When Avram Grant brought Ricardo Rocha to Portsmouth at the beginning of February, he was probably grateful to add an experienced centre back to his ranks for free. Two sending offs and a suspected cheekbone fracture later, the former Portuguese international may have done the unthinkable and actually made Pompey worse.
Being sent off on your debut is careless, being sent off again on your return from suspension is just stupid. Rocha managed both these feats with red cards in the games against Sunderland and then against Burnley a couple of weeks later. Amazingly, Portsmouth still managed to muster four points out of these games with only ten men on the field.
Having managed to stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes for a couple of games, Rocha’s involvement in Wednesday’s 5-0 drubbing by Chelsea was cut short at the halfway mark after being caught by Florent Malouda’s stray elbow. A lot angry words and a visit to hospital later, what was feared to be a season ending injury turned out to be only heavy brusing.
Rocha should be fit to take the field against his old club Spurs tomorrow, although given his track record in a blue shirt to date, Pompey fans would be forgiven for wishing that he wasn’t. The defender has not just typified the bad luck that Portsmouth have encountered this season, he has actually gone one better and made it worse.
The closest comparison in recent times to Rocha’s misfortune is Djimi Traore’s doomed move from Liverpool to Charlton in the summer of 2006. After a sending off on his debut, a own goal and a broken leg, all before Christmas, Alan Pardew wisely decided he had seen enough and flogged him in the January transfer window. His destimation? Portsmouth of course.
There have been plenty of Premier League flops (you just need to take a look a this list), but few seem to match Rocha in terms of negative contribution and sheer misfortune. Let us know who else you think deserves a nomination for the questionable accolade of the most disastrous Premier League signing. William Prunier anybody?
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Spurs have got off lightly on that list! There could be a seperate ‘Gerrard Houllier list’ too. Kieran Dyer is surely worthy of mention, as are Winston Bogarde and Mark Bosnich. Although the latter pair were Bosman free tranfers their wages were astronomical and they both surely picked up hefty signing-on fees. Money down the pan. Leeds United actually parted with cash for Jacob Burns, too. He was a terrible footballer. Still is. Highlights how terrible Australia’s ‘A’ League is.