The 3 Added Minutes team built the best five-a-side team possible from the Premier League players who shone for just a single season. Will Michu make it in over Payet? Can Klinsmann make the cut?
Who was the real one-season wonder in net? Kuszczak or Mendy
Which one-season wonder would you want at the back? Bassong or Beye
Which flash in the pan would you prefer? Stead or Januzaj
Which one-season wonder shone brightest? Michu or Payet
Which striker was the biggest short-term sensation? Klinsmann or Mido
Who was the real one-season wonder in net? Kuszczak or Mendy
Which one-season wonder would you want at the back? Bassong or Beye
Which flash in the pan would you prefer? Stead or Januzaj
Which one-season wonder shone brightest? Michu or Payet
Which striker was the biggest short-term sensation? Klinsmann or Mido
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SportsTranscript
00:00 I mean if we do this show and John Stead doesn't get included in the team I am walking off camera
00:04 right now and never coming back.
00:05 [Music]
00:12 Hello and welcome to a brand new series from the crew at 3 Added Minutes and National World.
00:17 This is 3 Added Minutes by the Side.
00:19 Every episode we'll be building the best possible by the side team
00:23 to some extremely specific requirements for your entertainment and quite frankly
00:27 just for the hell of it.
00:28 I'm Matthew Gregory and this week we'll be building the best team of Premier League
00:32 One Season Wonders and with me is my colleague Jason Jones.
00:35 Okay so here's how it works.
00:37 We're both going to take a turn and pick a player from one of the spots in our five side team,
00:41 explain why we think they should make the cut and then argue about it briefly until we decide
00:45 upon a winner.
00:46 So let's get straight into it Mark.
00:47 We might as well start with the goalkeeper.
00:49 I mean every team's got to have one whether they like it or not.
00:52 I'll let you go first mate.
00:55 Who would be your ultimate Premier League One Season Wonder goalkeeper?
00:58 First thought that sprang to mind was Thomas Kusak.
01:02 The bane of any newspaper sub-editor because his name is still impossible to spell.
01:06 I've known about him for about 20 years.
01:08 I still don't know how to spell his name.
01:09 I don't know where the Zs go.
01:10 I don't know where the Ss go.
01:11 I don't know where the Cs go.
01:13 I just know that in 2005-2006 he had a brilliant season for West Brom.
01:18 Absolutely superb.
01:19 He was flying around the goal, stopping just about everything.
01:22 He hadn't really been a regular first team keeper before.
01:24 He'd only played a few games.
01:26 He suddenly turned into this sort of Polish Superman, just stopping absolutely everything.
01:30 It was one of those seasons where West Brom were getting battered.
01:33 I think they did go down in the end, but it wasn't for any want of anything Kusak did.
01:36 He was absolutely immense.
01:38 Obviously got a move to Manchester United off the back of it and pretty much spent the next
01:43 sort of five, ten years, most of the rest of his career, sat on a bench, popping up in League Cup
01:48 games and that was sort of it.
01:50 So he was around the Premier League for a long time, but he only really had one
01:54 season where he was the starter, the undisputed number one, and he was brilliant.
01:59 And he just never got the chance to shine again.
02:00 He spent the whole time sat on the bench at Old Trafford.
02:02 I think it's a pretty cushy life, isn't it?
02:06 Number two at Manchester United, that's pretty much the dream, isn't it?
02:10 I think, at least it is for me.
02:11 I'm incredibly work shy, it has to be said though.
02:14 I think...
02:14 No, same.
02:15 I have nothing but respect for anyone who does no work whatsoever and gets paid enormous
02:18 amounts of money for it.
02:20 I've got part of that down.
02:21 I'm 50% of the way to it and I do no work whatsoever.
02:24 It's just that nobody really pays me.
02:25 So, you know, it's halfway there, halfway to the dream.
02:29 I think if I had to pick one, right, because I've thought long and hard about this, and
02:34 I think automatically when you think one season wonder, I think there's a tendency to get
02:38 a little bit nostalgic.
02:39 You sort of cast your mind back and you think about the players who might have been playing
02:43 like you were saying, sort of 15, 20 years ago, whatever it might be.
02:45 But I actually think in terms of goalkeepers, there's one who's much more recent and who
02:51 I think is an absolute shoo-in and it's Edouard Mendy.
02:54 You know, when he signed for Chelsea, that first season he had at Stamford Bridge was
02:59 absolutely phenomenal.
03:00 I think it was a very strong claim from being, maybe not in terms of his all-around game,
03:04 but certainly in terms of shot stopping, the best goalkeeper in the Premier League that
03:07 season.
03:08 He was absolutely incredible.
03:10 Won a Champions League.
03:11 He obviously won AFCON with Senegal as well.
03:14 You know, he was continental champion of both club and international level.
03:19 And then you saw a hard cut to 12 months later and he's being kicked outside by Kepa.
03:23 And you know, nothing against Kepa, but he's Kepa, you know what I mean?
03:28 So I'm sort of still a little bit baffled as to the downfall, sort of speak of Edouard
03:34 Mendy.
03:34 Obviously now he's gone to Saudi Arabia and while that isn't necessarily the sort of death
03:38 knell for sporting credibility that it might once have been, it's still a massive backward
03:45 step from being champion of Europe and champion of Africa just a couple of years ago.
03:48 So I think that as far as a goalkeeper goes at least, it's got to be Edouard Mendy, surely?
03:54 Yeah, I mean, I thought about Edouard Mendy too.
03:58 And when you say like there's a tendency to get nostalgic, by the way, I'm just going
04:01 to pull you up on that.
04:02 The reason I thought first about Thomas Kuczak is just because I'm much older than you.
04:05 And the reason you thought about Edouard Mendy is that you're barely out of the womb.
04:10 So that's the reason that we went there.
04:11 But my only sort of query about Edouard Mendy is he had two seasons.
04:17 And is he a one season wonder because he was brilliant one season, absolutely fine the
04:21 next season and then he's gone and he's kept at Arita Balaga and he's off to Saudi Arabia
04:25 and so on and so forth.
04:26 It's my only sort of reservation.
04:27 But apart from that, if we're building the best five-a-side team, I would definitely
04:31 agree Edouard Mendy, best possible goalkeeper.
04:33 I just think that he had one very good season, one okay season where he wasn't so wonderful.
04:41 And I just think that the sheerness of the cliff face that he fell off
04:46 has to sort of squeeze him in there because to go from where he was at to where he is
04:50 now in such a short space of time, might not be one season specifically, but I think he's
04:55 just got to squeeze himself in there as far as I'm concerned.
04:58 All right, I have to take your point there.
04:59 I think first name on the team sheet then, Edouard Mendy in our five-a-side team, one
05:03 season, one deserve.