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The world of football consists of many diverse characters. You have calm and composed figures like Lionel Messi and Vicente del Bosque, you have narcissistic players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and many more people with different personalities.Despite the presence of so many characters, there is one particular type who gives the fans something to laugh about the delusional kind. It is difficult to take their comments and actions seriously due to their reputation that precedes them.Here is a list of 10 personalities from the football world who are deemed delusional.
#1 Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan is a well-known Arsenal fan despised by other Arsenal fans for his sometimes unbelievably stupid tweets regarding Arsenal. The British journalist often takes to Twitter to vent out his frustration after an Arsenal defeat and he is one of the members of the ‘Arsene Out’ brigade.
One of his favourite targets other than Wenger is Aaron Ramsey and many of his old tweets about Ramsey are often dug up by fans due to his hypocrisy.
On 2012 December 4, Morgan tweeted this:
Almost a year after his tweet bashing Ramsey, Morgan praised Ramsey in this tweet following the Welshman’s opening goal against Stoke City. Although sarcastic at times, there is a hidden agenda in his tweets.
Ramsey didn’t take kindly to Morgan’s remarks and snubbed a handshake after a draw against Chelsea towards the end of last season. Morgan took the matter to Twitter and went on a rant.
He has been involved in Twitter wars with other celebrities like Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Joey Barton and has come out of them embarrassed. An instance where he got badly owned by Michael Owen of all people is given below.
He targeted Michael Owen with this lame joke.
Owen’s response to the tweet was surprisingly funny.
So the next time Arsenal lose a game, make sure you check out his twitter account and have a good laugh.
#2 Pele
Brazilian football legend Pele is considered by many as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, footballer of all time. But one thing that fans will unanimously agree on is his punditry skills. Pele is a terrible pundit and he is infamous for his numerous wrong predictions. Romario even declared that Pele is a poet when he keeps his mouth shut.
Some of his predictions that went badly wrong are the following:
- Pele predicted that Spain would win the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Colombia would win the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The result – both teams were knocked out in the group stages.
- In 2002, Pele predicted that China would qualify for the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup. However, they finished bottom of their group with zero points and zero goals.
- In 2002, Pele also predicted that Argentina and France would be the finalists while Brazil would be knocked out in the group stages. The reverse occurred as France and Argentina were dumped out in the first round while Brazil went on to win the World Cup.
These are just some of his famous predictions that went badly wrong. I am sure that teams will be hoping Pele doesn’t root for them as the exact opposite of his prediction tends to happen.
#3 Joey Barton
Joey Barton proved time and time again that he likes to pick a fight on and off the field with some ridiculous tweets aimed at other players. Sometimes things get out of hand and he even becomes abusive.
Barton abused former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamman on Twitter after the latter warned Barton about publically criticising his former club Newcastle. What started out as banter turned ugly as Barton abused his former teammate with some very harsh words.
But his war with Hamman has nothing on his comments about Neymar. In March 2013, Barton said the following about Neymar through his Twitter account.
Neymar has been in scintillating form since Luis Enrique took over and Barton embarrassingly admitted his mistake.
While playing for QPR, Barton was involved in a spat with Rodney Marsh, Barton tried to be cheeky with this tweet.
However, Marsh had the last laugh after he tweeted this:
If all of this wasn’t enough, Barton almost threw his career under the bus with his tweets ridiculing Burnely. Luckily for him, Burnley were kind enough to ignore his tweets and signed him last summer.
#4 Vincent Tan
There are brilliant owners, there are good owners, there are owners, there are bad owners and then there is Vincent Tan. Tan is the owner of multiple football clubs including Welsh club Cardiff City which plays in the English league.
In 2010, Tan became the owner of Cardiff and two years later he said he would invest £100 million in the club provided he was given permission to rebrand the club from blue to red. This didn’t go down well with the fans and the plan was dropped. However, Tan wasn’t done yet. A month later he went ahead with the rebranding and the club’s badge was redesigned to include a dragon and the home kits were changed from blue to red.
After Cardiff were promoted to the Premier League in 2013, Tan suspended the club’s head of recruitment for over spending and he was replaced by a friend of Tan’s son Apsalyamovby. However, Apsalyamovby was forced to leave after a few months due to an investigation regarding his visa.
Due to the ongoing problems, he fell out with the club’s manager Malky Mackay and eventually fired Mackay even though the club was not in any immediate danger of relegation. His ridiculous decisions didn’t go down well with the fans and they organised an anti-Tan protest to try and save Mackay’s job.
The Malaysian’s dictatorship changed the face of the club altogether, despite the protests of the fans. His stubbornness and stupidity eventually cost the club their hard-earned Premier League status as they got relegated.
#5 Nicklas Bendtner
For the 2013/14 season, Nicklas Bendtner returned to Arsenal after unsuccessful loan spells at Sunderland and Juventus. The Danish international was in the final year of his contract and was just a backup striker at the club.
In such circumstances, one would expect a normal person to remain grounded and be humble about any questions asked about his future. But that was not the case with Bendtner. In an interview with Danish paper Politiken, Bendtner said a few things that made him an instant internet sensation.
The striker first claimed that money was not important for him when he searches for a new club which was contradictory to his attitude that broke down several transfers due to clubs’ failure to meet his wage demands. He was also asked about his next move and he responded with “Real Madrid or Barcelona”!
This is not the first time when Bendtner made ridiculous statements in an interview. When he was breaking through into Arsenal’s first team he went on to say, “If you ask me if I am one of the best strikers in the world, I say yes because I believe it.”
After seeing his position in the first team come under threat in 2009, he made his thoughts clear: “I should start every game, I should be playing every minute of every match and always be in the team.”
His ego is bigger than his talent and after leaving Arsenal for Wolfsburg, he still finds himself on the bench as a backup for Bas Dost. Bendtner certainly does think highly of himself, but the rest of the world disagrees.
#6 Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers gave Liverpool fans plenty to be angry about and rival fans plenty to laugh at while he was Liverpool’s manager. During the 2013/14 season, Liverpool came very close to lifting the title, but an unexpected 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Anfield derailed the title challenge.
Rodgers was annoyed by Chelsea’s tactics to defend deep for the full game and he claimed that ‘defending is easy’. This statement would haunt him as Liverpool surrendered a three-goal lead in their next game against Crystal Palace.
This wasn’t the only statement he made from that season that would come back to haunt him. He said, “Look at Tottenham, [when] you spend over £100 million, you’d expect to be challenging for the league.”
The following season Rodgers would lose Luis Suarez and invest over £100 million in new players and yet he didn’t even come remotely close to challenging for the title as the Reds finished sixth.
However, the most ridiculous statement was the warning he issued to Manchester United. “The best players want to play in the best competition. Any club will suffer the same when they’re not in there. It will hurt you, and United will know that,” Rodgers said. He also warned Van Gaal about the competitive nature of the Premier League.
Liverpool were left red-faced with Rodgers’ comments as Manchester United went on to sign the likes of Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao and Daley Blind and they did a double of their fierce rivals en route to finishing fourth in the league.
These are just some of the many stupid statements made by Rodgers. His comments made him such a laughing stock that a parody Twitter account Deluded Brendan was created.
#7 Florentino Perez
Florentino Perez is a man who plays EA Sports’ FIFA in real life. He was the one who adopted Real Madrid’s failed Galacticos policy in the early 21st century and from there on the club has been second best to Barcelona in most seasons.
One of his first blunders as Real Madrid’s president was selling Claude Makelele because the Frenchman asked for a deserved raise. Perez sold Makelele to Chelsea and claimed that he was not good enough for Real Madrid. He then went on to sign many attacking players and thus disrupted the balance in the squad. Players like Zidane, McManaman and Morientes would claim that the sale of Makelele was the beginning of the end for Real Madrid’s Galacticos.
Perez is also the one who claimed that Ronaldinho was too ugly to play for Real Madrid’s Galacticos. The Brazilian joined Barcelona and architected an amazing win for the Catalans at the Bernabeu for which he received a standing ovation from the fans.
Another blunder Perez made during his first term was not offering Vicente del Bosque a contract extension after the manager led the club to a league title in 2003. Del Bosque was one of the most successful coaches in Real Madrid’s recent history, but Perez claimed that Del Bosque was ‘showing signs of exhaustion’.
“I want to be sincere about this – our belief that he was not the right coach for the future," Perez explained. Del Bosque managed Spain to a World Cup and two Euro titles while Real had to wait for 11 years to finally lift their tenth Champions League title.
Current Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is another victim of Perez’s unfair treatment of managers. Pellegrini was sacked after just one season because Mourinho became available and after he was fired Pellegrini made it clear that it was impossible to work with Perez because of his control over transfers and team selection.
#8 Chelsea\'s social media team
Whoever handles Chelsea’s social media accounts and website has surely attended Jose Mourinho’s whining and complaining classes. Chelsea have been in terrible form in the 2015/16 season and Mourinho has pinned the blame on many people except him. If Mourinho’s whining wasn’t enough, Chelsea’s website and Twitter handle have continued to whine about the manner of defeats.
The first instance was after Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat against Manchester City. Ramiers had a goal correctly ruled offside in the game. However, Chelsea’s official match report stated, “A Ramires goal incorrectly ruled out for offside with Man City a goal ahead changed the complexion of this early-season Premier League fixture.”
In October, after losing to Liverpool at home, the official match report said, “When Philippe Coutinho netted the first of his two goals seconds before the interval, there was again the feeling that little is going our way at the present time. That was added to later on when Liverpool midfield Lucas escaped a second yellow card.” What makes this report ridiculous is that match reports usually don’t complain about referee’s decisions.
The funniest incident occurred during Chelsea’s game against Stoke City in November. Chelsea’s Twitter account tweeted the following for a minor incident involving Diego Costa and Ryan Shawcross.
Stoke City were not happy with Chelsea’s description of the event and described it in their own words which led to further ridiculing of Chelsea.
