiano Ronaldo photographed in speedo’s as a criminal activity, but again it failed to make the ten below…..

Click on Gazza below to see the Top TEN!

Compiled by Matt Freebody

But then comes that controversial, ugly side of football; like a late, late substitution by the opposition you hoped wouldn’t make an appearance, but diving is all too common and certainly takes away from the integrity of the game. In fact, the very mention of integrity in the modern game has become laughable, but that is the situation we’ve come to accept.

Far too many regular divers and conmen line-up for Premer League clubs each week. And it’s not necessarily the fact that you want to get rid of them as players, but rather highlight and eradicate the persistent diving to win one over on the other team. Common, ugly, and with no rightful place in the game.

Click on Didier Drogba to unveil the top 10

That’s the viewpoint of course, if your team is not involved, otherwise there’s no pleasure at all. Embarrassment is just one fear –the prospect of going into work the next day in the knowledge that if your side is relegated, you’ll be hearing about it for a good while yet.

Going into Sunday 24th May in 2009, Newcastle and Sunderland fans feared the worst but also hoped for the worst; for their rivals that is. Whilst the Tyne-Wear duo lost on the final day, it was Newcastle who ultimately perished along with West Bromwich Albion and another side from the North East, Middlesbrough.

Despite the Mackems glee at the demise of their neighbours, it marked a 21st Century low for football in the North East. It’s an area with some of the most passionate fans the country has to offer, many saying they deserved better in the aftermath.

That’s what they are getting nearly three years on, but it hasn’t been without trial or tribulation. Both are on their second manager since 2009’s edition of Survival Sunday but Mike Ashley and Ellis Short appear to have found ones who acquiesce with their ideas.

Chris Hughton and Steve Bruce were unfortunate to be sacked but many haven’t dwelt on this, such has been the achievements of their successors. For instance, Alan Pardew has managed to build a very strong side in the space of three transfer windows.

Talented ball players such as Yohan Cabaye have signed. Pardew hasn’t ignored his side’s defensive responsibilities either by bringing in Cheik Tiote, an excellent ball-winning midfielder and Davide Santon, a fullback who’ll grow in stature the more he plays.

Then there’s Demba Ba the most astute acquisition of them all. Two elements have been free to the Senegalese forward – his price tag and his scoring. It will be intriguing to see what further impact Papiss Demba Cissé has after such a good first impression with a fantastic strike on debut. They deservedly sit 5th in the Premier League but just three places below are Sunderland.

This was improbable before the arrival of Martin O’Neill who helped to relegate Newcastle on the final day just under three years ago. With only one transfer window under his belt, he appears happy enough with this squad for now, adding loanees Wayne Bridge and Sotirios Kyrgiakos on Transfer Deadline Day. Then again, why wouldn’t he be satisfied? Sunderland are the in-form Premier League team.

He has brought the best out of attacking midfielder Stéphane Sessegnon who has played the role of goal scorer and creator brilliantly. O’Neill also managed to unearth a gem originally bought by Steve Bruce in James McClean. Their defensive effort shouldn’t be ignored either as despite some recent injury problems, they have the division’s third best defence.

Hughton and Bruce deserve some credit for restarting the building process. The latter wasn’t short of funds at Sunderland. Consider though how wasteful with money some teams have been, such as Liverpool and he deserves praise for assembling the current squad. However, Hughton’s task of regrouping and leading Newcastle’s eventual procession back into the Premier League was arguably more impressive.

The form of the two North East rivals should help to make both sides stronger and intensify the already fierce rivalry between the clubs, if they continue to push each other as it appears currently.

To take the next step, Pardew and O’Neill must hold on to key assets in the summer. They must look to Spurs for inspiration and the way they didn’t sell Luka Modric in the summer. Granted, neither side has a player quite in the same class as the Croatian but if they sell their best players, they risk going backwards. Previously, the North London side have sold the players such as Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov, weakening themselves in the process and strengthening those above them. If you want to be competing in the higher echelons of the table, then an appropriate mentality needs to be taken.

This weekend, Newcastle will have a chance to have a closer look at Tottenham at White Hart Lane while Sunderland entertain Arsenal. It’s a mark of how far the sides have come that neither team will be overwhelming underdogs in either fixture.

Neither team will be participating in Survival Sunday in 2012 as much as both sets of fans would love to revel in the other’s demise. That might come on March 4th when Sunderland visit Newcastle. As the game draws ever closer, the more exciting a spectacle it becomes. Such is the performance of both; perhaps it should be labelled Salubrious Sunday.

Who do you think will come out on top this season between Newcastle and Sunderland? Tweet me @arhindtutt or comment below…

Article originally written at Gone With The Rhind

It will nicely line their own pocket and give them another team to claim ‘they supported as a boy’ as well as giving them another set of fans that can adore them for roughly 12 months. Passed around from club to club, it is usually a striker who clubs feel will solve all of their problems based on their passed goalscoring history but they will once again start well and fade, probably claiming home sickness.

Click on Robbie Keane to unveil the top 10

Be prepared that one of these players has probably played for your club and done the same thing as they usually do but have I missed any of the top ten players that love a transfer out? Let me know on Twitter: @Brad_Pinard

The Captaincy Debate

Perhaps the most in-form player in the Premier League outside of the top six is Stéphane Sessegnon. Playing in a role just behind the striker has meant he’s been getting into plenty of dangerous positions as the statistics show. Only once in his last eight league games has the Benin international failed to pick up a goal or an assist. Arsenal make the long trip to the North East on Saturday. The Gunners have the third worst defence away from home and Martin O’Neill will be hoping Sessegnon can take full advantage of this.

Maybe Fulham‘s Clint Dempsey takes your fancy though. The top scoring American in the history of the Premier League has been the Whites most prolific force of late. With the departure of Bobby Zamora, Dempsey now has added responsibility when it comes to scoring the goals. He comes up against Stoke on Saturday, a side he has a history of netting against. In the corresponding fixtures last year, he bagged a double and Fulham could do with a repeat performance on Saturday.

Wayne Rooney’s form this season has been sporadic but when he’s found it, the England forward has been brilliant. Last weekend’s two goals from the spot against Chelsea were impressively dispatched considering Rooney has missed two spot kicks this season. What’s more, they were his first strikes since December. Perhaps it will mark the beginning of a run of form for Rooney, who looks a good shout to net against Liverpool in the game of the weekend.

However, if Spurs are playing at home, it’s hard to ignore Gareth Bale’s presence. In his last eight at White Hart Lane, the Welshman has five goals and six assists. Newcastle will not be easy pickings for Spurs by any means though. In fact, every team who has overcome the Toon this campaign has had to score at least three goals. Spurs certainly have the firepower to do this and Bale will be crucial to any possible victory in Saturday’s late kick off.

Captain: Gareth Bale – If in doubt, give it to the most dangerous winger in the Premier League at the moment. Expect Bale to make an impact of some sort at White Hart Lane.

Vice Captain: Wayne Rooney – Just under a year ago, Rooney rose to the occasion with a mercurial bicycle kick against Manchester City. The England forward is certainly capable of providing another special moment against another one of United’s fierce rivals – Liverpool.

Long Term Look

This column may appear to have a Sunderland bias of late but ultimately they are the in-form team in the Premier League which can’t be ignored. Having said to include Sessegnon a few weeks back, it’s time to recommend some more Black Cats to put in your side. So why not compliment Benin’s finest with Phil Bardsley and James McClean. Both are priced under £5 million and have been racking up the points of late.

Bardsley has been part of a defence which has kept clean sheets in four of its last six games. What’s more the Scottish international is more than capable of an assist as is Irish winger James McClean. The 22-year-old who only made his Sunderland debut in December has two goals and two assists to his name in six starts for the Mackems.

Your team perhaps doesn’t need both Sessegnon and McClean in midfield, one will suffice but as his price suggests, Stéphane Sessegnon is more likely to guarantee you points on a regular basis. Either way, having Sunderland players looks to be very beneficial at this moment in time!

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The pair were apprehended by Northumbria Police, with damage to vehicles in Stowell Street in Newcastle’s China Town, which is a well known area for Newcastle fans to visit before the Tyneside club’s games.

The reported incident happened at 10pm on December 6th, two days after The Black Cats were beaten 2-1 by Wolves.

The maximum sentence for this offence according to The Daily Telegraph is three months imprisonment and a fine of £2,500, but a warning is more likely in this case.

Both players have not played a part in the club’s revival under Martin O’Neill due to injury.

Meanwhile, Bantams midfielder Jack Colback is looking forward to facing Arsenal on Saturday, as Sunderland and The Gunners will meet twice in quick succession; once in the Premier League and once in the FA Cup fifth round.

“It’s a good opportunity for us. They come up to our place twice and I am sure they will be fearing us as much as we fear them.

“It should be a good game, the one on Saturday, and hopefully we can keep on winning.

“We know what to expect from them. They pass it well and we like to do the same,” he stated.

By Gareth McKnight

It hasn’t happened many times in the 20-year existence of the Premier League but on the few occasions a team without the resources and stature of the so called ‘big clubs’ decided they want a place in the illustrious top six, it’s rather exciting to watch. This season Newcastle United, touted as relegation candidates just a few months ago, have made an astonishing start to the campaign going 11 games unbeaten a run which has seen them soar into the top three. For a few hours on Saturday after their win over Everton the Magpies went second which is some achievement considering the troubled pre-season they endured which was documented closely in the press. Whilst their challenge to stay in their current position may ultimately falter as the season progresses it’s safe to say that, as of now, the Geordies are surprising everyone on and off the field.

Their rise to prominence is both remarkable and enchanting evoking memories of sides who have no business challenging at the top flight summit but fancy adding a bit of spice to the Premier League season. You have to admit it’s always a pleasure to watch the underdogs beat the big guns, david slay goliath and the weedy kid kick seven bells out of the school yard bully.

Ladies and Gentleman I present to you the Top TEN Premier League Surprise Packages.

Click on the Norwich City boys to see the Top Ten