It wasn’t the most compelling weekend of Premier League football in Premier League history but we certainly aren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Wally of the Week. The shortlist this time around features a man who squandered the perfect opportunity to end a 31-hour draught, a manager who was touted to take over at Barcelona in the summer and a huge technical slip-up in a national broadcasting service which ended up with one Premier League team being labelled ‘scum’.
3. Saido Berahino
Once England’s most promising striker, Berahino was denied a big-money move to Tottenham in the summer of 2015 by his current club West Brom. Since then, Berahino spent around a year and a half on the sidelines because he was unfit to play according to manager Tony Pulis and finally left the Hawthorns for Stoke City in January of this year. He is yet to score for the Potters in 18 games for the club and that’s quite remarkable for a striker. In fact, he hasn’t notched a goal since February 2016 – that’s 32 consecutive games without scoring. At the weekend against Southampton, he had the perfect opportunity to bring it all to an end. He was fouled in the area by Virgil van Dijk and stepped up to take the spot-kick. His penalty was tame and at an easy height for Fraser Forster, who saved comfortably. Luckily Stoke went on to win the game but the wait continues for Berahino.
2. Match of the Day
The late afternoon game on Sunday saw Liverpool face Newcastle at St. James’s Park and, as is customary on a Sunday, the BBC showed highlights of that game and the two others on that day in Match of the Day 2. But in a bizarre mix-up with the subtitling, Newcastle were called ‘black and white scum’ much to the amusement of everyone watching – unless you’re a Geordie. The BBC have since apologised for the mishap and blamed the technical system for the fault but it leaves you wondering if the producer was a Sunderland fan.
1. Ronald Koeman
The Dutchman in charge of Everton has come under scrutiny as a result of the Toffees’ poor start to the season. They spent a whopping £133m during the summer transfer window so there was much to be excited about among the fans at Goodison Park but it has proved to be anything but enjoyable. Koeman’s situation was not helped by a 2-2 draw with a team sat 9th in the Cypriot league before meeting Burnley on Sunday at home. Jeff Hendrick’s first-half goal was enough to beat a blunt Everton team which offered very little in the way of excitement and that left the pitch in a chorus of boos from the Everton fans. After the departure of Luis Enrique at the Nou Camp at the end of last season, Koeman was one of the favourites to take over but, after a dreadful start to the season with Everton which has left them in 16th, he’ll have wished that the Catalan club had come calling even more. He might be looking for a job himself if it carries on like this.