The Top Five Worst Centre Backs Of The Premier League Era

After looking at the worst left-backs in Premier League history last time, we are now moving on to the centre-backs, and there has certainly been some poor defenders to grace English football over the past thirty years.

Like goalkeepers, though, centre-backs do have a thankless job at times. They are only really given credit when they make a goal-saving tackle and very little else.

Their mistakes can cost goals, and it means you really have to have the right mentality to play the position, especially in England where the pace of the game is so high.

Press the next page as we go through our top five worst centre-backs to have played in the Premier League era.

5) Marcelino

The Spaniard somehow stayed at Newcastle for three and a half years. He was signed by Ruud Gullit from Mallorca for £5.8m in 1999 and made 20 appearances during his first eighteen months at the club.

However, he fell out of favour, both due to injury and poor form, and spent the next two and a half years in the reserves before leaving the Magpies by mutual consent in January 2003.

4) Claude Davis

Derby County paid Preston North End £3m for the defender in 2007, with manager Billy Davies looking to build a solid defence around the player who had excelled in the Championship.

However, Davis managed to play just 19 games for the Rams, as the club conceded 89 goals and finished bottom of the table on just 11 points.

3) Jean-Alain Boumsong

Another mistake in the transfer market by Newcastle with then manager Graeme Souness shelling out £8m on the Rangers centre-back, who had only had a brief spell in Scotland.

The Frenchman got off to a decent start in his first season at St James’ Park but things quickly began to unravel during his second year, with a number of costly errors and mistakes. He was sold at a loss to Juventus for £3.3m just eighteen months after moving to the Premier League.

2) Igor Stepanovs

The Latvian defender got off to a good start at Arsenal but his career with the Gunners unravelled in just one game, making two costly mistakes as Manchester United thrashed Arsene Wenger’s side 6-1 at Old Trafford in 2001.

Needless to say that Stepanovs’ career at the club never recovered, although remarkably he stayed for three more years before eventually being offloaded to Grasshopper in 2004.

1) Winston Bogarde

The Dutchman played for the likes of Ajax and Barcelona, winning four league titles and the Champions League during the 90s, but his time in England was full of controversy.

He signed a £40,000 a week contract when he joined Chelsea in 2000 but quickly found himself out of favour under manager Claudio Ranieri. Rather than leaving, Bogarde opted to sit on his lucrative four-year deal, playing just seven times and refusing to go even when he was forced to play with the youth team.

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