The Top 5 Premiership Flops
There’s a lot of money being splashed around the Premiership these days, and most of it on foreign players. In most cases, managers know who they are signing, but in the first fledgling years of the Premiership, it could have been anyone. Here’s my top 5 Premiership flops…
5. Bosko Balaban: What the heck happened here? He waltzes in for what at the time sounded like a massive transfer fee (I know 6m isn’t much any more), scores the grand sum of absolutely nothing and waltzes out. What a load of rubbish. Was John Gregory in charge at the time? Ahhhhhh, now that might explain something.
4. Tomas Brolin: What makes this story so sad is that Brolin came with a huge reputation, having never put a foot wrong. When he put a foot on English soil, however, everything started to go pear-shaped, including Brolin himself who ballooned in size. He cost Leeds 4.5m which in those days was a lot of money, and George Graham shipped him out after just 19 games. Crystal Palace gave him a crack but when Brolin was found upside down in a dustbin outside Burger King, even they got shot of him. That last bit may or may not be true.
3. Steve Marlet: Marlet was never really that bad - it was just the 11.5m price tag that turned a few heads and got people thinking “Hey - have Fulham really found a decent player here?” No they blood hadn’t! He was worth about 1.5m, but Al Fayed wasn’t thinking straight and mucked the cheque up. Marlet came, played a little, left little impression - and left.
2. Jean-Alain Boumsong: This must be a joke, yes? Jean-Alain Boumsong, so bad that he looks like his manager has made him sit in a swivel chair, rotated him 100 times and sent him out onto the pitch for a dare, signs for Juventus? After being rotten for Newcastle 92 minutes out of 90 every week? This is amazing.
1. Ali Dia. I just love to hear about Ali Dia - it’s the funniest football story ever, and made especially so because it happened to Graeme Souness - the worst manager ever. Ali Dia comes on for about two minutes before Souness realises he’s been had - this is not George Weah’s cousin, it’s some bloke from a caravan park! Brilliant.
Can you think of anyone worse than this lot? Give me a shout!