We’re almost done with the 2016/17 season in the football world and boy has it gone quickly. We’ve seen some tremendous games this season, some tremendous goals and of course the season hasn’t been without its fair share of controversy.
Despite all the greatness we’ve seen this year so far, we’ve also seen some pretty massive fails as well, both on the domestic and the international scene. Here are five of the biggest fails of 2016/17.
#1 Pep Guardiola’s attempts to replace Joe Hart
One of the earliest moments of controversy this season came when Joe Hart was unceremoniously shown the door by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
You could understand Pep’s reasoning to a degree – Hart was arguably England’s worst performing player at Euro 2016 – but to wait until the beginning of the season, when the transfer window was almost closed, seemed harsh, as did the idea that it had less to do with Hart’s form and more to do with the fact that Pep wanted a supposed “sweeper-keeper” who was better with his feet.
Hart ended up on a season-long loan to Torino where he appears to be thriving, while Guardiola signed Claudio Bravo of Chile and Barcelona as his replacement. Unfortunately for Pep, things haven’t really gone to plan.
Bravo has had a torrid time in Manchester, looking consistently shaky. In January he leaked four goals in as many shots against Everton, he was sent off in his return to the Nou Camp and even in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Hull, he let in the Tigers’ first shot on goal.
In a season that hasn’t looked good for Guardiola, his decision to dump Hart in favour of Bravo might be his biggest fail.
#2 Tottenham’s European nights at Wembley go horribly wrong
When Tottenham finished third in last season’s Premier League and qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 2010/11, the curious decision was made to have them play home European games at Wembley rather than at White Hart Lane.
The allure was obvious – fit more fans in, use the bigger stadium and – I assume – make more money, but it couldn’t have backfired more spectacularly.
Drawn in what looked like a relatively soft group alongside Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow, Spurs’ problems began quickly as their first game at Wembley ended in a 2-1 defeat to the French league’s runners-up after they went 2-0 down early on.
An away win in Moscow and a draw at Leverkusen helped matters, but those games were followed by another Wembley loss, this time to Leverkusen after another uninspiring performance. A loss away to Monaco eliminated them from the tournament although they did pick up a win at Wembley over CSKA.
Spurs then moved into the Europa League, but a 1-0 away loss to unfancied Belgians Gent was followed with a feeble 2-2 draw at Wembley, sending Tottenham’s European dreams up in smoke.
If they want to progress in next year’s Champions League, Tottenham’s Wembley form – assuming they continue to play there – must improve.
#3 Sam Allardyce throws away the England job
Appointed England manager after Roy Hodgson's resignation following their dismal Euro 2016, big things were expected of Sam Allardyce. After all, this was the job he’d been after for years. As it turned out, he would deliver a 100% win ratio – the only problem was that he had just one game in charge.
On September 4th Allardyce’s England won a tough 1-0 away win in Slovakia. Four weeks later, the manager found himself embroiled in a scandal, caught speaking to undercover reporters disguised as Asian businessmen. Allardyce was caught on camera negotiating a role as a “keynote speaker” and went on to explain how to get around FIFA and FA bans on third-party ownership of players, before making derogatory comments about his predecessor Hodgson.
Just a day later, ‘Big Sam’ was forced to resign from his dream job, leaving both England and the FA as the laughing stock of the football world again. Quite how he allowed this to happen is still mind-boggling, and although he’s since resurfaced as the Crystal Palace manager, this remains perhaps the biggest fail of the season.
Still, at least he has that 100% win record.
#4 Arsenal crash out of the Champions League....again
Mainstays of the Champions League for the best part of two decades now, Arsenal’s history in the tournament in recent years goes a little like this: slip-up in the group stage and finish as runners-up, end up drawn against one of the giants (Barcelona, for example) in the last sixteen and wind up eliminated.
This season could’ve been so much different.
Drawn in a group alongside French powerhouse Paris St. Germain – as well as minnows Ludogorets and Basel – Arsenal managed to finish top, taking two draws with the French champions and beating their other opponents home and away.
Winning the group in this fashion could’ve seen them draw Bayer Leverkusen or Benfica, but instead, fate conspired to draw them against Bayern Munich, who had managed to finish as runners-up in a group alongside last year’s finalist Atletico Madrid. Still, it looked like a potentially winnable tie for Arsenal – after all, this wasn’t the Guardiola-fuelled Bayern of two or three years ago.
Instead, Arsenal completely capitulated, losing the first leg at the Allianz Arena 5-1. Arsenal fans clung onto some belief when Theo Walcott opened the scoring in the second leg...but somehow Arsenal managed to lose that game 5-1 too, meaning the tie ended an embarrassing 10-2 on aggregate.
It was a huge fail for Arsenal, but the greatest fail for Arsene Wenger could be yet to come if the club misses out on Champions League qualification for next season.
#5 Vincent Janssen in general
Signed by Tottenham in July for a fee of £17m from Dutch club AZ Alkmaar, big things were expected of Vincent Janssen, even if the main reason for his signing was to provide backup for Harry Kane. Janssen had scored 27 goals in 34 appearances in the Eredivisie in 2015/16 and seemed quite the prospect.
Unfortunately, his time in North London has been nothing short of a fail thus far.
Janssen has scored just five goals for Tottenham in a total of 25 appearances. Just one of those goals has come from open play and he’s scored only once in Premier League action. While his general form in terms of his contribution to the team has improved as of late, his finishing seemingly hasn’t at all.
Just this past weekend in a relatively easy fixture against Watford – Spurs ran out 4-0 winners – Janssen was able to miss more simple chances, the most glaring being from a Kieran Trippier cross from close range.
Tottenham have thankfully found plenty of goals – from Kane, Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min, mainly – but Janssen’s contribution in terms of goals has so far been an epic fail.
Will 2016/17 give us any more epic fails?
Until next time.
