Ian Watson wraps up the 2014 TEAMtalk Soccers ceremony by handing out the dreaded award for the Failure of the Season.
Despite the numerous contenders among those who had a season to forget, when your votes were counted up, the Failure of the Season award was won by a landslide.
QPR and the Venkys, owners of Blackburn Rovers, shuffled off with the award in previous years, but our new winner more than matched their incompetence.
Without further ado, here are the five biggest flops:
5. Joe Kinnear
Kinnear began his role as director of football at Newcastle by blasting the club's fans and getting the players' names wrong in a wonderfully bizarre interview on national radio.
Perhaps he really can "open the door to any manager in the world". Maybe he mislaid his rolodex. But we know now for certain that he left in February having failed to make a single permanent signing in two transfer windows.
The 67-year-old was brought in to supposedly bolster a recruitment team that had been doing great work, especially in the French market. Indeed, Kinnear continued to bolster those links across the channel by sending their best player, Yohan Cabaye, to PSG for a cut-price fee without bothering about a replacement.
It was unclear what Kinnear's remit was when he was appointed by Mike Ashley, with talk he was put in place to unsettle Alan Pardew. Whatever his mission was, Kinnear failed.
4. Jose Mourinho
The Chelsea manager labelled Arsene Wenger "a specialist in failure" in February but, come May, it was the Arsenal boss who got his hands on silverware as the 'Special One' finished potless for the second successive season.
Mourinho labelled himself 'the Happy One' after rejoining the Blues but the Portuguese's mood turned after Christmas, culminating in his jibe at Wenger.
The manager consistently sought to play down expectations of his side, calling them the "little horse" in the title race, but the quality, experience and depth in his squad means the Blues should have pushed Manchester City and Liverpool far closer in the title race.
They surely would have had Mourinho addressed his side's obvious flaw: the lack of a top class striker. The boss will almost certainly focus much of his energy and resources on righting that wrong, but it is at least half a season too late.
Mourinho masterminded victories at City and Liverpool, but their failure to breakdown the likes of Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Norwich and West Ham allowed their title rivals to pull clear as the finish line approached.
3. Fulham
Hopes were high at Fulham last summer when billionaire Shahid Khan took over and internationals Maarten Stekelenburg, Scott Parker and Fernando Amorebieta arrived at Craven Cottage. One year and two managerial changes later, the Cottagers find themselves in the Championship.
Khan first panicked in December after five straight defeats which left the club in 18th place brought Martin Jol's two-and-a-half-year reign to an end.
Recently-appointed first-team coach Rene Meulensteen was given the manager's job and the January transfer window to shape the squad as he wished.
Meulensteen identified club-record signing Kostas Mitroglou as the man to fire his side up the table, though, as it turned out, that choice alone could be seen by some as grounds for dismissal, which came only a fortnight after he was allowed by Khan to sign five players.
Felix Magath, an experienced manager but a Premier League rookie, was instead chosen as the man to lead Fulham's survival fight; all the while Meulensteen, Ray Wilkins and Alan Curbishley were left waiting as Fulham made a farce of an already unsavoury situation.
Fulham briefly rallied under Magath but they ultimately succumbed to relegation, finishing in 19th place, four points from safety. Mitroglou failed to score a single goal, while their defence leaked the second-highest number of goals conceded in Premier League history.
2. Vincent Tan
The owner wants things done his way at Cardiff, and after the money he has injected into the club, it is hard to argue against that urge. But Tan has destabilised the club at almost every opportunity during a season which started promisingly but ended in relegation straight back to the Championship.
The campaign began with the backdrop of a row between Tan and the players over unpaid bonuses the previous season. When that matter was settled, Tan turned his attentions to head of recruitment Iain Moody, who was suspended apparently without explanation and was replaced by a 23-year-old friend of his son who had no previous football experience.
Throughout these dramas, Malky Mackay remained the unifying figure for fans, who saw plenty of reasons for optimism, as the Bluebirds held their own in their debut Premier League campaign. The manager, though, was next in Tan's sights, with the Scot told to resign or be sacked in December. Mackay resisted and eventually he was axed by Tan, with the club in 16th place in the table.
Under Tan's man, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Cardiff won only three more games all season, with new recruits Kenwyne Jones, Magnus Eikrem, Cala, Jo Inge Berget, Fabio and Wilfried Zaha making little impact as they floundered to a 19th-place finish.
1. Manchester United
David Moyes' reputation is in tatters after a disastrous attempt at managing Manchester United, but few individuals at Old Trafford can escape blame for an appalling defence of their Premier League title.
Replacing Sir Alex Ferguson was almost an impossible job, but the club - Ferguson included - got it spectacularly wrong. Moyes may be cut from the same cloth as his predecessor in that he is Scottish and a grafter, but that is where the similarities end.
In a summer where serial winners such as Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti were all choosing clubs, United opted for a trophyless, Champions League rookie to step into the shoes of the greatest manager in recent history.
Moyes supposedly understood the 'United way' but he did not have the credentials, and it showed as the Red Devils broke all the wrong records.
Moyes was by no means the only man responsible for a catastrophic failure, which began last summer. Ed Woodward should take the blame for a shambolic transfer window, which delivered only the hopeless Marouane Fellaini and set the tone for the season.
The players Moyes inherited must also reflect on their contribution, with only David De Gea and youngster Adnan Januzaj able to look back at their performances with any pride. It seems the new manager lost the dressing room early on, but the senior stars within those four walls appeared only too happy to cut him adrift.
Ultimately, Moyes struggled to shake the mind-set which served him so well a s manager of plucky Everton. His sound bites failed to inspire anyone, especially the United fans, who were used to more positivity and defiance than the manager was willing to offer. The tactics also wore down the supporters, certainly more so than the opposition.
United got his appointment wrong and they made a farce of Moyes's sacking too, with the club leaking his fate to the press almost 24 hours before finally put the beleaguered boss out of his misery. Hardly the 'United way' but very much fitting after a shambolic season.
via TEAMtalk | Manchester Utd http://ift.tt/1lWPy49
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