This year, there has been some exciting, funny and strange moments. Unfortunately, there have been some ugly moments too. I decided to compile a list of epic fails from this year. Unsurprisingly, I had a lot to choose from and I wanted to mix humour and seriousness to create my top ten.
10. The England Team
The England team were an epic fail this year for many reasons. The main one being that the team we have is the worst in years. They just don’t fit together and certain players shouldn’t even be in the team. We play such boring football now and that’s partly because of Roy Hodgson and partly because the passion doesn’t seem to be there with some of the players. It’s like they see it as a chore. The Euros were a complete shambles, mainly because of the management situation. Roy did as well as to be expected, only having been in charge for a few weeks. Going out on penalties again was a disaster. England needed someone to come in this year and pick players based on form instead of continuing with the team already in place and then maybe we would have stood a chance. Epic fail.
9. Joey Barton
Despite whether you think Joey Barton is an idiot or funny, there’s no denying that he has had a year of being an ‘epic fail’. He had a number of on pitch incidents, but the one that got most publicity was in the final game of the season. He got red carded for elbowing Carlos Tevez and proceeded to attempt to headbutt Vincent Kompany, kick Sergio Aguero and then squared up to Mario Balotelli on his way off the pitch. He stated on Twitter that he thought “seeing as I was red carded thought I might as well take a couple more out”.
He was fined and banned but QPR sold him during the summer. Off the pitch he is most renowned for his Twitter usage and using the social network to start b*tchfests with Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker amongst other people. But the funniest epic fail from Barton this year is the video below, where he suddenly adopts a french accent.
8. Arsenal selling Robin Van Persie to Manchester United:
This was an epic fail for Arsenal. They’ve had a few this year, but this whole transfer debacle was awful. Fans got told on many occasion by Wenger that RVP was staying, they banned him from talking to the press during the Euro’s and then late in August after a few months of the transfer window being open, Arsenal sold him to United. You NEVER sell your best player, let alone to your rival team. Can you imagine how the conversation would have been the other way round?
Wenger: ‘Errr Fergie can I buy Rooney from you?’
Fergie: ‘No you wee git, you got a bloody cheek’.
That’s how it would have gone. There is also the issue that without Van Persie’s goals Arsenal are sinking and they didn’t replace him well enough. Those goals are keeping Manchester United up the top. I don’t blame him for leaving but Arsenal should never have sold him.
7. Manchester City’s Champion League Campaign:
Ah the mystery of Man City’s bad form in Europe continues. Roberto Mancini was so sure that City would be able to compete in Europe after winning one title but they failed miserably and became the only English team in history not to win a game in the group stages. Epic Fail. How can you spend over £400mil on a team, win the League and still fail to win ANY of your Champions League games? I think it’s because they genuinely think they are better than they are.
It takes something special to achieve a winning mentality, especially a continuous one. Man City played some brilliant football last season but so far this year that hasn’t continued. They are getting results, but they aren’t as good as they were. Also, Champion’s League football is different and Man City don’t have the experience.