Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Odemwingie, Balotelli, Villas-Boas – See the top 5 footballing fools of 2013

Soccer - Capital One Cup - Third Round - Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur - Villa Park 

1. Andre Villas-Boas

 Tottenham have sacked manager Andre Villas-Boas on December 16, 2013 LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 03
Now, of course it is a dreadful thing to be relieved of your duties whatever your profession, but in this case, there is little space for sympathy.
Andre Villas-Boas had originally been known as the man who without playing experience who led Porto to a Europa league win. Following this, he was hired by Chelsea and sacked just months later.
He went on to be manager of Tottenham Hotspur, giving him another big chance of managerial success in England.
With a last minute drop below top 4, he ended last season with only one real thing: Gareth Bale at his best.
Bale was sold to Real Madrid for around 85 million pounds. This money was put to use bringing in Nacer Chadli, Vlad Chiriches, Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Etienne Capoue and Christian Eriksen.
You’d think with what was a dream window, he would be able to do magical things. You’d expect a push for the league title would be a very easy possibility. This was not to be.
Spurs had on and off performances and only seemed to stand out in the Europa league.
To add to how people saw AVB throughout the world, he did something foolish which showed a very childish side to his attitude. Against a Norwegian side, he had a fan thrown out of the stadium for chanting jokey chants implying he was up for being sacked.
After a 6-0 defeat to Manchester City and a 5-0 defeat at home to Liverpool, AVB was sacked with people questioning what he truly has to offer if he struggles to lead a team packed with as much quality as he had.

2. Vincent Tan

 Cardiff City owner Tan Sri Dr Vincent Tan (c) reacts before the Barclays Premier League match between Cardiff City and Manchester City at Cardiff City Stadium on August 25, 2013 in Cardiff, Wales
Being a successful businessman of Vincent Tan’s status, you’d think he would be knowledgeable in every field. Every field except the football one from the looks of it.
Tan, as owner of the controlling share of Cardiff City, already had changed their colour controversially from blue to red. But now, he had even stranger plans.
Malky Mackay had been Cardiff manager since 2011 and in that time led them to a Carling Cup final and promoted them to the premier league.
Mackay had been a man the fans rely on and had a reasonable first season in the premier league with a 2-2 draw with Manchester United and a shock victor over Manchester City.
This clearly was somehow not good enough for Tan. From nowhere, reports came to light that Tan had sent Mackay an angry email giving an ultimatum of either a letter of resignation or the sack.
Following this, Cardiff played Liverpool which they fought hard for even with an eventual 3-1 loss. The fans stood out especially as people committed to their manager.
After the match it was confirmed Mackay had his faith put back into him by Tan and his job was no longer in contention.
As a final turn of events in this odd saga, the next game Cardiff played and lost against rising team Southampton led to a surprise sacking of Mackay.
In conclusion, this whole turn of uncomfortable events looked to end with Cardiff standing behind the manager they had complete faith in, but instead, Tan decided to do the foolish thing and get rid of Mackay after all of the troubles they went through to keep him.

3. Peter Odemwingie

  Peter Odemwingie of West Bromwich celebrates the third goal with Simon Cox during the Barclays Premier League match between Wolverhapton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion at Molineux on February 12, 2012 in Wolverhampton, England
When at West Bromwich Albion, Peter Odemwingie was a fans favourite for the most part. It was only up until the last day of the January transfer window where this changed.
After some talk of Queens Park Rangers wanting to sign the Nigerian, he took it upon himself to travel to Loftus Road in order to seal the deal himself without an accepted offer.
This ended with Odemwingie having to return to the Midlands and no move until the following window. He was understandably an unfavourable figure at the Hawthorns from then onwards.

4. Mario Balotelli

AC Milan's forwards Mario Balotelli catches a ball during a training session on the eve of the group H Champion's League football match AC Milan vs Ajax, on December 10, 2013 in their training center of Milanello in Carnago
In his time at Manchester City, Balotelli became notorious for being one of the most peculiar figures in sport of recent times.
After speculation of his future at the Etihad, Balotelli finally was transferred to AC Milan in the country of his origin after a training ground scuffle between him and manager Roberto Mancini.
He has since been a beloved figure playing at the San Siro but still has continued his legacy of lunacy. In September when playing Rafa Benitez’s rising Napoli side, he managed to miss his first ever penalty, score one of his best ever goals, and finish the day with a sending off.
Most recently, he has been pictured with specially designed football boots complete with negative headlines based around him.

5. Gennaro Gattuso

(FILES) -  In this file picture FC Sion's Italian captain Gennaro Gattuso talks during a press conference on November 8, 2012 in Sion. Former AC Milan and Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso was placed under investigation for alleged match-fixing on December 17, 2012 and four more people were arrested in an early morning police sweep in Italy. Cremona prosecutor Roberto Di Martino, who has been leading the Last Bet operation for three years, confirmed that Gattuso and retired Milan and Lazio player Cristian Brocchi were allegedly part of a ring that fixed Serie A and other Italian matches at the end of the 2010-11 season
If you mentioned the name Gattuso, what would most likely come to mind is his aggressive playing style in the red and black stripes of AC Milan.
After his retirement from playing in February, he took over at FC Sion as manager. 2 days later, he won his first match but 3 months later, he was sacked.
After some speculation, Gattuso moved to recently relegated Italian side Palermo and was sacked 3 months later for 2 wins and a draw in 6 games.
Gattuso is currently in trouble for making sexist comments suggesting that women don’t belong anywhere in football.
Recent reports suggest he is to be part of an investigation of allegations of match fixing.

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