Danny Drinkwater
In the three years since this Premier League winner moved to Stamford Bridge for £35m, he has played three full league matches for Chelsea. So if ever a player needed a fresh start, it was Drinkwater at the start of this season. Burnley came to the rescue but could not save him: Drinkwater’s contribution to the club’s league campaign amounted to 59 minutes in a 4-1 defeat by Manchester City. In fairness, he might have had more action if not for an injury suffered outside a Manchester nightclub in September. In January Drinkwater got another chance, this time at Aston Villa. Coincidentally his first league appearance after this loan move was also against Manchester City – this time he lasted 79 minutes, and his team lost 6-1. He went on to play for Villa three more times, subbed off on every occasion, and was last heard of in March, when he was fined for his role in a training ground beef with Jota. If ever a player needed a fresh start, it’s still Drinkwater.
Joelinton
When Mike Ashley sanctions the purchase of a forward for £40m, you get to thinking the player must be quite the phenomenon. You also figure that someone at the club knows where the fellow plays. But for most of this season Joelinton was asked to lead the line for Newcastle and really didn’t look comfortable. He seldom got a chance to show the clever passing and electric dribbling that made him stand out at Hoffenhiem, and he almost never scored. It was, then, a very difficult first season for a man who was only 22 when he arrived in a new country amid enormous hype. But he never stopped trying and did show glimmers of quality so there are grounds for believing that, as he adapts to England and as Newcastle work out a better way to use him, he could yet emerge stronger from this sorry experience.
Pep Guardiola
It’s all very well turning on the style against the likes of Watford and Arsenal, but the champions were dethroned in record-breaking time. They lost to Liverpool when it mattered and were beaten home and away by Manchester United and Wolves. They lost to Chelsea when they needed to win to make their last seven matches of the season relevant. They lost to Norwich. All throughout the campaign they were prone to crumbling, with Guardiola unable to make them more defensively and mentally solid and presiding over frequently slack finishing, even from the penalty spot. João Cancelo, the full-back signed for £27m before the season, made little impact. In January Guardiola suggested City fans were part of the problem. “Hopefully they will support us more,” he said, back when fans had the option of attending matches. It’s going to be interesting to hear who Guardiola blames if his team implodes in the Champions League too.
David de Gea
When the Manchester United loanee Dean Henderson goofed to gift Liverpool a goal against Sheffield United in September, the Blades manager Chris Wilder said: “I’m not going to put my arm around him. He wants to play at the highest level, he wants to play for Manchester United, he wants to play for England. He’s got to do a bit better, he’s got to concentrate a bit more.” Henderson did not make the same mistake again. Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjær took the opposite approach with De Gea, publicly putting an arm around the keeper every time another ball slipped through his hands. That’s fine, everyone’s different, and it’s not certain that asking Roy Keane to batter the Spaniard would have helped. But there’s no doubt that De Gea has looked a different goalkeeper to the one who used to be a lone barrier between Manchester United and humiliation. It’s been painful to watch such a talented goalkeeper disintegrate but, at 29, it’s not too late for him to get his act together again.
Gino Pozzo
We thought hard about including Watford’s owner in this list. Then we left him out. Then we put him back in again. Then we got rid of him and picked someone else. Then we put him back in again. It’s an eccentric approach but it’s got us to where we are today so don’t knock it. Or do. But Pozzo sure can’t complain because he’s done exactly the same. After four matches of the season Watford sacked Javi Gracia and replaced him with Quique Sánchez Flores, whom they had sacked a few years previously. Then they turned to Nigel Pearson, who lasted 19 league games before he too got the heave-ho, and Hayden Mullins was asked to carry the can for the last two matches. Right till the end, Watford kept everyone guessing.
(The Guardian)
