Who's the worst player you've ever managed?

Mine has to be Paolo Cannavaro for Napoli, in the final season before I decided he wasn't even worthy of back up he managed to accumulate a multitude of red cards while also making mistake after mistake.

I think his final stats for the season ended up around 40 odd mistakes, 8 of which led to goals, 4 red cards (on easy tackling), ample yellow cards and an embarrassing average rating, his worst performance being a 3.6. This was all accumulated in 25 league appearances. He ggot more games than I would have liked due to some long term injuries within the the squad. To be blunt, he was truly shocking.

So, who have been your disappointing performers?

Mario Balotelli.

Ian Evatt.

He was allegedly far better than my club's primary centrebacks, but he was absolutely terrible, and even more so when he played alongside Steven Caldwell. Admittedly both were quite old (35 perhaps), and hence slow, but they should have been better than what I already had.

He probably let a goal slip in every single game I played him in, and had an average rating of 6.36 I seem to recall. After about 10 league games I threw in the towel and put him on the transfer list. He then proceeded to get Portsmouth relegated again which was nice touch.

Mario Balotelli.

I came in to say this but was beaten to it

Mario Balotelli.

I've got 2 that stand out. Firstly there's Mahamadou Dissa who I signed for Leicester on (I think) FM2006. I played him right midfield, and he managed to go the full season without getting any goals or assists from what I remember, despite talent.

The worst though has to be a defender called Fredrik Klock who I signed for Hammerfest in Norway on FM2007. I was very happy when I signed him as his attributes looked better than my other centre backs.

Unfortunately though I was very wrong. He performed disastrously and I froze him out of the squad. I then watched my team throw away promotion to the Tippeligaen in the final few games, and I thought I'd recall Klock for the next season in the hope he'd have been shocked into fulfilling his potential. Again I was very wrong and he was soon frozen out again and eventually sold/released. I think I used to put hard tackling on him on the opposition instructions when I faced him after that, hoping he'd get injured.

Dante with Fulham - Brilliant attributes, awful performances

Any of my 1/2 star PA youth players

40 million pounds worth of Mario Balotelli.

40 million pounds worth of Mario Balotelli.

I wouldnt give a quarter of that for him They saw you coming a mile off.

40 million pounds worth of Mario Balotelli.

So, I was lucky as I paid 'only' 9 million pounds for him.

another vote for mario balotelli im afraid! cant stand him and will never buy him again.

Never bought Balotelli and judging by reaction here, never will.

So, I was lucky as I paid 'only' 9 million pounds for him.

I got him on a free and that was too much.

Carl Cort. Bought in on a free as a striker at League One level, scored 0 in 26.

Carl Cort. Bought in on a free as a striker at League One level, scored 0 in 26.

I had him on a previous version and was a BEAST.

Dante with Fulham - Brilliant attributes, awful performances

Shocking decision making for a top tier player though, and lack of pace. Almost so good though....almost.

There can only be one. Vagner Love. Epic stats that always make me believe this is the career in which he'll play well.

He never, ever, EVER, does.

Gary Hooper. £3m to bring him to a Middlesbrough side in their second season back in the top division, he scored twice in 36 games (all competitions), both of those coming in a single League Cup match. He's the only player I've ever threatened with "improve your performances or I'll transfer list you" who replied with "I'll be off then."

Though Laurence Tait (regen) was terrible in his own way. Signed as a 16 year old, I threw him into a couple of first team matches at the end of his first season with me because of an injury crisis. When I moved him back to the U-18s, he threw a hissy fit and demanded a transfer.

Had my fair share at Millwall.

Kevin Lisbie was just so frustrating, he would get in great positions time and time again, but would just miss the target every time.

Lee Martin brought in from Ipswich thinking he be the real natural winger I needed, except he spent most of his time at the club moaning and mishitting crosses out of play.

Finally the worst of them all though was Dickson Etuhu, who I signed to give my time some bite to help us get promoted, he gave us bite but that was it. He got sent off time and time again, and he couldn't pass a ball to save his life.

Recently it would be Calvin Andrew at Crystal Palace. Didn't score in 8 games and had an average rating of 6.74 by the time he was released. He's currently without a club after scoring just twice in 33 games for Exeter. I'm just glad he was already at the club when I got there so he avoids the dubious honour of being a flop signing.

Although clearly not the worst in terms of quality, I couldn't get the best out of Cesc at Arsenal despite playing him in supposedly his strongest position. He got practically 6.8s every single game, i'm really not sure why I couldn't get him to perform.

Not sure if a new gen, but bought a guy called gourcef, french striker was only 19, stats were amazing, cost £9.5m, didn't expect miracles at first. Only started a handful of games in the first 3 years, didn't really do much, he was now apparently worth £21m at this stage and my first choice striker Toninho was now 32 years old and needing replaced. The following two seasons he played a total of 71 games scoring only 8 in all competitions! .. I thought it might just be me, so I changed his position I changed the team formations the tactics everything, he was just dissapointing. Sold him, thought he was going to be amazing at Barcelona who bought him, I checked 5 years later, he wasn't even there first choice striker at this point, totally useless.

Brandy... i got tired of seeing "how did he miss that!!" in the commentary box... Then he told me he was losing faith in my ability as a manager so i transfer listed him!!

Mario Balotelli.

Mario Balotelli.

another vote for mario balotelli im afraid! cant stand him and will never buy him again.

Another Mario vote for me. Offered and accepted Man city job in 2015 and he lasted 3 days under my management. In this 3 days he blasted myslef and the club in the press on two occasions then demanded a transfer which i accepted and got rid for £14 million.

I have a number of them...

Chan Hin Kwong - used to play him at left-back, however he always seemed to let crosses in frequently, which led to goals more often then not. However, he's still on my squad as he's quite versatile and could play OK in left midfield. I have since then signed a new left-back.

Law Ka Lok - as a playmaker, he's often slow in releasing the ball and is indecisive. Frequently gave the ball away to the opposition team. Couldn't create enough chances to save his life. I am keeping him in the team at the moment, however will sell him once I've got a new playmaker in.

Wei Zhao - used to be my first-choice goalkeeper, have pretty decent stats. However, he could not keep a single clean sheet in the whole of my 2nd season. So, now my 2nd choice goalkeeper starts in my goal and he's actually gotten a few clean sheets.

There can only be one. Vagner Love. Epic stats that always make me believe this is the career in which he'll play well.

He never, ever, EVER, does.

Absolutely. He plays well for the AI, but just doesn't fit into my system. I've never had him score enough to end up at a million a goal, much less become a "first name on the teamsheet".

Fernando Torres on my Chelsea save really does emulate the man himself, I think in 5 years hes scored about 9 goals for me. Been trying to get rid of him, but with international call ups (hate the ACoN) and being plagued with injuries, I had to use him, but he wont do a single thing.

He doesn't even get many assists, if any. He truly is shocking.

Had Inter and Roma sniffing for a while, but they don't seem to go the final step =[

matt duke. every shot on target= goal.

:mad:FRED:mad:

You know that guy that played for Lyon.He was a nightmare.Signed for 11.75m for my ajax save and then he never performed.He through his toys out the pram after a 1week fine after a shocking 3.9 rated performance.he reqested transfer i agreed,nobody wanted him in the end he went on loan to Sauo Paulo.

in the end i manageD to get shot of him to Borduax for FREE

I was gonna say Balotelli, but I'm gonna say Diego because I like to be different.

Both averaged less than a 6 for me over the course of a season.

Mario Balotelli.

Mario Balotelli.

another vote for mario balotelli im afraid! cant stand him and will never buy him again.

Another Mario vote for me. Offered and accepted Man city job in 2015 and he lasted 3 days under my management. In this 3 days he blasted myslef and the club in the press on two occasions then demanded a transfer which i accepted and got rid for £14 million.

Another vote for unberable Mario

Really Balotelli! Hes always been immense as a AML (Inside Forward) like i mean ridiculously good! Don't know what you people are using him as!

Fernando Llorente. Ireally thought he'd be able to replace Rooney. Bought him for £32 million and he did sod all. Scored 10 goals in 40 odd league appearances over 2 years (in the same amount of time Chicarito scored 45 league goals). Finally sold him for £10 mil to Real.

Llorente is amazing as well when used as Target Man Support!

Well considering I've been playing the games for nearly 10 years and mostly in the lower leagues, I can say without a shadow of a doubt the worst player was Emile "He's tied his laces together" Heskey.

Worst 50 pence I've ever spent.

Zlatan Ibrahimović

He demanded 210k a week for wages at 34, wouldnt budge at all, so i let him go, board hated me for it, he goal scoring record was average at best (for someone of his calibre).

AC Milan

1st season (2012/2013): Apps 35 ~ 11 Goals (decent return i guess, but considering my second striker got 22 goals)

2nd Season (2013/2014): Apps 37 ~ 10 Goals (2nd striker got 27 goals)

3rd Season (2015/2016): Apps 15 ~ 4 Goals (these are his full apps, not subs. Was used 10 times as a sub, and scored 0)

A couple of FMs ago it would be 'Darko Bodul.' He had some amazing stats and I managed to sign him at a League 2 club. Despite that my coaches agreed that he would be more than good enough for the top of the Championship (or even 'Decent Premiership level') and the interest of different clubs kinda confirmed that, he hardly ever scored for me. In fact, he hardly ever played well. When I got to the Championship, I decided to sell him off for quite a lot of cash. A couple of years later, and still in the Championship, I decided to give him a second chance when I found him on the transferlist somewhere. Again he failed to perform.

The other player that massively disappointed me was a regen at my, Dutch, sc Heerenveen side at that time. Stats-wise he may be the best player of all times I've ever had. He was a striker with quite a number of 20s for important stats. The other important stats that didn't have a 20 also had high ratings. Everything except his extremely poor acceleration and pace (and most defensive stats). In his early twenties he was the best player of his national team and, before I signed him, he was on a massive goal scoring spree at a German side.

I signed him for a record amount as he would fit perfectly in my tactics. But that was only what I thought. He ended up as my worst signing ever. He rarely scored, didn't give many assists either and often didn't have very high ratings either. I never figured out how to get him 'working.' Eventually I returned him back to Germany and sold him to FC Bayern where he quickly grew out to become one of their best players -- if not their best.

Llorente is amazing as well when used as Target Man Support!

yeah I barely ever play a 4-4-2, im a 4-3-3 man and as a lone striker he is IMMENSE!

yeah I barely ever play a 4-4-2, im a 4-3-3 man and as a lone striker he is IMMENSE!

but I have not got such an insane goal scoring record out of Llorente recently, even if im very pleased with how he plays and the contribution he have provided (which have been much more split between assisting and scoring these days)

Sergio Ramos, spent £35m on him and he was crap, sold him 2 seasons later.... Oh and Ola Toivonnen (sp?). £4.5m in august 2011 (FM11), first 6 games he ended between 5.4-6.0 and after that underperformed massively in the other 5 games he played in... Gone in January for... £4.5m

Weird enough, I had Yohan Cabaye twice (FM 10 - Steaua Bucharest and 11 - Shakhtar Donetsk). He was really crap in both versions, otherwise I usually sell the players that I am not happy with. The thing is that it was impossible to sell Cabaye in either of the versions :-)

Gary Hooper. £3m to bring him to a Middlesbrough side in their second season back in the top division, he scored twice in 36 games (all competitions), both of those coming in a single League Cup match. He's the only player I've ever threatened with "improve your performances or I'll transfer list you" who replied with "I'll be off then."

Absolutely LOVED that - I actually LOL'ed!

Aaron Lescott a couple of dafuge's challenges ago. He got 5 or 6 red cards in a season, most of them straight reds and no amount of fining or tactic tinkering got him to stop putting in reckless challenges. IIRC he was the only person who was sent off for me that season.

Needless to say he didn't stay at the club long and was sold at the end of his first season.

Really Balotelli! Hes always been immense as a AML (Inside Forward) like i mean ridiculously good! Don't know what you people are using him as!

YES!! What a great shout, same for me. Everyone moans about Balotelli and he's always superb for me playing from the left. Always hits double figures with goals and assists. A player in my team who I known can change the game with one run or shot.

balotelli was pretty good on the AML position for my hereford team, wasnt always first choice and never complained.

There was one player quite a few versions ago, when they first brought in player personality stuff I think, who was an absolute nightmare to manage and I cant for the life of me remember his name...

Mine has to be Jô.

In FM 2011, ManCity always proposes him as a loan or a sale at the beginning of a new game. Playing with PSG and having little to no transfer funds, but in dire need of a striker (Erding and Hoarau being shaky at best), I decided to loan him for a year.

Long story short, I cancelled the loan 5 matches in the season.

Why ? First match he misses 4 goals then when I replace him at the 65' mark, he gets angry at me for doing so. Next match I make him enter as a joker because Hoarau injured himself, and he takes a red card tackling the last defender instead of getting the ball. All that time he is angry at me for replacing him at the first match, and I cant have conversations with him because he doesnt want to. 3rd match with him (after his time off), he misses a goal opportunity, and takes a yellow card during the corner for complaining to the referee. Sensing where this is going I prepare my sub for him. Before I can do so, he takes another yellow for shoving a defender 2 minutes later.

Needless to say I got rid of him.

Maybe he is a decent player, and this was a string of bad luck, but for me it was enough to put him on my *I WILL NEVER USE THAT PLAYER EVER AGAIN* along with Trezeguet and Gourcuff.

Balotelli, like all enfants terribles, will probably play well and not complain if things are going well, but when things aren't...

I recently had a young and promising fourth-choice centre-back who was later promoted after my third-choice centre-back did his cruciate in (second time in his career I believe - he's never hit 40 appearances a season either, as he gets injured all the time). This was the first half of the season.

Towards January, he had become close to second-choice (I was alternating between second and third) but Juventus and Inter made a bid for him and despite him playing near-consistently for me and players ahead of him in both squads, he wanted to consider the deal. I did what you do on FM08 and offered a new contract, but he became unsettled the next day and refused. None of the deals were worth it so I decided to negotiate as the damage had been done, but neither club would budge. So talks fell down and he became upset.

I decided to play him enough so he'd reconsider - but things got worse. His performances collapsed and his mood never improved. I started to drop him and of course the infamous "death spiral" happened. He missed training and I fined him - but the final straw came when he missed a match and was became unavailable (i.e. he was partying the day before), and my first-choice centre-back had gone off crocked too - and all my good youth centre-backs were tired from recent youth and reserves matches (I arrange them manually in Italy). I handed a debut to what must have been the 6th-choice youth centre-back who had started 0 games and subbed on less than 10 times all season (although he was surprisingly not that bad). Then my second-choice centre-back picked up a knock too.

I was forced to recall my only centre-back on loan (who is now my first-choice right-back and has been a fantastic squad player for years).

I then decided that I would never play him again and decided to ruin his career. I retrained him as a striker and put him on a strict diet of goalkeeper training, clearly upsetting him more but at that point I couldn't really care any more. I didn't even play him in the reserves - he just sat in my first-team squad and never even got on the bench. When an injury crisis came round I dipped into the youth team. He missed training so many times - 3 times in a week on one occasion, and I gleefully fined him 2 weeks wages every time, upsetting him even more but saving me money. Eventually the fines started mellowing him and his professionalism must have increased behind the scenes, as he now started responding positively to fines (before missing training later anyway).

The season rolled-over and he didn't play in pre-season at all. He stopped missing training that often, which was unfortunate for my accountant who was looking forward to saving money. Unfortunately for the poor sod, he had 2 years left on his contract. So he rotted, and rotted, and rotted. Youth players came through and pushed him down the order even more. His attributes plummetted, but at least became competent as a striker (). No games. Bids flew in throughout the season and I turned them all down, upsetting him again (I didn't need the money, anyway). At the end of the season, he really was a wreck and his key attributes had fallen at least 2 point each.

Then the next season came round and again he played no part in pre-season and no part in the season at all. He became an accomplished striker - how he did this while training as a goalkeeper I have no idea (maybe he's Almunia in disguise). In January, Inter decided to bid £5m for him for some reason, despite the fact he would be available on a free in the summer - I turned it down (and upset him of course). This emboldened Juventus who put in an £8m bid (!) - and I bit their hand off. He then became a squad player for Juventus, and played his first game in 2 years or so. He's now first-choice for Juventus at centre-back and oddly enough gets deployed as a striker against me.

But he is the first player I have actually actively tried to ruin out of vengeance. If it were reality, I would probably be attacked by the players' union (if they had one in Italy) and various human-rights groups. Still, I paid his wages (except when he missed training) and financially hurt the club for him - and I'd do it again.

I can imagine the initial conversation after fining him for missing the game...

"You will never play for me again! Get out of my sight."

"So what - other clubs are interested and bidding good money. You'll let me go soon anyway!"

"I think you're forgetting this club makes over £50m profit a season."

"The chairman won't be happy you're paying my wages for nothing."

"Nothing? I've been at this club for nearly 70 years... I am the club. The club will pay your wages for you to rot in the stands - and it will be worth it. Actually, no it won't - you're banned from the stands. You're banned from the stadium. I don't want to see your face upsetting the kids in the crowd. You will train alone at the club and if you don't show up I will fine you. Juventus can come back with a £30m bid for all I care - you're staying. There's no coming back. You're not going to play for the reserves or youth. You're not going to play in pre-season. We're not going to give you specialist treatment in an injury as we only give that to players who deserve it. And you are definitely not going to play for me. And you know what's the biggest shame? You were going to be brilliant. When I'm done with you, you'll be lucky to be playing mid-table football."

"..."

"Oh, and one thing? Thanks for signing that 3-year contract at the start of this season. The club is delighted at your level of commitment. I'm looking forward to seeing you in training tomorrow, all alone behind the bushes with a football."