It stands to reason. You have to be a pretty good footballer to play in
English football’s top division. They don’t just give any mug a game, do
they?
Well, yes, sometimes they do. And our list of 50 stumblebums, no-goodniks and
fat lads proves that the odd duffer slips through the net.
We consulted supporters from clubs which have played in the English top-flight
since 1970 for their nominations – and this is the result.
Agree or disagree ? Have your say below
50 Claus Lundekvam (Southampton)
Saints boss Gordon Strachan paid this glowing tribute to the one-paced
Scandinavian in 2003: “He was carried off at Leicester and someone asked me
if he was unconscious. I didn’t have a clue. That’s what he’s always like.”
49 Massimo Taibi (Manchester United)
United’s worst keeper ever – in a competitive field featuring Mark Bosnich.
The Italian takes the prize for that dive over a shot from Matt Le Tissier,
an all-time You Tube favourite. Watch that ludicrous blunder here.
48 Stephane Guiv’arch (Newcastle)
Milburn, Macdonald, Shearer and ... Guiv’arch! The World Cup winner never came
close to that pantheon. Come to that, he’s lagging in Tyneside’s Hall of
Centre-Forward Fame (they could call it Striker Grove) behind Cunningham,
Mirandinha and Ameobi.
47 Jody Morris (Chelsea, Leeds)
Grew up at Chelsea with Dennis Wise as his mentor, and turned into the snidey
kid brother everyone hates. Had all of Wise’s sly tendencies and penchant
for a scrape, but none of the skill. Perfect acquisition for Leeds in 2003,
then.
46 Nigel Quashie (QPR, Forest, Southampton, WBA and more)
Relegated four times with four clubs – and only narrowly avoided No 5 with
West Ham last year.
45 Roque Junior (Leeds)
The execrable Brazilian arrived on loan for a few months from AC Milan in
2003, and did as much as anybody to shove Leeds towards destruction.
44 Sergei Rebrov (Tottenham)
Looked good enough playing alongside Andriy Shevchenko for Dynamo Kiev. Sadly,
Glenn Hoddle’s £11m signing never looked the same force with Steffen
Iversen.
43 David May (Blackburn, Man United)
The guy picked up Premiership winner’s medals with two clubs. But so did Larry
Lloyd.
42 Larry Lloyd (Liverpool, Nottingham Forest)
See David May (No 43)
41 Bosko Balaban (Aston Villa)
They said Deadly Doug was tight, but you can hardly blame him after Ellis
fished £6m out of his humbug tin for John Gregory to spend, and the manager
came back with the elusive Croatian. He never started a Premiership game and
scored no goals.
40 Carlton Palmer (Southampton)
“He covers every blade of grass out there,” said Saints manager, Dave Jones.
“But that’s only because his first touch is so crap.”
39 Claudio Marangoni (Sunderland)
The striker swapped the rolling pampas of Argentina for Wearside when he
signed for a club-record £320,000 at Christmas 1979. One year and three
goals later he went back home. Only Geordies were sorry to see him go.
38 Glenn Keeley (Everton)
Arrived on loan from Blackburn keen to show his mettle at the highest level.
On debut in 1982, against Liverpool no less, he was sent off in the
first-half, The Reds won 5-0 and he never played for Everton again.
37 Marco Materazzi (Everton)
Yes, he won the World Cup with Italy. But the lean centre-half couldn’t tackle
a Sayers’ steak and kidney pie during his pointless spell at Goodison.
36 John Jensen (Arsenal)
Empires rose and fell in the time it took the bubble-permed Dane to score his
first Arsenal goal. Searing pace, an eye for goal and a fierce shot were
just three qualities he didn’t have.
35 Dean Austin (Tottenham)
The wafer-thin defender earned the wrath of the notoriously fickle Spurs
support early doors, and never won them round. Even now, he featured
strongly in a straw poll of Tottenhamites’ least favourite player ever to
wear the white.
34 Ramon Vega (Tottenham)
The big Swiss was Dean Austin, with (cow) bells on.
33 Alberto Tarantini (Birmingham City)
Jim Smith went down the Spurs road and hired himself an Argentinian World Cup
winner in the afterglow of 1978, but the Bald Eagle chose this dud
left-back. Blues were relegated.
32 Gary Sprake (Leeds)
The Kop serenaded the hapless Welshman with “Careless Hands” when he threw
another one into the back of his own net, hardly a unique moment for the
accident-prone Inspector Clouseau of international goalkeeping.
31 Charlie Nicholas (Arsenal)
The much-hyped Champagne Charlie didn’t even amount to Pomagne Charlie at
Highbury.
30 Darren Ferguson (Manchester United)
Tried to make a name for himself at Old Trafford in the early 90s, but it was
already taken.
29 Winston Bogarde (Chelsea)
For all the good this expensive, non-playing flop ever did Chelsea, they might
as well have signed foppish character actor, Dirk Bogarde. Or maybe they did
and tried to cover it up.
28 Iain Dowie (West Ham)
Headlines that were never written: “It’s Iain Wow-ie!”, and maybe “Dow ya
think I’m sexy.” Watch Dowie's "finest" moment with
a classic own goal against Stockport County here.
27 Eric Djemba-Djemba (Man United, Aston Villa)
One Djemba would have been bad enough, but two of them was more than plenty.
26 Frank Sinclair (Leicester City)
Whatever the opposite of a purple patch is, Frank ‘Spencer’ Sinclair had one
in August 1999. In two matches in August he scored two risible own goals,
single-handedly costing his team three points. That month of mishaps alone
earns him a place in the annals of infamy.
25 Steve Marlet (Fulham)
Mr Fayed didn’t rise to the top in business by not knowing the value of a
pound. So mystery remains why he was persuaded to give Lyons eleven and a
half mill for the misfit striker. Marlet’s ghost will haunt him to the end
of his days.
24 Mark Dennis (Birmingham City)
There were rumours in the game that Dennis could actually play, and possessed
a decent enough left foot. But the Blues’ anti-footballer was content to
amass the game’s blackest rap sheet.
23 Torben Piechnik (Liverpool)
Graeme Souness faces the bad transfer tribunal again for the inexplicable
purchase of the dithering Dane. English football was no picnic for Piechnik
and he slunk back to Denmark in short order.
22 John Fashanu (Wimbledon)
Fash elbows his way into the list for a legion of crimes and misdemeanours
inflicted on association football in the dubious cause of Wimbledon FC,
topped by the assault which shattered Saint Gary Mabbutt’s eye socket.
21 Nikola Jovanovic (Manchester United)
Third-worst United centre-half of all time (see nos 5 and 6).
20 Jason Lee (Nottingham Forest)
“He’s got a pineapple on his head,” crooned fans all over the land in homage
to the dreadlocked striker, who couldn’t hit a ruminant’s posterior with a
stringed musical instrument. Watch a clip of Jason on Baddiel and
Skinner's Fantasy Football League here.
19 Marco Boogers (West Ham)
He made his mark on English football, but only on Gary Neville’s midriff as a
murderous tackle almost wiped out the United right-back. It was all downhill
from there, as Mad Marco fled East London for a caravan park somewhere in
the Low Countries.
18 Martin Jol (West Brom)
The Dutchman was away from school the day they taught the sophisticated tenets
of Total Football, and the no-nonsense midfielder went on to spread mayhem
across the midfields of England.
17 Nicky Summerbee (Manchester City)
The mid-90s City ‘winger’ earns his place on account of his singular running
style. Arse stuck out in the fashion of a cartoon Mick Jagger, in Manchester
derbies he made the ungainly Phil Neville look like Nijinsky.
16 Chris Kamara (Leeds)
For more than two decades Kammy has sported the perma-frizzed coiff of a 60s
soul legend, but it failed to distract from a playing style long on effort,
short on elegance.
15 Ade Akinbiyi (Leicester City)
Big Ade’s combined career transfer value would dwarf the national debt of an
especially feckless banana republic, but he couldn’t buy a goal at Filbert
Street after signing in 2000.
14 Micky Droy (Chelsea)
Nouveau Chelsea fans should know that their swanky club’s DNA contains the
traces of lumbering 1970s dinosaurs such as Big Micky.
13 Steve Daley (Manchester City)
The poor bloke suffered from one of Man City’s periodic bouts of madness when
they insisted on paying Wolves a record £1.45m for him in 1979, back in the
days when £1.45m was £1.45m. He never looked close to matching the
valuation.
12 Terry Hurlock (Millwall)
Graced Cold Blow Lane during The Lions’ unlikely late 80s spell in the top
flight, and unleashed a short-lived reign of midfield terror. Hurlock, a
one-man disciplinary crime wave, remains, unsurprisingly, a cult hero in
Millwall-supporting enclaves of south London.
11 Billy Woof (Middlesbrough)
Even three decades down the road Boro fans are still convinced Billy only ever
got a game because he was the son-in-law of John Neal, the manager.
10 Vinnie Jones (Wimbledon and more)
Told Kenny Dalglish he intended to bite off his ear and spit in the whole. And
they said there were no characters left in the game.
9 Ian Ormondroyd (Aston Villa)
Nature’s prototype for Peter Crouch lived at the same lofty altitudes as his
Villa Park successor, but perhaps lacked his touch and speed – so why did he
play on the wing?
8 Andrea Silenzi (Nottingham Forest)
The Italian who looked much like a horse turned out to be a load of pony at
the City Ground after his multi-billion lira move from Torino in 1995, and
pips Justin Fashanu as Forest’s greatest transfer rick ever.
7 Li Wei-Feng (Everton)
Arrived as part of a buy-one-get-one-free deal that brought the not-too-bad Li
Tie to Goodison in 2002. The Toffees should have left him on the shelf...
6 William Prunier (Man United)
The baldy Bordeaux triallist starred in a calamitous 4-1 defeat at Spurs on
New Year’s Day 1996, and he was bundled back onto a plane to France the next
day.
5 Arnold Sidebottom (Man United)
Ryan’s dad also bowled quickly for England, but the centre-half injected no
discernible pace to the worst United team since records began.
4 Istvan Kozma (Liverpool)
Yet another Souness master signing – the abject Magyar cost £300,000 from
Dunfermline in 1992 and played just three games for the Reds before Souey
realised he’d made one more transfer goulash.
3 Gus Caesar (Arsenal)
“... painfully, obviously, out of his depth ... he looked like a rabbit frozen
to the spot ... and then he starts to thrash about, horribly and
pitifully...” not our words – those of ultra-loyal Arsenalist, Nick Hornby.
2 Tomas Brolin (Leeds, Crystal Palace)
Hard to imagine that Leeds United, normally a model of fiscal probity, paid
£4.5m for the Swedish meatball in 1995. A good footballer treats his body
like a temple. Brolin’s was a bouncy castle.
1 Ali Dia (Southampton)
Was he George Weah’s cousin? Was he hell! Neither had the impostor won 12 caps
for Senegal, nor had he played for Paris St Germain. But it took Saints boss
Graeme Souness a whole 52 minutes to suss he’d been had in 1996.
jesper blomqvist? kleberson?jordi cruyff?
Bobby, Ottawa,
Did Hoddle sign Rebrov? I think i remember him playing under George Graham scoring in FA Cup Q/Fs before Arsenal popped their "always winning a cup in year that ends in a one" bubble in the S/Fs by which time Hoddle had replaced George
Pat Comey, Bangor
Pat Comey, Bangor, Co Down
David May left Blackburn before they won the league. He picked up two winners medals in his time at Man Utd.
Scott, Huddersfield,
i dont know how this idiot compiled this list. Larry Lloyd????
ask bill shankly, and brian clough who signed him if he was a good player, or alf ramsey who picked him for england, i think names of that calibre would know more than you. or you can ask to see his TWO european cup medals.
mark, london, england
I remember a forward called Billy Woof playing for Middlesbrough, but you're actually describing another forward called Billy Ashcroft who i believe left the game to become a publican on Merseyside. We signed him from Wrexham because he was John Neal's son-in-law. Got converted to centre-half.
Trev, Middlesbrough,
Last time i checked (at time of his retirement) LUNDEKVAM was, after Dennis Bergkamp ,the foreign player with most games played in the Premiership. How can that qualify to a place int he worst 50?? And mind you, he started all games except 2 if i remember correctly. And he was never injured..
chris airnes, geneva, switzerland
Lundekvam was after Bergkamp the foreign player with most games played in the premiership when Saints got relegated. And he started all those games except for 2... Not sure how that can qualify him for the list. He even scored once!
Kris, London, UK
There was a good quote on Carl Leaburn, Charlton Athletic's gangly 'striker', which went something like, "His first touch is horrible. Trouble is, his second touch is worse."
Mike Fibes, Warrington, Cheshire
Where's Paddy Roche? Single handedly cost us the league in 76.
Stephen Done, Adelaide, Australia
how can larry lloyd be on this list?
Honours
Division 1 (level 1): 1973, 1978
European Cup: 1979, 1980
UEFA Cup: 1973
Football League Cup: 1978, 1979
Charity Shield: 1978
European Super Cup: 1979
richie, liverpool,
So terribly boring - and English - to include Brolin and Milosevic. "Controversial?", "Funny?". Not. Just plain boring.
Alexander, Amsterdam, Holland
Claudio Marangoni was a defensive midfielder a legend in Independiente at 80`s
Malvinas Argentinas Forever
Ariel Servettini, Avellaneda, Argentina
Nicola Berti, Carl Cort, Igor Stepanovs, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Michele Patovano, Attilio Lombardi
Shan Cassim, Winchester, UK
Bit harsh Lundekvam is on the list!
And no Titus Bramble?
Matt Thornton, Caerphilly,
Djimi Traore???
Lars Bohinen???
Steve Marlet I thought was an ok player who just never got given the chance by Fulham.
Samo Ward, Wigan, Lancashire, England
How Did Eddie Mcgoldrick or Glen Helder of Arsenal not get on this list????
Ash Timms, Broadstone , Dorset
Not Sure about Fashanu in the Top 50 worse Players.....
What does anybody else think..
Scott, Wakefield, United Kingdom
savo milosevic cant b considered one of the 50 worst players as even though he missed a hellalot of chances he still managed to get around 10 a season, and one the league cup twice
Jason Hyde, Cheshunt, England
David May did not win the Premiership with two different clubs, its was Henning Berg. Berg is the only player to win the Premiership with two different clubs, firstly Blackburn Rovers, secondly Manchester United
John Stone, Leigh, Lancashire
Thanks for NOT including any Bradford City players!!
Bantam1945, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
savo milosevic?
nicton wallace, scarborough, england
Apparently, Ferguson was keen to keep William Prunier, and according to Wickipedia, this would turn out to be one of the only transfer dealings Ferguson regrets, along with the sale of Jaap Stam.
Will Fowler, Durham, Durham