Top Ten: Overrated Premier League footballers

redout

The premise for this one is simple:Sport.co.uk gives you ten Premier League footballers whom many a fan would wrongly consider to be a good signing for their club…

1. Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn Rovers) – The Norwegian wide man was being linked with £10m moves to various big name clubs after scoring a couple of wonder goals a few seasons ago but, while his form has picked up a bit of late, he has generally been a rather mediocre contributor to the Rovers cause.

2. Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) – Considering how much of a terrace darling Ian Wright’s lad used to be at the City of Manchester Stadium, it speaks volumes that City fans are now not particularly bothered whether or not he signs a new contract. The right-winger is not the same dynamic, havoc-wreaking presence that he was before he left for the bright lights and crisp notes at Chelsea.

3. John Carew (Aston Villa) – Another Norwegian, the target man has undoubtedly been a fine player for Martin O’Neill’s side…until this season. Whether his sudden uselessness can be attributed to a loss of fitness or interest is not entirely clear, but he’s probably less effective than – dare we say it - Emile Heskey at the moment.

4. Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur) – He’s a good player, isn’t he? Played for England and all that. And didn’t Jose Mourinho pick him in his fantasy football team? He must be amazing. Well, no. Jenas has been at White Hart Lane since 2005 and really ought to have stamped his mark on Spurs by now but, bar a decent run of form during the 2006-2007 season, he has resoundingly failed to do so.

5. Gael Clichy (Arsenal) – He’s even better than Ashley Cole, said the Arsenal fans of their young French left-back. But the two players’ respective performances this season have disclosed a considerable gulf in class in favour of the controversial Chelsea star.

6. Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland) – They call him the poor man’s Didier Drogba, but it’s more complex than that. According to current Poor Man’s exchange rates, there are currently three and a half Etheringtons to the Giggs, four point two Wes Browns to the Carvalho and a whopping seven point eight Kenwyne Joneses to the Drogba.

7. James Beattie (Stoke City) – Once every year and a half or so, Beattie will score at a vaguely impressive rate for ten or fifteen games, before eventually calming down and settling into a long scoreless groove when he remembers that he’s not particularly good at this football lark.

8. Matty Taylor (Bolton Wanderers) – The Trotters’ very own Morten Gamst Pedersen. Taylor is well liked by fans of other clubs for the smattering of spectacular goals he’s chipped in with for Bolton and former club Portsmouth but, in truth, he offers very little else when his noted work ethic eludes him, as it appears to have at the moment.

9. Peter Crouch (Tottenham Hotspur) – Currently being shown up badly by Roman Pavlyuchenko, Crouch has generally scored quite consistently over the last few seasons but plays so high up the pitch that he’s not only not good for much else but also negatively impacts upon the whole team. Witness Spurs transforming into a long ball side whenever he’s on the pitch.

10. Glen Johnson (Liverpool) – Everyone knows what the former Portsmouth right-back offers going forward but reservations were always held about his defending. Sure enough, Liverpool have looked stronger at the back this season when Johnson has been out of the side. Not the wisest use of £18m.

Honorable mentions: -
Michael Carrick (Manchester United)
Joseph Yobo (Everton)
Steve Sidwell (Aston Villa)
JOHN TERRY (CHELSEA)
William Gallas (Arsenal)
Kolo Toure (Manchester City)

Oh this one will surely stir the........

Sport uk

Töpher

Emile Heskey inefective? They're having a laugh, right? Right?! :eek:

premierstone

As an Arsenal fan I somewhat agree with Clichy, has been horribly out of form and seems very low on confidence, but the inclusion of William Gallas on the honourable mention list is an absolute joke, he has been superb this term, im assuming billy's inclusion has more to do with he's perceived personality than football.

mike65

10. Glen Johnson (Liverpool) – Everyone knows what the former Portsmouth right-back offers going forward but reservations were always held about his defending. Sure enough, Liverpool have looked stronger at the back this season when Johnson has been out of the side. Not the wisest use of £18m.

He's not actually played a huge amount to be honest and the back line was at sixes and sevens across its width earlier this season so picking out Johnson is rather lame but I guess it makes better copy then mentioning say Skrtel.

ctrl-alt-delete

1. Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn Rovers) – Don't agree: He was worth it back then when that was being talked about, He did lose his way, but has regained form lately - which coincides with him being free in the Summer. He still has great delivery from set pieces even if he has lost his scoring touch.

2. Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) – Don't agree another one i don't agree with, he is still a very tricky player and when he is very good he is brilliant. He has the odd off day, but no more than others in the league who play in his position.

3. John Carew (Aston Villa) – Don't agree I'd have his teamate Heskey in ahead of him here if i had to pick one. He can still do a job and is lethal with his penalties. I can't remember how much they paid for him but i wouldn't really call him overated.

4. Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur) – Agree No doubting he is a good player, but i feel being English he has had more praise and pressure heaped on him. He has his moments but they are too few and far between for me.

5. Gael Clichy (Arsenal) – I can't say i've seen enough of him to comment.

6. Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland) – Strongly Agree I think he is massively overated by some, but a lot of Sunderland fans don't rate him much either.

7. James Beattie (Stoke City) – Agree He can play very well as a target man, but i think Championship is his level.

8. Matty Taylor (Bolton Wanderers) – Havn't seen enough to comment.

9. Peter Crouch (Tottenham Hotspur) – Agree Has lost form since being at Spurs, as most of their Strikers have. There is no doubt he can do it, but i would have had Defoe, Pav and Keane when he was still there starting ahead of him. Harry obviously likes him.

10. Glen Johnson (Liverpool) – Don't agree He has been bery good whenever i have seen him. 18 million is a lot of money, but i think there are others in the team who are more overated than him.

I don't know who i would have in my own top ten. Of the others mentioned there if i was to include Carrick i'd include Lucas but i wouldn't put either near the list to be honest.

Jordonvito

1. Petr Cech
2. Mascherano
3. Arshavin
4.
5. Terry
6. Rio
7. Ballack
8. Carragher
9. Ashley Young
10. Bellamy

in no particular order

Savman

All of them!!

event

yet you used numbers ?

Jordonvito

event wrote: »

yet you used numbers ?

to simply keep count of them,

SlickRic

Cantona.

he gets far too much credit for 'nurturing' those utd youngsters to those League titles.

UnitedIrishman

Would agree with Pedersen, Beattie, Jenas and Jones. The rest aren't really over-rated, they've just been going through bad patches of form including the ones who are given as honourable mentions.

Mind you, wouldn't be a big fan of Gallas either and he seems quite headless.

JPA

1. Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn Rovers) – The Norwegian wide man was being linked with £10m moves to various big name clubs after scoring a couple of wonder goals a few seasons ago but, while his form has picked up a bit of late, he has generally been a rather mediocre contributor to the Rovers cause.

7. James Beattie (Stoke City) – Once every year and a half or so, Beattie will score at a vaguely impressive rate for ten or fifteen games, before eventually calming down and settling into a long scoreless groove when he remembers that he’s not particularly good at this football lark.

8. Matty Taylor (Bolton Wanderers) – The Trotters’ very own Morten Gamst Pedersen. Taylor is well liked by fans of other clubs for the smattering of spectacular goals he’s chipped in with for Bolton and former club Portsmouth but, in truth, he offers very little else when his noted work ethic eludes him, as it appears to have at the moment.

Who actually rates these players in the first place?

Mr Alan

first off, lol at johnson being incl, attacking he's brilliant. And he was our best defender before he got injured. Brilliant player.

Jordonvito wrote: »

1. Petr Cech
2. Mascherano
3. Arshavin
4. Arteta
5. Terry
6. Rio
7. Ballack
8. Carragher
9. Ashley Young
10. Bellamy

in no particular order

Secondly, are you messing? Every player on that list is quality

EI111

Am I the only person who thinks there never has and never will be a player as overrated as that donkey Adebayor?

mayordenis

Jordonvito wrote: »

1. Petr Cech
2. Mascherano
3. Arshavin
4. Arteta
5. Terry
6. Rio
7. Ballack
8. Carragher
9. Ashley Young
10. Bellamy

in no particular order

that team would win the league wouldn't even needs an eleventh and doesn't matter that the team wouldn't have structure.

Cech
Carra Rio Terry
Arteta Masch Ballack Young
Arshavin
Bellamy

efb

Theo Walcott.

So he can run.... Anything else..?

EI111

How do you determine how highly they are rated anyway?
Wages? Transfer fees? A general gauge of supporter opinion towards them?

Whoever said Arteta was overrated I'd like to know how highly they think he is 'rated' and by what means.

JPA

EI111 wrote: »

Am I the only person who thinks there never has and never will be a player as overrated as that donkey Adebayor?

Season before last he was one of the best in the world. Although it was temporary.

mayordenis wrote: »

that team would win the league wouldn't even needs an eleventh and doesn't matter that the team wouldn't have structure.

Cech
Carra Rio Terry
Arteta Masch Ballack Young
Arshavin
Bellamy

Chelsea have a better team than that easily.

EI111

JPA wrote: »

Season before last he was one of the best in the world. Although it was temporary.

I think what happened was Fabregas was one of the best in the world, Adebayor just had the good fortune to be the one picked to tap away the perfect passes he was getting. He still managed to fall over or apply an embarrassing finish to at least half of them.

Jordonvito

Mr Alan wrote: »

first off, lol at johnson being incl, attacking he's brilliant. And he was our best defender before he got injured. Brilliant player.
Secondly, are you messing? Every player on that list is quality

see these players are actually rated, a lot of the players on the origninal list arent even rated in the first place to be overrated imo. obvioulsly they are good players on my list, i just think that they get more credit than they are due,

Jazzy

terry over rated??????

beattie rated????

lol @ Jordonvito's selection

Jordonvito

Jazzy wrote: »

terry over rated??????

beattie rated????

lol @ Jordonvito's selection

well how about more people come up with a list of players who in their opinion are overrated.

L'prof

Clichy is having a bad season and has been injured for large portions of it but, I don't think that means he's overrated! Gallas has been one of out best players this season too.

Hank_Jones

Lampard
Agbonlahor
Mascherano

Jordonvito

EI111 wrote: »

How do you determine how highly they are rated anyway?
Wages? Transfer fees? A general gauge of supporter opinion towards them?

Whoever said Arteta was overrated I'd like to know how highly they think he is 'rated' and by what means.

i removed arteta from my list, because I realised I was wrong, the rest i stand by though.

Mars Bar

EI111 wrote: »

How do you determine how highly they are rated anyway?
Wages? Transfer fees? A general gauge of supporter opinion towards them?

Whoever said Arteta was overrated I'd like to know how highly they think he is 'rated' and by what means.

Fantasy Football I'd say.

missingtime

its hard to gauge this cos sky overrate everything to do with the premiership. you could argue every high profile english player in the last 10 years purely because of sky. and to a lesser extend the britsh media.

Jazzy

Jordonvito wrote: »

well how about more people come up with a list of players who in their opinion are overrated.

good old opinions. you can say anything with them, its great

CHD

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Lampard
Agbonlahor
Mascherano

:pac:

Rekop dog

The John Carew one is a little harsh IMO, diesnt deserve to be in that company!

I'd say Michael Ballack never quite lived up to expectations considering how big a name he was.

Stephen Reid was also linked to Manchester United pre injury, never thought he was that good. Obv going to get hammered for that because most posters here can't take off they're patriotical hats to form an unbias opinion.

Ferris_Bueller

Rekop dog wrote: »

Stephen Reid was also linked to Manchester United pre injury, never thought he was that good. Obv going to get hammered for that because most posters here can't take off they're patriotical hats to form an unbias opinion.

I'd agree with you there, while he is (was?) a good player and would improve our midfield, people were talking about him coming back to the Irish squad as if he was Kaka.

Jordonvito

Jazzy wrote: »

good old opinions. you can say anything with them, its great

once you can back up your opnions

leninbenjamin

EI111 wrote: »

I think what happened was Fabregas was one of the best in the world, Adebayor just had the good fortune to be the one picked to tap away the perfect passes he was getting. He still managed to fall over or apply an embarrassing finish to at least half of them.

Nah, Adebayor has some serious ability in that lanky frame of his. He's pretty much as strong and quick as Drogs, good in the air, has a damn good touch and capable of some outstanding link up play.

Part of his problem at City is that he tends to roam a bit too much, no manager seems to have called him up on it. He doesn't stick high to the defensive line like he did at Arsenal.

The big problem though is that mentally he isn't bothered. Once he landed that big contract from Arsenal his ego took over, although his dodgy advisors and entourage no doubt have something to do with his cack performances. He started whining at team mates more, not doing as much running etc.

Fantastic natural and a useless lazy **** rolled into one. We saw both at Arsenal, but City seemed to have rolled the dice and got the latter.

leninbenjamin

Jazzy wrote: »

terry over rated?????

Terry is. He's slow, his decision making can be poor (too quick to launch into the tackle at times), he's reckless (gives away needless freekicks although he got away with murder when he was England captain) and is very easy to drag out of position. He's the defensive equivalent of bludeoning someone to death with a 2x4. All effort and little intelligence or tact.

Carvalho is the real defensive hero at Chelsea, he's fantastic at reading the game, the words best imo. His uncanny ability to know when to intercept and knowledge of when to drop deep really save Terry from looking like a complete tool. Without an intelligent sweeper style defender along side him (Ferdinand would do the same role for England) Terry looks very average.

CHD

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Terry is. He's slow, his decision making can be poor (too quick to launch into the tackle at times), he's reckless (gives away needless freekicks although he got away with murder when he was England captain) and is very easy to drag out of position. He's the defensive equivalent of bludeoning someone to death with a 2x4. All effort and little intelligence or tact.

Carvalho is the real defensive hero at Chelsea, he's fantastic at reading the game, the words best imo. His uncanny ability to know when to intercept and knowledge of when to drop deep really save Terry from looking like a complete tool. Without an intelligent sweeper style defender along side him (Ferdinand would do the same role for England) Terry looks very average.

Slightly harsh but I kinda agree. Carvalho has made him a good player

SlickRic

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Lampard
Mascherano

tell me more...

yahoo_moe

They obviously rate those players as the ten best Premiership players ever - then maybe they're the 10 most overrated.

But even then...

MR NINE

andy johnson
arshavin
mascherano
barry
bosingwa
johnny evans
almunia
cech

Granted some of them aren't too highly rated in general, but i think theyre worse than people give them credit for (eg almunia, andy johnson).

Also, although I think the likes of Arshavin and Mascherano are good players, theyre not as good as a lot of people think they are.

The_Kew_Tour

Jamie Carragher
Gary Neville
Anelka

Mr Alan

who rates Gary Neville?! even the most die hard of United fans don't want him anywhere near the team!

JPA

adrian280582 wrote: »

Jamie Carragher
Gary Neville
Anelka

Anelka? That's the worst one in the thread.

Raskolnikov

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Lampard
Agbonlahor
Mascherano

Lampard has 10 goals this season :rolleyes:
Agbonlahor has 11 goals this season :rolleyes:
Mascherano, umm, yea.

Bodhisopha

Lescot & Walcot.

leninbenjamin

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Lescot & Walcot.

I think you'll find that neither of those players are highly rated. Anywhere.

Bodhisopha

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I think you'll find that neither of those players are highly rated. Anywhere.

The fee and hassle City went through to get him at the expense of a far better player in Dunne says Lescott is/was overrated.

I take your point on Walcott.

Bodhisopha

Kolo Toure too.

Carcharodon

I would have to disagree with Crouch, I have watched a fair few Spurs games this year and his overall player has been fairly impressive.
I am a big fan of Crouch to be honest, maybe I am missing something ?

Raskolnikov

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

Of the others mentioned there if i was to include Carrick i'd include Lucas but i wouldn't put either near the list to be honest.

Who actually rates Lucas though?

JPA

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I think you'll find that neither of those players are highly rated. Anywhere.

I think fans don't rate Walcott but the media never stops going on about him being picked for England when he has absolutely no form and I can't really remember when he ever had a great run of form.

Jazzy

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Terry is. He's slow, his decision making can be poor (too quick to launch into the tackle at times), he's reckless (gives away needless freekicks although he got away with murder when he was England captain) and is very easy to drag out of position. He's the defensive equivalent of bludeoning someone to death with a 2x4. All effort and little intelligence or tact.

Carvalho is the real defensive hero at Chelsea, he's fantastic at reading the game, the words best imo. His uncanny ability to know when to intercept and knowledge of when to drop deep really save Terry from looking like a complete tool. Without an intelligent sweeper style defender along side him (Ferdinand would do the same role for England) Terry looks very average.

again yeah, im a big fan of carvalho and ive always been a bigger fan of his then Terrys. I still believe that Terry is a world class centre back and one the best in his position in the world. again though, when you talk centre backs you are talking partnerships. terry-carvalho works, as does rio-vidic. you can see across all the top teams in europe that once they get that partnership at the back right you can really work on the other aspects of them team. nesta-maldini at milan was one of the absolute top examples of synergy in defence at its best

The Muppet

Mr Alan wrote: »

who rates Gary Neville?! even the most die hard of United fans don't want him anywhere near the team!

I'm sure all his medals are a consolation to him.;)

Surprised there's no mention of one of the best right wingers in the league Dirk Kuyt or the world class left back Insua in the original list, must be not enough people rate them in the first place.