Who Are The Most Hated Footballers In The Premier League?

A great many Premier League footballers irritate but only a select few burrow beneath our skin, making themselves truly loathed in the process. The question is, who are these elite band of supreme botherers?

We asked social media to oblige, naming players who reduce our spleens to fiery balls of pure hostility. Unsurprisingly, social media didn’t disappoint.

10) Jordan Pickford

The Everton keeper’s perpetual indignation at having to do his job puts him firmly in the frame, his default setting after making a save always the same pathetic spectacle.

First he shouts at the nearest defender, pointing out where a block could have been made. Then he shakes his head, so demonstrably that even those sitting in row Z can see his displeasure.

Demanding perfection from others when you’re more than capable of a blunder or three is never a good look.

9) Emiliano Martinez

At what point does a wind-up merchant veer into becoming that really annoying bloke who inhabits every office across the land? You know the one. The self-appointed ‘Minister for Fun’ who wears loud ties and is always far too excitable for a Monday morning. His laugh makes your skin crawl and his ‘harmless’ gossip has a nasty edge to it.

The answer: When he dons a pair of gloves and stations himself in the Aston Villa goalmouth.

Martinez’s desperation to be the pantomime villain is utterly tiresome and utterly predictable.

8) Anthony Gordon

With the face of that bloke who loiters by the one-armed bandit down your local, telling those using the machine what they’re doing wrong, Gordon’s stock has risen since moving to the North-East. It’s gained him England recognition and increased his chances of winning silverware.

Let’s not forget though his actions that forced through his move to Newcastle.

First citing Everton as his ‘second family’, the winger then went on strike, a decision that didn’t exactly smack of familial harmony.

Furthermore, deserting a sinking ship is one thing. To claim it was so the Toffees could reinvest just insults the intelligence of everyone concerned – both his fellow footballers and the supporters.

7) Gabriel Jesus

It doesn’t help matters that the Brazilian’s resting face resembles a spoilt toddler who has been given broccoli instead of chocolate.

That would merely be unfortunate only then the striker worsens matters by repeatedly exhibiting brattish behaviour on the pitch, throwing his arms up in disbelief at anything and everything. A tight offside call has him on the point of real tears. A foul given against him has Jesus look physically pained.

With Arsenal slipping in the football betting behind Liverpool and Chelsea this season we can expect plenty more histrionics before the campaign is out. One of the most dramatic footballers around.

6) Antony

The jury has long returned a verdict of ‘flop’ on the Brazilian winger so amongst the ire there has to be some degree of sympathy.

Not that the 24-year-old makes it easy to feel any empathy for his circumstances, as he persists with displaying all the swagger of a superstar only without any of the productivity to back it up.

When Manchester United paid the whopping sum of £82m for this prima donna, £81 million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand went on flash. The remaining grand was for substance.

5) Rodri

Manchester City’s Premier League betting odds have widened significantly since the Spanish international succumbed to an ACL. That’s how important he is to a fantastical creation that has dominated English football for several seasons and more.

Furthermore, if we needed additional proof of his brilliance, joining an elite club of footballers and winning the Ballon d’Or this year pretty much seals the deal.

For all that the 28-year-old is a master of his craft however he sure is an atrocious loser.

When Leicester won 5-2 at the Etihad in 2020 they were ‘lucky’, When Scotland bested Spain at Hampden Park it was ‘not football’.

Rodri is unquestionably a classy midfielder. He should probably save a bit of that back for himself.

4) Richarlison

Like chips with gravy, moody goes best with magnificence. It’s why even non-Manchester United fans find themselves endeared still to Eric Cantona.

When a surly attitude emanates from a player who only turns it on three or four times a season it just leaves us stone-cold. And nobody likes stone-cold chips and gravy.

3) Virgil Van Dijk

Somewhere in Van Dijk’s palatial Cheshire home there surely resides a commissioned portrait of the defender bestriding a big horse, dressed as a general.

Perhaps the praise went to his head, or maybe the responsibility of leading an emotionally-charged football club brought on delusions of grandeur, but someone really needs to remind the 33-year-old that he merely heads away set-pieces for a living.

2) Marc Cucurella

Booed at the Euros. Hated by Brighton fans who once adored him. Disliked by Erling Haaland after the left-back willingly joined in with a post-Euros song that mocked the Striking Viking. Criticised by Thomas Frank after a recent incident led to Cucurella clutching his face and rolling around in faux-agony from a nothing incident.

Wherever there is a storm this diminutive Spaniard, mainly made up of churlishness and hair, seems to be found in the eye of it.

Speaking of his hair, peak Michael Bolton wants it back.

1) Bruno Fernandes

The Portuguese ref- pesterer received a whopping 67% of the online votes, with a sizable percentage comparing him to a rodent. We would never.

What Fernandes is however is the epitome of every negative stereotype once held by our grandads about foreign flair players. He dives. He whinges. He goes hiding when the going is tough but lords it big-time on sunny days at Old Trafford against inferior footballers.

By all accounts, the midfielder is a lovely fella off the pitch, kind and decent. The transformation when he puts on a pair of boots is staggering.