GARY LINEKER: possibly the worst £20m ever spent on a player
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GARY LINEKER: 12 months of tears, rants... and possibly the worst £20m ever spent on a player
By Gary Lineker on 20th December 2009
Worst of 2009: Alberto Aquilani has failed to click for Liverpool
What was your football highlight of 2009? Being a Leicester City fan, nothing could top promotion back to the Championship for me but elsewhere we had 12 months of tears and laughter, cheating, rants and the world's first £80million player.
It's a time to look back and reflect on the best and worst of what has happened. Stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres have graced 2009 but my player of the year is Wayne Rooney, who has grown from world-class talent to the talismanic leader of Manchester United and England.
United were always going to be weakened by Ronaldo going to Real Madrid but the way Rooney has thrived on the extra responsibility has been stunning. He has to be the chief goalscorer and shirt-seller at Old Trafford now. And so far he hasn't put a foot wrong.
It struck me how special he is when I went to Stamford Bridge earlier this season to see Chelsea play United. There were outstanding players on both teams but even in that company Rooney stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Besides winning a third Premier League title in a row, he scored 29 times for club and country in 2009, a great record for a player who offers more than just goals.
If he delivers at the World Cup, we'll be talking about him as the greatest English player of all-time alongside Tom Finney and Bobby Charlton.
Talking of England, Fabio Capello gets my vote as manager of the year, for getting to the World Cup without any palpitations and putting us in a position where we could win it. That is a huge turnaround for a team that didn't qualify for Euro 2008.
Capello has brought discipline to the set-up and given the players confidence. It might be a surprise that Premier League stars can lack self-belief but that was the case with England pre-Capello.
The highlight was the 5-1 win against Croatia in September. Significantly, Steve Gerrard and Frank Lampard scored twice each - at one stage people didn't think they could play in the same team.
The year was mind-boggling for the money spent on transfers. Manchester City spent £135m, Real Madrid beat that on just two players, Ronaldo and Kaka.
The best business was done in January, however, when Tottenham paid £15m to Portsmouth for Jermain Defoe. Always a good striker, Defoe has become lethal in the last 12 months, improving tremendously in his penalty box awareness. The buy of the year in my view. He's worked with former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright and that shows he is prepared to listen and learn.
Defoe is at the stage now where I would love to see him play with Wayne as the No 1 strike partnership for England. My instinct says that they would be brilliant together. Over to you, Fabio.
Alberto Aquilani cost more than Defoe - but you wouldn't have realised it from his appearances this season. At a reported £20m, he's got to be the worst buy. He was meant to replace Alonso but spent the first three months injured and hasn't been pushed into the team by Rafa Benitez now that he is fit. It suggests the Liverpool boss is not confident about his ability to fit into the English game.
Benitez came up with the best soundbite of the year. But, although funny, it ended up rebounding on Liverpool. His line, 'I want to talk about facts', while ranting about Sir Alex Ferguson in January was great entertainment.
But the timing was strange - Liverpool were top of the table and Benitez didn't have to say anything at all. The next day his side were held by Stoke and never recovered the title initiative.
At least Liverpool had a reasonable season, Newcastle's relegation was a huge shock. The turmoil off the field finally cost them on it.
Best goal of the year came last weekend by Wigan's Maynor Figueroa against Stoke. To score from inside your own half is not easy – even Pele managed to miss from there. Figueroa's shot could not have been struck more sweetly.
Best celebration: Jimmy Bullard celebrates scoring with his Hull teammates
We have all the Premier League games on a Saturday coming in on a live feed at the BBC. One of the biggest reactions from those of us watching in 2009 wasn't for a goal but for Jimmy Bullard's goal celebration against Manchester City.
His impression of a finger-wagging Hull boss Phil Brown had everyone bursting out with spontaneous laughter and applause. As Alan Shearer said later, it wasn't just the best goal celebration of the year but maybe of all-time.
On the negative side, Thierry Henry became the biggest villain of the year when his handball sent France rather than the Republic of Ireland to the World Cup. The striker has built a fantastic reputation and it was shattered in a moment.
Best of 2009: Wayne Rooney (left) has shone for United
I just wish the culture in football would have allowed the referee to ask him outright if he'd handled. I am sure Henry would have been honest if put on the spot and all the bitter recriminations since could have been avoided.
Most sadly of all, we lost one of my greatest role models and inspirations in football this year when Sir Bobby Robson died in July after a long battle against cancer.
It was so fitting that his funeral service in Durham turned into the greatest football gathering of the year, where I was able to catch up with former Italia 90 team-mates Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne and two of my former team-mates from Barcelona, Jose Alexanco and Txiki Begiristain.
Bobby's passing meant 2009 was a bittersweet year for football. Rooney could make 2010 really special.
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no luh, they all say rafael got not much to spend what
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Aquilani haven really played for Liverpool and now he is branded as flop.... ~
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rafael is a flop
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whats that manager's name from sevilla who came to manage spurs and was sacked after 10 games? ramos? ramos was good in spain with sevilla winning 2 uefa cup titles, but he cannot make it in EPL?
same as rafa, but rafa won 1 CL and 1 fa cup after 5 years.
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yup juande ramos.
the success of rafael at the beginning makes him a flop at the end.
when you win something from the start, you're expected by the fans to do so till the end, but he stopped even before reaching the middle, so to me, he is a flop
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he still has not delivered the 1 most important trophy ie the league title. also when he won the CL, he should also have deliver the world club cup title as liverpool has not won that before, although he has won the mickey super cup.
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that istanbul win was really nice, but i just dont think rafael should be the only man in the limelight
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
whats that manager's name from sevilla who came to manage spurs and was sacked after 10 games? ramos? ramos was good in spain with sevilla winning 2 uefa cup titles, but he cannot make it in EPL?
same as rafa, but rafa won 1 CL and 1 fa cup after 5 years.
and liverpool won both because of gerrard, nothing to do with benitez.
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Originally posted by dragg:
and liverpool won both because of gerrard, nothing to do with benitez.
so rafa just twiddle thumbs and smoke hash issit in his 1st year at liverpool?
give credit where credit is due, i think everyone then deserve the accolades for landing the CL trophy, including rafa.
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Originally posted by dragg:
and liverpool won both because of gerrard, nothing to do with benitez.
i've to say, exactly.
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Originally posted by Y_Shun:
Aquilani haven really played for Liverpool and now he is branded as flop.... ~
Flop in his first year... Paid $20m which is like a club record for Pool and all they got out of it was nothing to shout about... Perhaps he might be a success later on but in his first year or so far... It seems like $20m thrown away. They could have left him in Italy first then bid for him next season or even this Jan... The money wasted on him could have brought in more able bodies during this difficult period when Alonso just left... Buying someone who cannot play to replace Alonso is like not replacing Alonso at all it seems...
And I must say, having watched Aquilani played so far... He is no Alonso or even Modric level yet... Perhaps he need a lot more time to fit into the fast premier league style... Something which Pool can ill afford at this time...
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Originally posted by zocoss:
Flop in his first year... Paid $20m which is like a club record for Pool and all they got out of it was nothing to shout about... Perhaps he might be a success later on but in his first year or so far... It seems like $20m thrown away. They could have left him in Italy first then bid for him next season or even this Jan... The money wasted on him could have brought in more able bodies during this difficult period when Alonso just left... Buying someone who cannot play to replace Alonso is like not replacing Alonso at all it seems...
And I must say, having watched Aquilani played so far... He is no Alonso or even Modric level yet... Perhaps he need a lot more time to fit into the fast premier league style... Something which Pool can ill afford at this time...
rafael not so smart one
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I'd be more concern with the depth of the squad though. You know you're in trouble when you throw your best players (torres, gerrard) into a fixture after they just returned from their injuries.
Of course they'd struggle against Arsenal. Is like suddenly play PS3 the whole day then suddenly do one A level 10 year series. How to score A?