The All Time Worst XI Of The Premier League Era

David Tully

4 years ago

Categories: Galleries, West Ham United News

Tags: Arsenal, aston villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, Spurs, West Ham, Wolves

We have now completed our series on the worst ever players to play in the Premier League era so today we are going to compile our worst eleven.

Over the past few months, we have looked at a whole host of footballers who had no business playing in the top flight of English football.

It has certainly been an interesting look back at some notoriously bad signings, as well as a few who may have gone under the radar but still failed to make the grade in the Premier League.

Press the next page as we list our worst ever Premier League starting line up.

GK- Kostas Chalkias

The Greek international made just six appearances for Portsmouth before being allowed to leave on a free transfer just a year after arriving at Fratton Park.

Despite being reserve keeper for Greece in their win at Euro 2004, Chalkias was simply not cut out for playing at the top level of English football.

RB- Marc Hottiger

The fact that he was understudy to Warren Barton at Newcastle United kind of tells you all you need to know about the Swiss international defender.

Hottiger was sold to Everton after just one campaign at St James’ Park, but he continued to struggle at Goodison Park, playing only 17 matches for the Toffees before he left the Premier League for good.

LB- Wayne Quinn

Another poor Newcastle signing, the fullback moved to the Magpies in 2001 but he barely played during his three seasons in the North East and was sent out on loan to various clubs.

West Ham was one of those teams, and he has been regularly voted as one of the worst players in the club’s history.

CB – Winston Bogarde

The Dutchman is not necessarily on this list for being a bad defender per se but simply because of his time in English football which saw play just seven games over a four-year period.

Bogarde sat on a lucrative contract, perfectly happy to sit in the reserves before he eventually left when his deal expired in 2004.

CB – Igor Stepanovs

The Latvian was very much out of his depth at Arsenal, and two bad errors in a humiliating 6-1 loss to Manchester United summed up his career at the Gunners.

Despite being distinctly average, Stepanovs remained at the London club for four years, making 17 league appearances.

RW – Bebe

The Portuguese winger spent four years at Manchester United following a £7.4m move from Vitoria Guimaraes but he barely featured, making seven appearances for the first team.

Bebe spent most of his time on loan spells and he did eventually carve out a career for himself in Spain. He simply wasn’t good enough to play for United.

CM – Junior Lewis

The midfielder moved with Peter Taylor from Gillingham when he was appointed manager of Leicester in 2000. He was initially signed on loan but despite some very average displays, he still got a permanent move to Filbert Street.

Lewis was rarely used in subsequent campaigns as he was sent on loan regularly before leaving the Foxes four years after he arrived.

CM – Eric Djemba-Djemba

The Cameroon international arrived at Manchester United with a bit of a reputation when he was signed from Nantes in 2003, but it quickly became clear that he wasn’t good enough to play at the top level.

After just eighteen months and 20 appearances for the Red Devils, he was sold to Aston Villa for a loss of £2m. He hardly made an impression at Villa Park either and eventually left England in 2007 for Qatar.

LW – Joey Beauchamp

One of the strangest signings in football history, the winger was West Ham’s record signing in 1994 but ended up leaving for Swindon Town after just 58 days.

It is believed Beauchamp was not happy with the commute to the training ground, although it may also have been the case that the club realised they made a massive error in paying £1.2m for him.

AM – Moustapha Salifou

The Togolese international will be a complete unknown to most but he spent four whole seasons at Aston Villa despite rarely playing in the first team.

Salifou simply wasn’t good enough to start for the senior side so he spent most of his time at the Midlands club in the reserves.

CF – Ali Dia

The notorious Senegalese forward only made one brief cameo appearance for Southampton but it has gone down in Premier League folklore.

Dia was given a trial by the Saints after manager Graeme Souness was fooled into believing he was George Weah’s cousin. He came off the bench against Leeds in a league game before being substituted himself.