Top 5 Disappointing Players 2013/14: Featuring Manchester United and Spurs big money flops

21 April 2014 09:30

With the end of the season approaching now is the perfect time to look back and pick out some of the most disappointing players of this premier league season.

Vincent Kompany

Demischellis gets a lot of the ire for being not very good at defending. Demischellis poor defensive qualities however would not have surprised anyone, other than Pellegrini, who had seen the Argentine play at either Malaga or Bayern Munich. So its hard to say that Demischellis has been a disappointment. Vincent Kompany's poor defending thoughout the season however has been surprising.

The catalogue of Kompany's mistakes is alarming. His poor clearance led to Liverpool's winner. He was caught out of position and got sent off against Hull. He was caught out of position and partially responsible for Demischellis getting sent off against Barcelona. His poor footwork and technique led to a comedy own goal against Fulham.

This isn't to say that Kompany is a bad defender but he is often seen as one of the best defenders in the league. He hasn't lived up to this.

Marouane Fellaini

It was tempting to just put down Manchester United but that would be cheating. Instead I am going to select David Moyes' first big money signing Marouane Fellaini who cost the Glazers a whopping £27.5 million.

You can legitimately question whether Fellaini was the player Manchester United needed but you can't forget that Fellaini had enjoyed five seasons at Everton during which he had often excelled.

At Old Trafford however, he has looked a yard and a half off the pace and in recent games has decided to make up for his poor performance but kicking and elbowing the opposition.

Roberto Soldado

Other than Christian Eriksen all of Tottenham's signings have been sub-par. Many these signings though haven't played that much so it's hard to judge them. Erik Lamela for example has made just three league starts and hasn't played this calender year.

Soldado though stands outs as a disappointment. Firstly, he cost £26 million. Secondly, he has played consistently throughout much of the season so eventually you would think his quality would shine through. Thirdly, he came to White Hart Lane after scoring 25, 27 and 30 goals over the previous three seasons for Valencia. It was reasonable to assume he would be at least pushing to break the 20 goal barrier.

Therefore 11 goals from 27 starts and 6 substitute appearances is at least nine goals away from being average. The Spaniard’s record gets even worse when you consider 45% of his goals were from the penalty spot.

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel

You can make a good argument that Can Van Wolfswinkel poor season went a long way to costing Chris Hughton his job.

When a club of Norwich's spending power spend 10 million Euros on a striker they hope to see goals but at a bare minimum they expect to see shots on target. Since his debut goal against Everton Van Wolfwinkel hasn't scored again and has barely had a shot.

When you consider that the Dutchman arrived at Carrow Road off the back of two impressive seasons with Sporting Lisbon you begin to see just what a disappointment he was. One goal from 25 appearances is so far below expectations that even a Ipswich fan couldn't find it funny.

Dani Osvaldo

It is fortunate for Southampton that the likes of Lambert, Lallana and Shaw have been so great this season because their £15 million star striker signing Osvaldo was a massive flop.

Imagined as a player who would spearhead Southampton's attack and take them to the next level Osvaldo scored just three goals in 13 games. He then went on to headbutt fellow player Jose Fonte in a move that the Mirror alleged was designed to force a sale. Osvaldo was quickly loaned out to Juventus.

Osvaldo gets a place on this list though because he is a player who promised so much. He scored this goal against Manchester City but then delivered so little.

Source: DSG