The biggest BURNS of 2012

By Raghavan,

The year end is the time to recollect and relive the most remarkable things to happen in the year. This year was remarkable in many ways - great comebacks, some amazing feats, Messi (okay, he's included in amazing feats), surprise stories by dark horses, remarkable victories and the lot. Here we take a look at something else. The top 10 biggest burns, trolls or whatever you would call it, to happen in this remarkable year in football.

10. Robin van Persie ill-wishers: RvP being last season's top scorer was one of the very few things Arsenal had to cheer about. Cold water flooded those when RvP told in explicit terms he does not want to see out his remaining one year in the contract. Juventus and the Manchester clubs enquired about him. Fans might have tolerated a move to the Turin giants but their ridiculous fee of 8m was spat at, rightfully. Of the remaining two clubs, a move to neither was worse than the other. RvP became a red devil and chants of traitor etc followed. Also doing the rounds were predictions that injury-prone RvP will suffer a breakdown and that Sir Alex Ferguson had lost his mojo in spending 22m for a fragile striker. But at the year end, with 14 goals for the season for RvP and most of it directly contributing to United's 7 point lead at the top, all the ill-wishes ring hollow.

9. Euro 2012 Final: Actually more of a pitiable story than a burn. But it was the final of the 2nd biggest International football competition. The losing team, Italy had actually surpassed a lot of expectations in beating the likes of England and Germany in the knockout stages and were, contrary to standard, playing some pleasing football. And perhaps did themselves no good as they raised expectations. Reality hit in the final, which ended as a no-contest with holders Spain running to a 4-0 victory and Italy supposedly suffering fatigue with their players not used to playing an attractive brand suddenly having played it over successive matches, coupled with higher average age. A complete drubbing of a final makes #9 on the burns list of 2012.

   

8. Torres wins golden boot at Euros: Well yes, the now famous 'Trolles' surprised many with that prize. He started only 3 matches in all and made 2 more late sub appearances in the Euro. Scored three and assisted one to equal Mario Gomez's tally, but won the prize on account of playing lesser minutes. Given his utterly dismal 18 months at his club Chelsea, Torres delivered a good burn to all that laughed at him. Well, atleast a temporary burn!

7. Mancini eats his words: It was before the start of the year that Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini reportedly said Carlos Tevez will never play for the club again following the latter's refusal to put a sub appearance in the CL group stage match vs Bayern Munich. Two months into 2012, 10 points and one place in the table down the drain later, the previous season's hero Tevez was in the thick of the action again in a desperate attempt by Mancini to turn things around and Tevez's contributions began to show including a sublime setup for Nasri in a tight game against Chelsea. Man City turned it around in the end, just about,  but whether it would have happened without Tevez we really don't know. But Mancini did eat his own words when he heaped praise on Tevez as 'a new signing' after results improved.

6. England Euro squad selection: They are probably the most mocked English footballers in the premier league. Whether it is because the overall quality of the English crop is just so bad or England manager Roy Hodgson wanted to 'make-it-up' to Liverpool, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll and Jordon Henderson were called up. Of them Carroll can be excused as an automatic pick to have a physical threat in the penalty box and his hold up playing abilities outside it, but the other two picks (Henderson came as a replacement for Frank Lampard) baffled one and all. Need more? Gary Cahill got injured and instead of Rio Ferdinand, whose omission in the first place was baffling enough, in came Martin Kelly.

5. Bayern Munich always 2nd, and Arjen Robben: So near yet so far. For Bayern Munich in 3 competitions in 2012. To start with they let go of a lead at the top of the bundesliga before the start of the year, let it widen at the start of the year and finished 2nd in the bundesliga. They reached the DFB Pokal final and lost it to the team that pipped them to the bundesliga title with Arjen Robben missing a penalty. Before that they overcame the force of Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League, Robben scoring a penalty in this fixture (both normal time and shootout). In the final they met a Chelsea team riding largely on a few bravehearts and on a big chunk of hope and luck. Bayern dominated huge swathes of the game, wasted truck-loads of scoring chances and scored a late winner (?). Nope. What they did is they take off the goal scorer and then concede an equaliser even later. They win a penalty in extra time. Robben steps up and his tame shot is saved. It's the shootout again, they go 3-1 in it at one point and misses from the 4th and 5th takers made it a 3-4 defeat in the penalties (Robben doesn't feature in the shootout). And it was not helped by the fact that Bayern Munich was largely the team that played for Germany that lost the Euro semis. And Robben's Holland failed to open their points account in the Euro. However, it is all sunshine for Bayern so far in Bundesliga in 2012-13 season. Else they'd be #3 in this list.

4. Tottenham Hotspur: They started 2012 at third in line for auto qualification to the champions league, 5 points ahead of eventual 3rd place finishers Arsenal. They made a meal of winnable fixtures in the intervening period, possibly hampered by speculation of manager Harry Redknapp getting the England manager post. They fell to 4th just as Chelsea (more on how they make this list too later) travelled to Camp Nou for the Champions League semi-finals. Worries crept in as Chelsea progressed to the final and Spurs themselves not improving their league position. And the whole final played out like it would have given multiple heart-strokes to any Spurs fan or player who watched it. Chelsea won the CL and made the next edition despite a 6th place finish in the league while Spurs dropped to Europa league despite a 4th place finish. One heck of a burn.

  

3. Manchester City's Europe woes: Filthy rich, but half-unlucky and half-dismal. A tough grouping in last editions CL saw them drop to the Europa league. Roberto Mancini has experience in managing CL competing teams,so do most of the City squad, but claims by people that this is City's first CL and the group was tough were accepted. They crashed out of Europa too. Supposedly to concentrate on the PL, which is more rewarding. Fine enough. And luck screwed City again this season as they were 'gifted' an even tougher group. It is unfair to expect them to top a group consisting Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax but failing to win a single game out of 6 is unacceptable for a squad of City's size and quality. This included a 3-1 thrashing at Ajax who are levels weaker than City, let alone City being a stronger team than Dortmund. Whether City prefer it that way or not, this time its a straight drop-out, no passage to Europa. Two crash outs in two seasons. For a club of City's wealth and resource, this is a massive burn.

2. Chelsea, Roberto di Matteo and Eden Hazard: 'It was all so fine', Chelsea fans would never stop wondering 'How did it go so wrong?'. After 13m signing manager Andre Villas-Boas received a burn of sorts to leave Chelsea, club hero di Matteo was handed interim charge. And with it came the same amount of luck that most clubs would enjoy in a lifetime. And bucket loads of determination and passion from club veterans as they made up for a 6th place league finish to win the FA Cup and defy all odds in one of the modern football fairy tale stories to down giants Barcelona and Bayern Munich to win the Champions League, club owner Roman Abramovich's elusive prize. Roberto did it. He was handed a two-year permanent post. Hot prospect Belgian Eden Hazard had to choose between them and the Manchesters and in his words chose to join 'the champions league winners'. A hiccup with a 4-1 thrashing in the super-cup but come October, Chelsea were handsome and high in the PL table. Then the burns started coming in...

Chelsea dropped off the top with dropped points vs United, Swansea, West Brom and Liverpool and were, for all practical purposes, knocked out of the Champions League group stage following a 3-0 defeat at Juventus in a match in which Torres was benched following uninspiring performances. Roberto, the man who delivered what Roman cherished months ago was sacked. Chelsea, all the irony in it, dropped to the Europa league after all, with some Spurs fans bemoaning they could've done better had they been in it. And Eden Hazard now plays for a team that is neither in the Champions league nor anywhere near the table top. When he could've played for a team that had both boxes checked - Manchester United.

                                          

  

No prizes for guessing the #1 burn...

1. Manchester United's 20th title 'Gone in 60 seconds': We will never see such an ending to a season will we? A beautiful encapsulation of the whole premier league season in one frantic final day. City take the lead, and go behind and stay behind till the fag end. All this while Manchester United were leading and about to inflict the cruelest of title defeats to Manchester City and fans alike. Tears were already rolling down the cheeks of Etihad stadium. Faces sober. Mancini was just manically directing everyone forward, there was just nothing else he could do. What had been blood boiling at the Etihad till 85 mins aided by hope, slowly became the pulse of a dying patient - all hope lost. But cometh the hour cometh the man ( a man who would later live up to that tag in 2012-13 many a time). Edin Dzeko! 89 minutes and he equalises. Blood boils again as hopes have been raised. Meanwhile far away, Manchester United fans are celebrating as are the players, for a draw by City is enough for them. United have completed their match and know City's would be too, very very soon. Focus shift to Sergio 'Kun' Aguero at Etihad. The rest is history, history that will never be forgotten. A title won on GD for the first time and Manchester is blue after 44 years. Far away the faces of Phil Jones, Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson are disheveled. Simply too much for them to take and the dying pulse is theirs now. Gone in 60 seconds, literally!

What a season! City starting the year 5 points clear, then blowing it badly to go 8 points behind and then to level points (lead on GD) by the final day only to have, almost, lost it then, before redeeming back all what is theirs in the final minute of injury time. A mega miracle for Manchester City and a mega burn for Manchester United, maybe the biggest burn we will ever see in a long time in football.

   

Happy New Year Folks.

Wish you have an equally mesmerizing year of football in 2013.