Premier League Power Rankings: The Most Worthless Player on Each Club

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With the beginning of the Premier League season coming up, it is time to examine the rosters for the new season and with that comes the judgement of who is the most worthless player on each club.

The qualities for most worthless player include lack of effectiveness while on the pitch, criticism from coaches, players and critics and overall worth to the club in terms of skill and awareness as well.

Arsenal: Manuel Almunia

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Since the exit of Jens Lehmann before the 2008-09 season, Almunia has been Arsenal's top choice keeper.

Almunia has not done much to prove his worth as a true number one keeper.

The Spaniard has had numerous mishaps which has led to him being benched for younger keepers and possibly even leaving the Emirates Stadium before the season begins.

Aston Villa: Stephen Ireland

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Ireland impressed many with performance at Manchester City in the 2008-09 season but after Mark Hughes was replaced by Roberto Mancini as manager in 2009, Ireland's playing time dropped significantly and he moved to Villa last summer.

Ireland could not find any success under manager Gerard Houllier and was loaned to Newcastle in January where he only played twice in five months.

Ireland may find some success under new boss Alex McLeish at Villa, but with his luck, a new manager will just be more time on the bench.

Blackburn: El-Hadji Diouf

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The Senegal international is known for some uncalled for on-field antics, including last season when he taunted QPR's Jamie Mackie who was down injured on the pitch.

Diouf's latest shenanigans have pulled in the past week as he has failed to show for Blackburn's preseason training.

With this last stunt, the former Liverpool man will most likely be on the bench all season and have no worth to Blackburn at all.

Bolton: Robbie Blake

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Blake has had a long career in English football but since he has signed with Bolton, he has become less and less apart of the club's first team and has become less important to Owen Coyle and company.

With a core group of players that Coyle is using, Blake does not see enough time in the first team to make an impact and when he does take the pitch, he can not get into a good rhythm from setting the bench all the time.

Chelsea: Yuri Zhirkov

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In 2009, Zhirkov became the most expensive Russian footballer at the time and was supposed to be the next best thing on the left side for Chelsea after leaving CSKA Moscow.

The Russian has seen some playing time in European competitions but has struggled to make an impact in the Premier League, only making 12 appearances for the Blues last season.

Everton: Jan Mucha

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The Slovakian goalkeeper signed with the Toffees after the World Cup last season to become Tim Howard's backup.

The only problem for Mucha is that he has not seen any time in net since his move to the club and made a bad choice as a top choice international keeper to sit on the bench instead of playing consistently.

Fulham: Philippe Senderos

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Ever since falling out of favor at Arsenal, Senderos and since then has become injury prone.

The Swiss defender got inured while on loan at AC Milan in 2008 and before making an appearance for Fulham after he signed last summer, Senderos tore his Achilles tendon and only played in two matches towards the end of the season.

Liverpool: Milan Jovanovic

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The Serbian international has been a bad fit on Merseyside since he was signed last summer from Standard Liege.

Managerial change can be attributed to his failure at Anfield, but Jovanovic could really never work his way into the first team under Roy Hodgson and the Kenny Dalglish.

Manchester City: Michael Johnson

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Johnson has barely seen time in the first team at Manchester City since he joined the club in 2006 and thanks to the change in philosophy at City, Johnson has not found a place in the lineup thanks to all the big money signings.

You would think after all these years and lack of playing time and injuries, Johnson would have left the club by now to rebuild his career and work on getting playing time even if it is in the lower leagues of English football.

Manchester United: Anderson

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Anderson may be evoking memories of Kleberson for Manchester united as a Brazilian player who had a ton of hype at the beginning of his Old Trafford career and slowly fading away from the United scene before leaving.

The Brazilian did make 19 league appearances last season for United but he has not fulfilled the hype that he came into the club with.

With the retirement of Paul Scholes in the United midfield, Anderson has been one of the candidates to replace the Old Trafford legend but Anderson will have turn his game around to replace a legend like Scholes.

Newcastle: James Perch

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Perch earned the honor of becoming the first player to receive five yellow cards in five league games.

The 25-year-old defender did that in the first five games of the season for Newcastle and then after he returned from suspension, he scored an own goal to give his club a loss to Stoke.

After his saga at the beginning of the season, Perch only made seven more appearances last season for Alan Pardew's club.

Norwich City: James Vaughan

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Vaughan has an injury plagued career and he just recently signed with Norwich City this May but it is a huge risk for the Canaries.

Since becoming a member of Everton in 2004, the forward has played over 15 games in a season once and that was last season on loan with Crystal Palace.

No one knows how Vaughan will react to playing two full season back to back for the first time and it is a definite risk for Norwich City.

QPR: Adel Taarabt

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Taarabt has gone from the most valuable player in the QPR squad to the most worthless since the club gained promotion to the Premier League.

The Moroccan was the club's leading scorer as QPR won the Championship last season, but ever since the forward has been looking to leave the club and has been left off the preseason roster as well.

Stoke: Salif Diao

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After playing consistently for the Potters in his first two season with the club, the Senegal international had only made 24 league appearance in the past two seasons and his role is diminishing at the club.

Diao has also not seen a cap for the Senegal national team since his playing time at Stoke starting to lower.

Sunderland: Keiren Westwood

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Westwood joined the club from Coventry City last season but signed on knowing that he would be the third-choice keeper for the Black Cats.

The Republic of Ireland international sits behind Craig Gordon and Simon Mignolet on the depth chart at the Stadium of Light and will most likely not any playing time soon.

Swansea City: Gorka Pintado

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Pintado has been at the Liberty Stadium since 2008 when he joined from Grenada in Spain where he scored 18 goals in the 2007-08 season.

Pintado has scored a total of seven goals in three seasons with the Swans and has been a disappointing signing.

Tottenham: Giovani Dos Santos

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Even though the 22 year old Mexican has found success at the international level including a triumph at this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup, he has not found success at the club level with Tottenham.

Dos Santos has only made 20 total appearances for the club and has been loaned out three times in his Spurs career and has been constantly looking for a way out of White Hart Lane.

West Brom: Boaz Myhill

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Myhill has been sprung into the starting role at keeper at West Brom.

Myhill has recently been made a mockery of due to his after his mishap against the Vancouver Whitecaps when he allowed the goalkeeper to score from 90 yards away.

West Brom should find a replacement for the departed Carson, if not good luck with Myhill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wigan: Chris Kirkland

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Due to poor performance and injury, Kirkland was replaced as Wigan's number one keeper as Ali Al-Habsi took control of the position in the third game of last season.

Now with Al-Habsi's transfer a permanent one, Kirkland will be second choice for Roberto Martinez in net and the fact that he was loaned out last season to Leicester City means Kirkland is not as valuable as he was in the past.

Wolves: Adlene Guedioura

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After appearing in the 2010 World Cup for Algeria, Guedioura signed with Wolves from Charleroi in Belgium.

The Algerian was out for most of this past season due to injury and only scored one goal and that came in the second to last game of the season against West Brom.