10 Sunderland Players Who Really Weren't Worth The Hassle

10. El Hadji Diouf

It's a pattern of his career that the former star of the 2002 World Cup has spent the last 12 years appearing on more '10 Controversial Players' list than otherwise. Having built up a reputation as a malicious, arrogant fan-spitter, he has attracted disgust at almost every club he has been at, even being brandished a 'sewer rat' by Neil Warnock in 2011. It would make one wonder just what Roy Keane saw in the former Liverpool flop in the summer of 2008, when he persuaded him to swap the Reebok Stadium for the Stadium of Light in a £2.63 million move. It may have been a brief stay on Wearside, lasting just six months, but predictably it was not without incident for the Senegalese bad boy. According to former Mackem team-mate Phil Bardsley, another who caused Sunderland supporters a couple of headaches in the past, described him as a 'live-wire', and 'could understand why opposing teams want to kick him'.

''He had rows with a couple of lads at Sunderland. At the time, Sunderland were going through a sticky patch, as well. We were fighting relegation and nothing was going right. Tensions were running high and one thing led to another. But that is all in the past now and everybody has moved on. He is lively and had his moments with a few of our lads. But that is just football and that's what happens. He is a pretty colourful character. Off the pitch, he is actually a decent lad. It's just on it that you want to give him a clip round the ear now and again.'' - Phil Bardsley, February 2011.