The Worst Sporting Champions of All Time ! - Part Two!

This is the second installment in my series looking at and 'celebrating' those undeserved 'Sporting Champions' - those teams and/or individuals that were actually top of their field, yet were still pretty rubbish.

Last time it was Blackburn Rovers who felt the wrath of my written tongue, as I described their 1995 Premiership winning team as pretty crass. This time I am sticking with the sport of football as I look back to 2005 and 1982, and poor cold water on a couple of English teams 'glorious' European triumphs!

There are plenty of folk, especially in the Greater Manchester area, who insist that Liverpool's Champions League winning team of 2005 were indeed the worst European Champions of all time!
Despite their dramatic penalty shoot-out final victory over Milan, in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul - they have a point!

You can't be picking players like Djimi 'gauche' Traoré or Harry 'supersize me' Kewell and expect to receive much in the way of props. But in their defence the Reds did at least have the decency to 'somehow' defeat several quality teams along the way such as Milan, Juventus and Chelsea and to a lesser extent Bayer Leverkusen.

However Liverpool only made it through to the knock-out phase of the competition, ahead of the 'mighty' Olympiacos of Greece on goal difference, after finishing runners-up to AS Monaco in their qualifying group.
The Anfield side did finish a semi-respectable fifth in the league during their cup-winning season.

Similar claims of beating reputable opposition on their way to European glory cannot be made for Aston Villa's 1982 campaign.

Villa that season 'officially' became the worst side ever to lift the most sought after European club trophy of the modern era!

The old adage of ' you can only beat what is put in front of you ' still sadly fails to make their triumph seem anymore than futile.

Villa won their solo European Cup (in the days when it was a straight knock-out competition) by beating the muscle of Valur Reykjavik, Dynamo Berlin, Dynamo Kiev, Anderlect and in one of the most tedious finals held in Rotterdam, the most toothless Bayern Munich side in living memory, care of a 67th minute Peter Withe goal.

Meanwhile back home, Villa defended their 1981 domestic league title with a complete lack of aplomb, by losing 15 games and ending the season in 12th place - no European champions have ever finished as low - quite a feat and in doing so simply re-emphasising their title as ' the worst side ever to lift the European Cup! '

Latest Serie A News - Pato offers support to Huntelaar

It is certainly not new news when I tell you that Klass-Jan Huntelaar hasn't really had the impact at AC Milan that many had hoped he would. In fact he has already been linked with a move away from the club as early as January, but team mate Alexandre Pato has come out in support of the under fire striker, as have coach Leonardo and fellow Dutch team-mate Clarence Seedorf.

Pato, the Brazilian striker said of Huntelaar:

"I’m sure he will give much to Milan."

"I had a hard time too, when I just arrived here,”

"I found it difficult to speak Italian and off the field I could not communicate with others, I was afraid to make mistakes."

"Everyone saw that he was the best player in Holland and scored plenty of goals when he played for Ajax, has done well at Real Madrid and I am sure that even here he manages to make his contribution to Milan."

Huntelaar currently sits as fourth choice striker for Milan at the moment with Pato, Ronaldinho and Filippo Inzaghi all ahead of him. there is no doubt the Dutch international knows how to find

He has failed to hit the ground running at Milan since his arrival in August 2009, and has not scored in any of his eleven appearances for the club, and with three strikers in front of him his opportunities are looking somewhat limited.

There is no doubt the Dutch international knows how to find the back of the net.
At Ajax he scored 76 goals in just 92 appearances, prompting Real Madrid to get out the cheque book in January 2009, and pay £17m to secure his services.
He scored eight times for the 'Galaticos' in twenty appearances, before he joined Italian giants AC Milan for a fee in the region of £12m, just seven months later.
Huntelaar has also scored 14 times in 25 appearances for the Dutch national side (below).

Not helping matters are the rumours that Milan are continually being linked with a move for Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, who if signed from the Bundesliga club would push the Dutch striker further down the pecking order.

However reports coming out of Italy say rivals Juventus are trying to hijack the deal and bring the Bosnian hitman to Turin in January. Huntelaar's fate with Milan is not yet sealed, even though most of the Italian press have already written off the striker.

However things will have to start to change quickly on the pitch for the Dutchman, or Huntelaar may soon find himself back on the transfer list, and looking for his third club in a year.

In October, Huntelaar was linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur and a possible swap deal with Roman Pavlyuchenko during the January transfer window.
The North London side were again reportedly linked with the Dutchman earlier this month, although German side Hamburg are also now thought to be in the race to sign him.

Roll on this weekend where in Serie A, AC Milan and Hunlelaar entertain Cagliari in a league fixture at the San Siro Stadium.


Written by:

Mark Ferguson, a sports editor who blogs about where to purchase inexpensive quality football shirts.

(Today he is guest writing on behalf of Beer Footy and Birds!)