Who has been the biggest Premier League flop this season?

• Wayne Bridge – After seemingly sensing the embarrassment that was to come at the World Cup, and standing up to schoolyard bully type John Terry in the process, the City full back looked like he was going to have a belter of a season challenging with his Blues team mates. However, the heavily implied opinion of him as a ‘Hughes Player’ and the frankly overpriced move for Kolarov proved that he was being phased out at City. Lo and behold his saving grace; a move to West Ham for some first team football! However, the move has proved to be an absolute disaster for Bridge and he’s in turn merely provided a terrific exhibition in how not to defend in the Premiership. His displays for the Hammers have been second only to Roque Junior in his hilariously short stint at Leeds a few years ago on a scale of how bad he’s been considering he’s an established international defender. Moving forward, he may have a better season next year, but as far as this season goes I think it’s one to forget.

• Edin Dzeko – Is it just me or have Man City’s big money transfers seemed to fail to live up to their hype? Whilst City fans will argue vehemently (like they usually do) and defend their team savagely, claiming that Dzeko scored a goal that kept them in the FA Cup; a competition that they of course went on to win. It’s all well and good claiming such a thing, however the goal came against League Two (now League One) side Notts County. When you take into consideration that Dzeko was absolutely banging them in for Wolfsburg not too long ago, Notts County should have been an absolute walk in the park for him and he should have made more of a substantial impact in the Premiership than his five goals have proven so far. For a team with decent enough wingers that should be supplying him with goals a-plenty, Dzeko manages to make himself look very isolated when Mancini gives him a bit of a go. Whether over the course of the summer he’ll learn to adapt his play to the English league time can only tell, but for a player valued so highly it’s been a disappointment not seeing him deliver like he should. Another special mention while I’m on the subject of Man City here goes to James Milner. For all the trouble and strife that his transfer to the Blues caused (almost certainly causing Martin O’Neil’s walkout – I’d be pissed off too if my club was turning into a feeder for the bigger clubs), he hasn’t exactly set Eastlands on fire with his displays and proved his worth in transfer fees.

• Fernando Torres – Speaking of not proving their worth in transfer fees, I think it was a little bit inevitable – almost too obvious that I’d include El Niño in my list. You’d have thought that Roman Abramovic would have learnt last time, when he triumphantly ruined Andriy Shevchenko’s career, that he should not dictate who his money is spent on; that’s the job of the manager. One could see this season as a dastardly exchange between Liverpool and Chelsea; the Blues laughing and rubbing their hands as they offloaded the past-it Joe Cole to their Mersey rivals, and similarly the Reds laughing and rubbing their hands as they offloaded (past it?) sulk merchant Torres. The only difference between the two pieces of business being that Chelsea were mugged into paying a frankly whopping £50m for a man who had been having a shocker of a season on the back of another shocker of a season for Liverpool. A move to a club where he actually wanted to play hinted that he might find his scoring touch again and be as deadly as he was almost three years ago now, but no. Still he slumps his shoulders, looks uninterested, and sulks his way to the bench when he’s substituted like a Spaniard who has missed his siesta. Chelsea fans won’t manage to convince me that a goal against West Ham, professional calamity experts this season, suddenly makes him worth his transfer fee; the ball stopped on a puddle for christ’s sake. Again, a full summer’s break and a good rest may bring him back into action to begin next season razor sharp once again, but in the meantime – fifty million quid?

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