Who has been the worst player to start consistantly for a major club?

bucketybuck

For the past two years Manchester United fans have had to endure the sight of Antonio Valencia utterly fail to resemble anything like a winger at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Once an effective winger, for years now he has been utterly bereft of anything resembling attacking instinct, and at this point is just a parody, a player seemingly designed to stop dead in his tracks and give the ball to somebody else. Want a stat? Heres one for you, Antonio Valencia has scored only 2 league goals since the start of last season. In fact he has only scored 7 league goals in the past four seasons. Shocking.

But thats not the amazing thing. Instead, the amazing thing is that two seemingly rational and respected managers have continued, game after game, month after month, and now year after year to repeatedly pick him on the right wing for United. He has been shocking this season for Moyes, yet has double the minutes played that Nani or Kagawa have. In fact he has played more minutes than Robin Van Persie :eek:.

I am curious, has there ever been a player be so useless for so long that has continued to be selected for a major club?

Its the so-long part that interests me, there have plenty of useless players for clubs but they tend to just get dropped. Who else was as seemingly immune to getting dropped as Valencia is?

noodler

Is this Antonio Valencia fella a striker?

bucketybuck

noodler wrote: »

Is this Antonio Valencia fella a striker?

Antonio Valencia is a right winger at Manchester United. With Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie up front he has one assist this season so far. Yes, thats right. One.

Giruilla

bucketybuck wrote: »

Antonio Valencia is a right winger at Manchester United. With Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie up front he has one assist this season so far. Yes, thats right. One.

He's uniteds highest points midfielder in fantasy football. That tells you all you need to know about the state of united at the moment :pac:

SweepTheLeg

Arbeloa.

How he has started consitantly for Madrid/Spain for years I'll never know.

LiamoSail

Gus Caesar definitely worth a mention here, for both those that remember his heroics at arsenal and those that read of his exploits in fever pitch

Sir Gallagher

SweepTheLeg wrote: »

Arbeloa.

How he has started consitantly for Madrid/Spain for years I'll never know.

He was a fairly reliable player for Liverpool when we had him, nothing special but consistent. Always a good player to have in your squad.

Looper007

gervinho

He was great for Ivory Coast but when it came to Arsenal it seemed he never played football in his life. Seems to be playing out of his skin at Roma.

GTR63

Rudi Garcia helps a lot, Grimandi was much worse tbf & Arshavin's complete lack of effort towards the end was eyeopening.
As a Milan fan watching Matri this season has been just ugh.

martingriff

Surly Berbatov has to be mentioned for a 3 PL teams he played for

Lumbo

martingriff wrote: »

Surly Berbatov has to be mentioned for a 3 PL teams he played for

What? For reals?

Super-Rush

martingriff wrote: »

Surly Berbatov has to be mentioned for a 3 PL teams he played for

GTFO.

Berbatov was class for Spurs and Man U.

Turtyturd

Victor f*cking Moses.

Celly Smunt

Paul McShane.

/Thread

NIMAN

Gareth Barry?

Super-Rush

NIMAN wrote: »

Gareth Barry?

Wrong.

Sir Gallagher

BobbyPropane

Craig Gardner for Sunderland, scored the odd cracking goal for us but pretty poor footballer at a PL level.

jimjamcos

Super-Rush wrote: »

GTFO.

Berbatov was class for Spurs and Man U.

No, no he wasn't.


Agree with OP, they don't come more consistently average than Antonio.

Super-Rush

Tom Cleverley, Emile Heskey, Abel Xavier, Milan Baros, Lee Bowyer, Djimi Traore, Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, Victor Anichibe, Aaron Lennon, Phil Neville, David James.

Oranage2

Lucas

Shocking footballer offers nothing besides making a few tackles.

markesmith

Oranage2 wrote: »

Lucas

Shocking footballer offers nothing besides making a few tackles.

Ah look that's just not true.

For Spurs, I'd say Soldado has flattered to deceive so far. Also, Heskey I could never get my head around.

2moreMinutes

Valencia, Wellbeck, Cleverly for United are certainly candidates.

John O'Shea is right up there for me too both in his play anywhere days at United and now at Sunderland.

Moneymaker

Jermaine Jenas.

One good season with Newcastle then became the Invisible Man yet seemingly became undroppable. Moved to Spurs and performed the same act.

Weidenfeller never gets dropped even though he's a very mediocre goal keeper.

massdebater

Danny Wellbeck

Seaneh

Christian Abbiati.

First choice 'keeper at Milan now for several seasons, been at the club for 15 years and has made 331 appearances.
He also spent a year on loan at each of Juventus, Torino and Atletico Madrid where he made 27, 30 and 38 appearances respectively and has 4 Italy caps as well as 3 Serie A titles, a Champions League winners medal, a coppa Italia, 2 Supercoppa's and a European Supercup to his name.


That's 15 years at the highest level with 3 different clubs and one year on loan at a mediocre level with Torino.


He's not a bad 'keeper, he's just not very ****ing good either.

dobman88

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

He was a fairly reliable player for Liverpool when we had him, nothing special but consistent. Always a good player to have in your squad.

Yeah, but the thread title says "major clubs" so Liverpool doesn't count.

massdebater

Thanks Seaneh for reminding me about keepers.

Extremely average keeper playing consistently for Barca for years: Victor Valdes

dobman88

massdebater wrote: »

Thanks Seaneh for reminding me about keepers.

Extremely average keeper playing consistently for Barca for years: Victor Valdes

To be fair though, with the 10 he has in front of him, he rarely has much to do.

Burt Macklin

Never rated Guti or Saldago in the Galacticos team. O'Shea, Silvestre and Brown hung around at United for long enough too

Ging Ging

I cant believe nobody mentioned Torres yet. He had it but he has long since lost whatever it was. Its a strikers job to score consistently and I dont think he has ever done that at Chelsea.

blingrhino

Giles gramandi

J. Marston

Welbeck.

Sunglasses Ron

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Paul McShane.

/Thread

He has never played regularly for what would be regarded as a major club. I am intrigued mind as to how he ever ended up being considered good enough for United reserves at the start of his career.

LiamoSail

Steven Naismith is an imposter at premier league level, despite getting a few goals last season

elefant

markesmith wrote: »

Ah look that's just not true.

For Spurs, I'd say Soldado has flattered to deceive so far. Also, Heskey I could never get my head around.

Soldado is really the best you can come up with? Out of all the players who have ever played for a big club?

7 goals in 12 games for Spain, 29 in 60 for Getafe 59 in 101 for Valencia. More than a goal every other game.

If he's the worst player, the standard of footballer at these clubs must be outrageously high.

martingriff

harry kewell wwith liverpool

eagle eye

bucketybuck wrote: »

For the past two years Manchester United fans have had to endure the sight of Antonio Valencia utterly fail to resemble anything like a winger at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Once an effective winger, for years now he has been utterly bereft of anything resembling attacking instinct, and at this point is just a parody, a player seemingly designed to stop dead in his tracks and give the ball to somebody else. Want a stat? Heres one for you, Antonio Valencia has scored only 2 league goals since the start of last season. In fact he has only scored 7 league goals in the past four seasons. Shocking.

But thats not the amazing thing. Instead, the amazing thing is that two seemingly rational and respected managers have continued, game after game, month after month, and now year after year to repeatedly pick him on the right wing for United. He has been shocking this season for Moyes, yet has double the minutes played that Nani or Kagawa have. In fact he has played more minutes than Robin Van Persie :eek:.

I am curious, has there ever been a player be so useless for so long that has continued to be selected for a major club?

Its the so-long part that interests me, there have plenty of useless players for clubs but they tend to just get dropped. Who else was as seemingly immune to getting dropped as Valencia is?

martingriff wrote: »

Surly Berbatov has to be mentioned for a 3 PL teams he played for

NIMAN wrote: »

Gareth Barry?

massdebater wrote: »

Danny Wellbeck

massdebater wrote: »

Thanks Seaneh for reminding me about keepers.

Extremely average keeper playing consistently for Barca for years: Victor Valdes

J. Marston wrote: »

Welbeck.

Do any of you guys ever watch a football match?

BobbyPropane

2moreMinutes wrote: »

Valencia, Wellbeck, Cleverly for United are certainly candidates.

John O'Shea is right up there for me too both in his play anywhere days at United and now at Sunderland.

He mostly plays well for Sunderland at cb now

AdamD

Danny Graham hasn't scored a goal in 30 games. A striker, who hasn't scored in 30 games. 30 games. That's actually an achievement

rob316

Tom Cleverly, not even united fans can understand how this guy starts for them. A far worse player than his Liverpool counterpart Jordan Henderson.

Benimar

On teams that won something:

From the 1990's - Mel Sterland (Leeds). Had a great long range shot but had the touch of an elephant with 4 left feet.

From the 2000's - Djimi Traore (Liverpool). Absolutely no explanation required!

Current player - Tom Cleverly (Man U). I just don't see it. Can't ever remember him having a positive influence on a game. Deserves the criticism that Jordan Henderson receives.

Dolph Starbeam

markesmith wrote: »

Ah look that's just not true.

For Spurs, I'd say Soldado has flattered to deceive so far.

Soldado does not deserve a mention anywhere near this thread. Flatter to deceive so far, yes he has, but he's far from the worst player to consistently start for a major club.

klose

Some farely poor shouts so far, surely that lad at some club souness signed based on word of mouth is the kind of shout that should be going on here? Ah i cant remember his name atall.

Skylinehead

klose wrote: »

Some farely poor shouts so far, surely that lad at some club souness signed based on word of mouth is the kind of shout that should be going on here? Ah i cant remember his name atall.

Yours is the worst shout of all. Ali Dia played 21 minutes, as a sub. How is that even remotely near "the worst player to start consistently"?

klose

Skylinehead wrote: »

Yours is the worst shout of all. Ali Dia played 21 minutes, as a sub. How is that even remotely near "the worst player to start consistently"?

Thats the one!

Ah jumped the gun with the thread title, my bad.

Nerdlingr

Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson, Shaun Wright Philips, Andrea Dossena, Tom Cleverly, Mikel ......

tok9

I think a lot of people are misreading the thread title.

It says worst players who start consistently.

I am pie

All this forum shows is that either some people have no sense of perspective or undersanding of football or they are keen to get boring digs in at a rival.

Wellbeck (am not a Utd fan btw) has England caps, he is not the best striker in the top 8 teams, but he is far from awful. He is a reasonable premier league striker who doesn't disgrace himself at the top level.

Anyone picking Berbatov should take themselves out of the thread now, he has 48 goals in 108 games. i,e, he scored every other 2 games. You would need to be severely limited in your understanding of football to consider him to be the worst player to start for a major club. Add into the bargain he played with style, skill and a panache we don't usually see in the PL.

Lucas is laughable, given that he has been added to the Brazil World Cup squad, honestly if you think you are a better judge than the Brazilian manager you'd need to get your ego in check. Evidently he does a job that some of you don't understand.

Djemba-Djemba might be one that even the most ardent Utd fans wouldn't defend.

Bruno Cheyrou was lightweight and horrendous for Liverpool, not one of Rafa's better buys!

The truth is that it is hard for a major club to carry a really horrible player for too long as they will affect the performance of the team and be out on their ear, too much pressure at the top level to carry anyone.

castletownman

Danny Welbeck is the greatest player of all-time.......at slipping on his hole when presented with a genuine goal chance.

It's an indictment to the England National Team that he continues to be picked, and that there is no doubt about him going to Brazil, despite being in absolutely horrendous form.

smileyj1987

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Welbeck

It has to be welbeck I mean look at the amount of goals he has that's pretty shocking for a striker who gets picked for the England national team .