The end of the season is almost upon us and while it’s been a wildly successful one for certain clubs – Juventus, Chelsea, and Real Madrid come to mind – it’s not been as plain sailing for some others. Whether it be a failure in their domestic leagues or total capitulation in European competitions, some clubs have suffered more than others this year, particularly when you take into account things like their size and the amount of money they spent in the transfer windows of the past year.
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You may well disagree with a couple of my picks, but here’s my list of clubs who choked big time in 2016/17.
#1 Leicester City
Maybe I’m being harsh here but bear with me. Fairytale was the word most used for Leicester’s Premier League title triumph last year, but obviously their goal this season was to prove that the victory wasn’t a fluke. Unfortunately, they’ve basically done the exact opposite, despite a strong run in the Champions League that may well have been to the detriment of their domestic season.
The stats don’t lie. Fans called Chelsea’s title defence last season abysmal and the Blues ended up finishing in 10th position – the lowest position of any reigning champion, even lower than Blackburn Rovers in 1995/96. Leicester currently sit in 11th, though, and given their next game is against high-flying Tottenham, it’s hard to imagine them climbing up the table any further, meaning they’ll take that horrible record from Chelsea.
More evidence can be seen from their record against the top six this season – that being Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal. They’ve picked up two wins (against Manchester City and Liverpool) but have suffered a staggering seven defeats. Last season, on the other hand, saw them lose just three times in the league.
With the vultures already circling around Leicester’s top stars such as Kasper Schmeichel, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, it’s hard to ever see the Foxes get back into title contention anytime soon. After retaining all of their players outside of N’Golo Kante last summer, a top four spot should’ve been the minimum goal and they’ve missed that by a country mile. It’s hard to argue that they haven’t choked, really.
#2 Paris Saint-Germain
Since their purchase by Qatari billionaires in 2011, Paris Saint-Germain have become one of Europe’s most powerful clubs, able to sign top players and pay them insane wages, and due to that, they’ve seen tremendous success, winning Ligue 1 for the past three seasons. The major goal, however, has always been the Champions League and failure to make a mark in Europe eventually cost Laurent Blanc his job last season.
Whilst they’ve been able to reach the quarterfinals every season since 2012/13, they have never progressed further.
This season could’ve been so different. Sure, they lost the talismanic Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Manchester United in the summer, but then in January, they signed German superstar Julian Draxler – one of the top performers at Euro 2016. They were also drawn into a relatively easy Champions League group, alongside Arsenal, Basel and Ludogorets.
Draws at home and away to Arsenal, as well as a draw at home to Ludogorets meant they finished behind the Gunners in the group, and in turn that led to a second-round meeting with Barcelona. After a stunning 4-0 victory in the first leg, PSG seemed to be on their way to the quarters, but somehow they conspired to throw it all away, losing 6-1 at the Nou Camp and allowing Barca through.
You could argue that Barcelona’s performance on that fateful night was once-in-a-lifetime, but even in Ligue 1, PSG have choked this season, as it’s looking highly likely that they’ll lose out on a league title to Monaco. By their lofty standards, it hasn’t been a good season for France’s biggest club by any stretch of the imagination.
#3 Manchester United
Jose Mourinho would like to tell you that should his side win the Europa League, then the season will have been a success. It’s hard to agree with Mourinho though when you look at how his team have performed for the majority of the season and where they’re likely to finish in the Premier League.
The summer of 2016 saw them outspend everyone in Europe as they shelled out a monstrous £149m on Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly. And while Zlatan Ibrahimovic was technically a free transfer, his exorbitant wages and signing on fees make a mockery of the word “free”. And for all that money spent, the best position they can now finish is fifth, outside of the Champions League qualification zone.
Sure, a victory in the Europa League – which is far from a guarantee given the form of their opponents Ajax – would put them back into the Champions League, but come on – Mourinho was supposed to be the missing piece that would bring back the glory days to United, days the club hasn’t seen since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Instead, it’s been a Louis Van Gaal redux – a tonne of dull draws, Wayne Rooney looking way past his sell-by-date, and the likes of Pogba and Anthony Martial failing to live up to their hype. Mourinho might deny it but it’s hard to see this season as anything but a choke job for the Red Devils.
#4 Arsenal
Arsenal’s season is a tricky one to grade given their trademark late surge may end with them in fourth position (again), but given some of the other occurrences around them, it’s hard to call it anything but a choke job really.
Firstly there’s the fact that for the first time since 1994/95, Arsenal are going to finish behind bitter rivals Tottenham in the Premier League. Should they miss out on the top four, that’ll also be the first time it’s happened since 1995/96, before the arrival of Arsene Wenger.
Then there was that awful capitulation in the Champions League. Prior to this season, the big criticism of Arsenal in Europe was that they’d always fail to win their group, meaning they’d end up facing a monster team in the second round. This season they actually won their group but ended up drawn against Bayern Munich in a stroke of bad luck. Bayern actually looked vulnerable this time though, as they’d lost to Atletico Madrid and Rostov in the group stage.
Could Arsenal take advantage? Of course not. In one of the all-time great choke jobs, they somehow lost both legs 5-1, giving them a horrific 10-2 aggregate loss. Throw in the embarrassing losses to Watford and West Bromwich Albion – as well as their recent capitulation against Spurs – and even with a miraculous top four finish, this would be Arsenal’s worst season in some time.
#5 Bayern Munich
Okay, so this one is going to sound totally crazy. How can a side who won their domestic league at a canter – with a current gap from them to second place of thirteen points, and only two losses in the league all season – be considered to have choked? Well, ignore their domestic form for a second; let’s look at how they did in Europe.
Sure, Munich made the quarters of the Champions League and pulled off some great results along the way – the result against Arsenal for example – but look at their losses in Europe – they were defeated by Russian side Rostov, and then lost to both Madrid teams – Atletico in the group stage and Real in the quarters.
The issue for me is this; the Bundesliga has now been won by Bayern for the past five seasons, and the gap between them and the rest of the clubs in Germany seems to be getting bigger. They’ve been winning the league regularly by more than ten points, which is scary when you consider how close the race for the title is in the Premier League, for instance. Even La Liga, which is decried for only having three title contenders (Real, Atletico and Barcelona) is always close at the end between those three sides.
Bayern, quite simply, have killed their domestic competition with their transfer policy of signing the best players from the other top Bundesliga clubs. Mats Hummels – signed from Borussia Dortmund for a little more than £35m – was the latest example. The problem though is that iron sharpens iron and how can Bayern expect to do well in Europe when their own league is so soft?
This season marks the fourth one in a row that Bayern have been eliminated by one of the Spanish giants. How long before it’s a Premier League club, or a French side that does it? How long before Bayern become the German version of Celtic, bossing a one-team league that just gets weaker? Bayern might’ve owned the Bundesliga again, but by killing their competition I think they’re choking themselves.
