The Premier League might be one of the toughest leagues in the world; well it probably is the toughest league in the world when it comes to the physicality and the number of games a player has to play, especially with no real winter break to look forward too.
Anyone who ends up as the champion of the league deserves the title, after 38 gruelling games, the best always get the championship medal and that beautiful trophy right? Well not really. The rules for winning the league for a team might be to come first but to win a medal; you have to make a few appearances.
Substitute appearances also count and that means a few players who didn’t really do a lot for their club end up winning more titles than some of the better players who couldn’t push their team to the top, read Steven Gerrard.
We look through the pages of history and list out three Premier League winners who didn’t deserve the medal.
3. Juan Cuadrado
It seems to be one of the worst buys in the history of the league, Cuadrado came off a great World Cup and with everyone wanting to buy him, and Chelsea splashed the cash to sign the talented Colombian.
He didn’t score or do much when he signed with them in January and ended up playing just over 300 minutes in the second half of the season, mostly as a substitute. Chelsea had more or less won the league by March and the Colombian happily took home a winner’s medal.
Just to let you know, he is now playing in Serie A on loan from Chelsea to Juventus and doing rather well. Well, at least when he wins the Serie A, this time he would have actually had a hand in getting Juventus to the top.
2. Alex Buttner
Remember signing the talented Dutch defender and then barely playing for the club? Well, he did leave Manchester United after Louis van Gaal signed as he didn’t think he would get a chance under the manager, who overlooked the defender for the national side.
Alex Buttner was signed with much fanfare by Sir Alex Ferguson but again barely made a good number of starts for the team. He did win the Premier League with the side in 2012-13 but only had a handful of appearances for the team.
Ferguson did state that the defender made a contribution to the team, no too sure of what means when he had only 13 appearances, most of them off the bench, well for all that he did get a medal, not too sure he deserved it.
1. Jack Rodwell
The English midfielder is another player who won the league but barely did anything for his side. Remember the tussle between Liverpool and Manchester City a couple of years ago? Remember Manchester City charging up and winning the league when Liverpool stumbled in the run-up?
Remember Jack Rodwell scoring a bunch of goals and playing a starring role for the club? No? Well, he was signed by City since they needed English players but the midfielder, who now plays for Sunderland, made only five appearances for the team in that run in.
At only 24-years-old, Rodwell is a warning of how talent doesn’t always translate to world class ability. Rodwell’s fall from grace is a reality that many English players face but at least he has a winner’s medal now.
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