Tom Daley, Sam Allardyce, England cricket and football teams: four of the biggest flops of 2016
TEAM GB’S stunning Olympic display and Leicester City shocking the world by winning the Premier League will ensure 2016 is remembered for some great sporting stories.
But not everyone enjoyed the kind of 12 months that saw Andy Murray storm to the top of world tennis – there were plenty who failed miserably in the sporting arena when the chips were down.
Here SunSport casts an eye over the sports stars and teams who were the biggest flops of the year:
Tom Daley
Poster boy of Team GB, media darling, TV ‘star’ and all-round nice chap of the Olympics.
We’ve been living and breathing Tom ever since he melted the hearts of a nation as a schoolboy – and his bronze medal at London 2012 ensured he kept his place as a national treasure.
Daley’s career was all about Rio. Here was his chance of individual glory, especially after breaking the Olympic record in the preliminary round.
The nation united and grouped around their televisions to see their hero do the business and claim gold in the 10m individual – but Daley stank the place out so badly he didn’t even make it through to the final.
As flops go, this was a real bomb.
Simone Zaza
It’s hard enough becoming a laughing stock once – but twice in a calendar year is some going. So take a bow Signor Zaza.
The striker first grabbed our attention at Euro 2016 as the passionate and hard-working striker desperate to make an impression for Italy.
His moment arrived in the penalty shoot-out in the quarter-final against favourites Germany. A steely stare, the tanned and tattooed body, perfect beard – Zaza was about to show the world he can cut it at the top table.
Cue a stuttering run-up that suggested he didn’t know what he was doing, before blazing his shot high, wide and handsome. An effort so bad it is regarded as one of the worst penalties of all time.
Yet super Simone was not finished. He opted to swap Juventus for West Ham in the summer, and while his effort could not be questioned, there were times he looked more like a pub player than an elite sportsman.
His Hammers career is best summed up for the wonderful shot against Manchester United that was so bad it went out for a throw-in...BEHIND him.
England’s cricketers
England cricket lacks for nothing. Huge resources, enormous coaching and support team and central contracts geared at making sure the players have the best chance possible of becoming the best in the world.
Except no-one seems to want to teach that about facing spin. Or avoiding collapses in the sub-continent.
The warning signs were there as Alastair Cook’s intrepid team took on the might of Bangladesh in a three-match series and only just scraped home 2-1.
But India just made them look stupid.
We all know India love a bit of winning at home, and plenty of teams will come a cropper when they visit the No 1 Test playing team in the world. Yet surely most will put up a better fist of it than Cook and his hapless men.
Related Stories
Having drawn the opening match, optimism was high in the camp, but what followed were four defeats so one-sided it was unfair to charge for admission to the ground.
They talk a good game, but the only walking they do is back to the pavilion...and quickly.
Arsenal
Arsenal have managed the difficult feat of finishing 2016 in exactly the same way they started it – by bottling it.
The Gunners came into the year best placed to win the Premier League after seeing off Manchester City the previous month. With Manchester United and Chelsea faltering, Arsenal’s biggest threats for the title were an inexperienced Tottenham and minnows Leicester.
It was there for the taking, never had they had a better chance of being crowned champions. But the Gunners players caved in under the weight of expectation, handing the initiative to their rivals and confirming their reputation as chokers supreme.
This season was supposed to be different. The players were older, more experienced while defence and midfield had been strengthened. And the signs were good up until Chelsea started testing their mettle and applying a little pressure.
As soon as Arsenal faced a must-win game, they lost at Everton. And when the chips were down, they followed it up by giving away a lead once again to lose to City.
Now the title looks a long shot, just watch Arsene’s boys go on another brilliant unbeaten run. But you just know it will come to an end when it matters most.
Tottenham
It’s not just the red part of North London who stacked it in 2016. After all, Tottenham fell apart in the title race so badly they even allowed Arsenal pip them to second spot.
But at least they were back in the Champions League, the showcase for Mauricio Pochettino and his highly-rated young side to display their talents.
Wembley Stadium was secured at some cost to stage home matches because White Hart Lane is being rebuilt, while the club’s merchandising department went into overdrive on celebration products hailing Tottenham’s Champions League campaign.
The result? Out in disgrace with one game to spare, with only one win at home after failing to sparkle at the national stadium. Oh, and not even Del Boy and the Trotters can shift some of the leftover stock in the club shop.
England football team
It was a major tournament year so it’s no real surprise to see the Three Lions featured in the chumps round-up, but the ineptitude of Roy Hodgson’s hapless bufoons really did take the breath away.
Denied an impressive opening match win over Russia, England came good as they beat rivals Wales in the second match. But then they hit the self-destruct button.
Hodgson suddenly decided to get clever, resting players for the last group match against Slovakia when victory would have given them a brilliant run through the tournament.
Even though the nation was forced to endure the misery of a goalless draw in that game, somebody somewhere was favouring the intrepid boys from England as results elsewhere gifted them a quarter-final spot if they could just see off an Iceland side who were just happy to have made a major tournament for the first time ever.
But no, our plucky heroes were having none of that. They weren’t about to execute the kind of professional display those in elite sport turn in on a regular basis against the minnows.
Hodgson sent his lads out utterly clueless and devoid of any game plan, and the players did their bits by suddenly forgetting how to a) pass the ball, and b) control the ball.
The manager couldn’t even get the resignation right, questioning why he had to lower himself to even face an inquest into why he and his men had let the nation down so badly.
Still, the bottom of the England barrel had been reached.
Sam Allardyce
The barrel still had some depths to plunge, it seems.
The FA made the usual noises about DNA, fabric, mission statements et al, and then settled on appointing a 62-year-old from Dudley who had won absolutely nothing or ever managed at Champions League level.
Sam Allardyce was elated. Absolutely ecstatic. Not only was he realising a boyhood ambition of managing his country, he was to be paid £3million-a-year to do it.
All he had to do was pick a squad seven or eight times a year, and lead a band of big name players through the easiest qualifying group known to mankind and secure a place in the World Cup in 2018.
The job was so part-time, it even allowed him the chance to cash in on his new found status by charging £400,000 for the occasional motivational speaking engagement in the Far East, and to give a few quick pointers to complete strangers of how to skirt round some rules laid down by his employers…wait, hang on a minute. He did what?
Sixty-seven days into the job of his dreams, good old Sam was a thing of the past. And England once again were the laughing stocks of world football.