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Decipher Soccer Awards 2009 : The worst of 2009

Published by Ian John on December 28, 2009

As we reach the final few days of 2009, we shall over the next few days take a retrospective look back over the season 2009 and we shall celebrate the great and good over the next three days. However today we start our awards with a look at the worst of 2009, the teams, players, decisions and incidents that have left us all, well a little disappointed and rather miffed at times…

THE WORST REFEREEING DECISION OF 2009 : Howard Webb awarding Manchester United a penalty (V Tottenham, 25th April 2009)
Spurs had taken a 2-0 lead into the interval at Old Trafford and title chasing United were seemingly going nowhere. The second half began with United on top but unable to break down the Spurs defence. Until Howard Webb ruled that Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes challenge on Michael Carrick was worthy of a spot kick. Ronaldo scored, United grew in confidence, Spurs were broken and, as always happens, United ran up four more goals to take an easy win in the end. It could have been all so different though, both in this game and the title race, had the penalty not been awarded.

THE WORST COLLAPSE OF 2009 : Liverpool’s 2009-2010 season
Hull came close with their disastrous second half of the 2008-09 season, but for sheer drama alone, little can beat Liverpool’s fall from grace this year. Having finished the 2008-09 season with just 2 defeats and the highest number of goals scored in the Premiership. 2009-2010 was expected to be the year Rafa Benitez men made the league title their own. Come December 2009, they were minus Xabi Alonso, had invested £20m in a midfielder who is yet to complete 90 minutes football, they are miles off the pace in the Premiership and out of the Champions league. And apparently it is all the fault of the club debt.

THE WORST FOOTBALL MOMENT IN 2009 : Thierry Henry’s handball against Ireland
Ireland had come from a goal down from the first leg to force extra time in Paris. A free kick into the Irish box bounced through to Henry. The first bounce could have been an accident as it hit him on the hand, the second handball, to keep the ball in play and allow Henry to square the ball for Gallas to force home clearly was not. It wasn’t even up for debate. Cue much soul searching in France. Cue Henry’s protestations of innocence, cue his shameful consoling of the Irish players at the final whistle and his appeal to allow the game to be played, secure in the knowledge FIFA would never allow it to be. Shame, Shame, Shame.

THE WORST TRANSFER OF 2009 : Alberto Aquilani (Roma to Liverpool £17m – £20m depending on who you want to believe)
Imagine it, 12 months previously, you’d tried to shunt Xabi Alonso out the door to Juventus to raise money to sign Gareth Barry. Alonso doesn’t want to go, but you make it clear you want rid of him. However the deal doesn’t happen. Alonso stays and becomes an absolutely vital performer at the heart of your team. So much so that Real Madrid want him and will pay. However now you decide you want to keep him. Alonso, still a bit miffed at you trying to shove him out the door last summer, says he wants to go to Madrid. So he does and you make a nice tidy profit on him, certainly a lot more than what you would have received had he been sold to Juventus 12 months earlier. Some of that money however is already taken up by debt and the purchase of Glen Johnson. So you have £20m to spend on a replacement who is needed to come into the team immediately and take on a key role. So, you spend almost all of that on a talented, but often injured and currently injured Italian who will not likely be ready to play until the end of November. Then wonder why fans and board members start questioning your decisions after the entire season is ruined in the space of three months.

In brief…
WORST MANAGER OF 2009 : Rafa Benitez : From January until May 2009, he was very likely to be the best. Since then it has all been downhill in all areas of his management of Liverpool. 2010 must be better or he will be out of a job.

WORST TEAM OF 2009 : Portsmouth : Cannot pay their players, hawked around one middle eastern rich man after another, stuck at the foot of the table, a transfer embargo in place and they still owe Chelsea money for a player they sold on to Liverpool for almost £10m profit last summer. Scandalous.

WORST PLAYER OF 2009 : Robinho (Manchester City) : When he can be bothered, he can be brilliant. The problem is, he can’t be bothered that often and for most of the time he is either injured, or anonymous. Except when he wants to let Barcelona know how wonderfully well he’d fit into their team. He’s a great player on his day. Sadly there have only been about 3 of those days in 2009 and City fans deserve a lot, lot better.

WORST REFEREE OF 2009 : Howard Webb : I’m staggered at how many major decisions this man gets wrong. He is almost unerringly 100% inaccurate on key decisions. Run of the mill decisions? Yep, he’s fantastic, he is as fit as a fiddle and he seems to assert a positive aura of quiet authority. But when it comes to the crunch, Webb’s judgement is about as reliable as a politicians promise.

The NIGHTMARE TEAM OF 2009 : (Managed by Rafa Benitez)
1.Ben Foster (Manchester United)
2.Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal)
3.Andrea Dossena (Liverpool)
4.Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United)
5.Anton Ferdinand (Sunderland)
6.Lucas Leiva (Liverpool)
7.El Hadji Diouf (Blackburn R)
8.Alberto Aquilani (Liverpool)
9.Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham)
10.Robinho (Manchester City)
11.Nani (Manchester United)

Image Courtesy of ***iks iks iks*** at Flickr.com

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