The 10 most maligned 2025-26 Premier League players RANKED: Gyokeres, Gakpo… | OneFootball

Stars from Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are among the Premier League players castigated by their own supporters as well as neutrals this season – but who is the most maligned?

Every club has someone whose inclusion on the teamsheet leads to mass eye-rolling, but some are the butt of jokes across the country.

We’ve ranked the 10 most currently maligned Premier League players, with Florian Wirtz recently playing his way off the podium and the likes of James McAtee escaping wider attention.

10. Ibrahima Konate

Konate still hasn’t signed a contract extension at Liverpool, due to expire in June, and hasn’t helped his cause with a series of calamitous performances.

Having been on Real Madrid’s radar for his defensive excellence, the Frenchman has exhibited all the concentration of a goldfish that necked a pint of Stella.

Madrid’s interest has unsurprisingly ended. Liverpool fans aren’t quite ready to forgive and forget.

9. Thierno Barry & Beto

Poor Everton; David Moyes’s side would be challenging the top six with a proper striker.

Alas, Moyesie’s never had the best eye for a proper goalscorer and has usually resorted to converting a midfielder or winger (Cahill, Arnautovic, Antonio) into his main frontman.

We can’t separate Barry and Beto, who are both well acquainted with cow’s backsides and banjos.

Everton need to throw everything at Liam Delap this summer, a player wasting away at Chelsea who would fit in perfectly at the Hill Dickinson.

8. Anthony Elanga

Fifty-five million pounds. Newcastle paid £55million for the TikTok Shaun Wright-Phillips, minus the ball skills and penchant for the spectacular.

Elanga was effective in a rigid Nottingham Forest team that shamelessly utilised his pace and little else.

That didn’t stop Eddie Howe, another British manager with a patchy record in the transfer market, from swooping in.

Nine months later, Elanga is warming the bench and Howe is bemoaning Newcastle’s financial restrictions to a chorus of microscopic violins.

7. Alejandro Garnacho

Garnacho has his moments, but he’s nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. We’ll be amazed if Chelsea haven’t cashed in by the summer of 2027.

6. Pedro Neto

Neto is a strange case for those on the outside looking in. The winger generates a lot of venom from Chelsea fans despite being one of their better players this year.

But you look closer at his scoring record (36 in 10 years), his blind man playing darts attitude to crossing and Gary Neville calling him a ‘smidgen away’ from Eden Hazard and you have a player to set your teeth on edge.

It’s not impossible to see Neto replicating Marc Cucurella’s journey from scapegoat to Stamford Bridge cult hero.

We could equally see him sold to AC Milan to make room for Chelsea’s latest shiny new toy. It could go either way.

5. Cody Gakpo

As Shane Warne once said about Monty Panesar, Gakpo has played the same Liverpool game 163 times.

The Netherlands international is an expert at cutting inside and firing over the bar, normally with better-placed team-mates tearing their hair out – an occupational hazard in Mo Salah’s case.

Gakpo hasn’t been helped by his manager, with Arne Slot insisting on playing him through rough spells of form while other Liverpool players are given minimal opportunities.

He’s either a demon on the training pitch or has compromising videos of Slot in an Amsterdam coffeeshop.

4. Guglielmo Vicario

This could be any one of Tottenham’s shambolic squad, but Vicaro edges out £200k-a-week(!) Conor Gallagher and persistently cursed Richarlison.

The Spurs goalkeeper enjoys a similar success rate with crosses as Dracula and can usually be found berating colleagues for goals that were 100% his fault.

His ball-playing ability isn’t good enough, he is awful at defending set-pieces and doesn’t appear to be a particularly strong leader on the pitch.

No wonder Tottenham fans have metaphorically cut their losses with the gloved Italian.

3. Max Kilman

There was an amusing clip of West Ham’s assistant coach Paco Jemez castigating Nuno Espirito Santo for bringing on Kilman as a late sub in the recent win over Sunderland.

Jemez had clearly been drinking with fans in Hackney Wick beforehand, all of whom share a disdain for their £40million centre-back that could power the National Grid.

Kilman was supposed to be the bedrock of West Ham’s backline, but has been easily outmuscled, out-thought and outplayed by opposition strikers.

It’s no surprise the Hammers’ tentative revival has coincided with Kilman being dropped. Axel Disasi’s early performances make him look even more amateurish.

2. Manuel Ugarte

Ugarte is a walking demonstration that not every South American footballer is blessed with good technique.

The £42million midfielder has been desperately disappointing for United; his appearances off the bench normally enough for the Stretford End hardcore to weigh up whether to beat the traffic.

Uruguayan players are infamous for their garra charrua, the warrior spirit that allows the national team to punch well above their weight.

But Ugarte has looked incapable of opening a crisp packet. Destined for the Turkish Super Lig.

1. Viktor Gyokeres

No contest. Even with a few more goals recently, Gyokeres is still everyone’s favourite punchline.