The Biggest Flops of This Season?

• Edin Dzeko – Is it just me or have Man City’s big money transfers seemed to fail to live up to their hype? Whilst City fans will argue vehemently (like they usually do) and defend their team savagely, claiming that Dzeko scored a goal that kept them in the FA Cup; a competition that they of course went on to win. It’s all well and good claiming such a thing, however the goal came against League Two (now League One) side Notts County. When you take into consideration that Dzeko was absolutely banging them in for Wolfsburg not too long ago, Notts County should have been an absolute walk in the park for him and he should have made more of a substantial impact in the Premiership than his five goals have proven so far. For a team with decent enough wingers that should be supplying him with goals a-plenty, Dzeko manages to make himself look very isolated when Mancini gives him a bit of a go. Whether over the course of the summer he’ll learn to adapt his play to the English league time can only tell, but for a player valued so highly it’s been a disappointment not seeing him deliver like he should. Another special mention while I’m on the subject of Man City here goes to James Milner. For all the trouble and strife that his transfer to the Blues caused (almost certainly causing Martin O’Neil’s walkout – I’d be pissed off too if my club was turning into a feeder for the bigger clubs), he hasn’t exactly set Eastlands on fire with his displays and proved his worth in transfer fees.

• Fernando Torres – Speaking of not proving their worth in transfer fees, I think it was a little bit inevitable – almost too obvious that I’d include El Niño in my list. You’d have thought that Roman Abramovich would have learnt last time, when he triumphantly ruined Andriy Shevchenko’s career that he should not dictate who his money is spent on; that’s the job of the manager. One could see this season as a dastardly exchange between Liverpool and Chelsea; the Blues laughing and rubbing their hands as they offloaded the past-it Joe Cole to their Mersey rivals, and similarly the Reds laughing and rubbing their hands as they offloaded (past it?) sulk merchant Torres. The only difference between the two pieces of business being that Chelsea were mugged into paying a frankly whopping £50m for a man who had been having a shocker of a season on the back of another shocker of a season for Liverpool. A move to a club where he actually wanted to play hinted that he might find his scoring touch again and be as deadly as he was almost three years ago now, but no. Still he slumps his shoulders, looks uninterested, and sulks his way to the bench when he’s substituted like a Spaniard who has missed his siesta. Chelsea fans won’t manage to convince me that a goal against West Ham, professional calamity experts this season, suddenly makes him worth his transfer fee; the ball stopped on a puddle for Christ’s sake. Again, a full summer’s break and a good rest may bring him back into action to begin next season razor sharp once again, but in the meantime – fifty million quid?

• Heurelho Gomes – A player that seems to have gone backwards rather than forwards and the reasoning behind it is baffling. Whilst he had a very solid season last time round, this year the Brazilian has gone back to the form when he first joined the club that wasn’t so much ‘shot stopper’ rather ‘shot spiller’. Unfortunately for Spurs this season, Gomes just hasn’t had the consistency of a Champions League level keeper, his displays in both legs against Real Madrid being the primary focus here. In the games I have seen Spurs play this season, Gomes manages the consistency of being unsure when coming to collect a cross, an inability to hold onto the ball, and his lack of being able to command his penalty area like a good goalkeeper should have been a major hindrance in Spurs progressing and re-qualifying for Europe again this year. It’s perfectly understandable that goalkeepers make mistakes, and that’s a given; it happens to every keeper, but Gomes has just done it too many times this year and it has affected his team in a dire way.

• Arsene Wenger – A bit of a controversial choice that I’ve even questioned myself, because by all intents and purposes, I quite like Arsenal and the way they play under Wenger. Sure enough they can be a bit frustrating to watch when they dick about with the ball too much when they should just shoot, but when they’re on their game, they’re a delight to watch. So what I can’t understand is how badly it’s fallen apart since the Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham; a trophy that they should have walked through to picking up (no disrespect to Birmingham City fans) and on course to give United a right good challenge for the league. Wenger has said it himself though, his team were dejected after that cup final loss, so surely it should be up to the manager to fire his players up and say to them “well if we can’t win this, then we can surely win the Premiership”. And in all respect to Man United, they should have been challenged more than they should. A late surge from Chelsea aside, as soon as Arsenal fell apart the league was practically sealed for that lot from Manchester. It should have been up to the manager to instil some belief into his players that they can be successful, but as has been the case for a long time now especially in Arsenal terms, that success is still eluding them. I’m all for Wenger’s theory of investing in players for the future, but the man needs some genuine match winners at his disposal; experienced players who know just what to say to the younger, more inexperienced members of the squad. Furthermore, when Wenger had the opportunity in January to sort out his back four – another thing that has plagued the Gunners this year – he did nothing. The talk of whether Wenger’s time at the helm is up has been around for a season or two now, but in my opinion it seems to be going around a little louder than usual lately. Do Arsenal need a new manager to freshen things up? I don’t think so personally, but football is a very fickle sport and fans and more importantly board members can soon forget how much experience and history of winning trophies a manager has.

And there you have it, just a pick of some of the disappointments of the season this time round. Honourable mentions that haven’t been already highlighted include Bebe, Poulsen and Squillaci, but I’ll leave further flops to be discussed by your good selves.

This article was written by Arron Fellows and is courtesy of our partner website thisisfutbol.com. Read the latest news and blogs about European Football at TiF. – ed

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