The last in our series of 25 for 25, celebrating 25 years of the Premier League. Check out PL25 section for more.
Not necessarily the best at what they do, a lot of the figures on this list rely upon their ability - often inadvertent - to entertain us.
Whereas anyone could make a list of the Premier League's Top 25 Players and lure you back into arguing about Gerrard vs Lampard vs Scholes again, we wanted to lighten the mood before the business of Premier League football begins again this weekend.
Have a look through our list and let us know who we have forgotten, and why.
25: Abel Xavier
24: Peter Crouch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vovFUc-R4PQ
Peter Crouch is inordinately tall. Never afraid to poke fun at himself, the evolution of his "robot" celebration was funny, then tedious, then put on the back-burner when the goals dried up, then brought back again for this 100th Premier League goal.
23: Neil Warnock
With a managerial career stretching back to the early-1980s, Warnock has spent a relatively short period of this time in the Premier League. Warnock, whose full name is an anagram of Colin Wanker interestingly, tends to create as many problems for himself as the clubs he joins. Although the 'Disputes' tab of his Wikipedia profile provides a rich and detailed history of his many infractions, we suggest looking back at this skirmish Warnock had with Reading's first-team coach Wally Downes.
22: Alex Ferguson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svF5xYthz4I
The looming presence of Alex Ferguson over the Premier League's 25 years is unavoidable. Let alone that he managed Man United to victory in 13 of those 25 years, he did so in such a manner that we cannot but view him as one of the league's leading characters. How do you isolate one incident from a Premier League career that has seen "Fergie Time" and "Squeaky-Bum Time" added to the limited lexicon? Well, we settled on this. A true demonstration of Ferguson's multi-faceted understanding of sport generally, let alone the Premier League.
21: Delia Smith
With her newly-promoted Norwich City struggling their way through the Premier League season, Delia Smith, celebrity-chef and part-owner of City, took to the Carrow Road pitch in a suspected stupor; drunken or otherwise. Losing to Manchester City at half-time, Smith emerged for a chat with "possibly the best supporters in the world".Would Smith's rousing "Let's Be 'Avin You!" do the trick? No, Norwich lost 3-2 and got relegated a few months later.
20: Louis van Gaal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmVLpzFhtY
To the detriment of the Premier League, van Gaal's tenure in England came and went too quickly. Between "sex masochism", "LOUIS VAN GAAL'S ARMY" and calling Neil Custis of The Sun a "fat man" for his critique of Wayne Rooney, had van Gaal's United team performed better who knows what would have awaited us?
19: Claudio Ranieri
When Claudio Ranieri returned to Premier League football eleven years after leaving Chelsea in 2004, few people were too optimistic. Leicester City, managed by Nigel Pearson, had avoided relegation with a remarkable late run of form the season before. After his unfortunate *ahem* departure, Ranieri was drafted in. You know what happens next. However, throughout that wonderful season, the increasingly relieved, calm Ranieri became very, very entertaining. Not your typical character, there was something nice about his general good-humour.
18: David James
Á la Abel Xavier, David James has tended to express himself through a wide variety of hairstyles. The former Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City keeper has played Premier League football since its inception in 1992. "Calamity" James to many, he was never too far removed from a high-profile gaffe. Earning an Armani modelling contract during the mid-1990s, it has been told that the ill-fated white suits worn by Liverpool's 1996 FA Cup final squad were offered to James on this basis. In our chosen clip, James' Manchester City are fighting to avoid relegation against Middlesbrough. Demonstrating a proclivity for a "big 'un" that only Jose Mourinho would commend, Stuart Pearce decided that his goalkeeper move a little further from his comfort zone. David James offered no resistance.
17: Luis Suarez
So, not quite a character in the humorous sense, Suarez' three years in the Premier League with Liverpool were action-packed. Running tandem to the incredible performances that would eventually lead to his Barcelona move, Suarez would miss almost half a season of matches due to accumulated bans. Between the racial abuse of Patrice Evra, the furore that developed thereafter as Suarez refused to shake Evra's hand and the biting of Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, he was one of the most talked about footballers during his three-year spell.
16: Jim White
Among its many important artefacts celebrating the Beautiful Game, England's National Football Museum now holds host to Jim White's yellow-tie. Indicative of the transfer deadline day coverage Sky Sports provided to increasing levels of interest, White's broadcasting style made him something of a Premier League character in his own right. After a campaign by Giles Smith of The Times to get White's yellow tie included in the collection, it was accepted in mid-2013.
15: Faustino Asprilla
14: Robbie Savage
Listen to Robbie Savage for long enough and he will tell you how many Premier League appearances he has made (it's 346 incidentally). Occasionally, he may even tell you that on his day, he was world-class, but, we feel its best to let John Terry deal with that notion. Tolerate him or hate him, Savage has irredeemably forced himself into the Premier League picture. Personally, we lost faith with him long before even Roy Keane realised he had little to offer.
13: Temur Ketsbaia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Re1h90EvA
The "Georgian Geordie", keen-eyed Irish fans will have noticed this 1990s Premier League treasure taking charge of his native country against Ireland in 2014. Vacating that role shortly thereafter, one suspects the years have mellowed Temuri Ketsbaia. If the above "celebration" is anything to go by, Aiden McGeady's last-minute winner in Tbilisi required some restraint on his part.
12: Joey Barton
For all intents and purposes, Joey Barton is a decent sort. His engagement with the fight against homophobia in football is to be admired. Similarly, his very public attempts at self-improvement - however jarring at times - does promote a positive message. And yet, this just is not where the mind drifts to when Barton's name comes up. Throughout the depths of his Premier League career, Barton was an outlaw. Occasional brilliance mixed with far more common controversy, there nonetheless was something fascinating about his apparent eagerness to self-destruct. In what would amount to his final Premier League appearance for five years, following his sending-off for QPR against Man City Barton proceeded to kick Sergio Aguero from behind as he left the pitch. Fortunately for City, it wasn't hard enough to prevent "AGUEROOOOOOOOO" from occurring about half an hour later.
11: Sam Allardyce
At this stage, Allardyce should have been looking back at a confident qualifying performance, excited at the prospect of leading England to the World Cup in Russia next year. However, before his life's professional ambition went up in smoke, Allardyce had continually demonstrated his managerial prowess in Premier League jobs of varying difficulties. From his exciting Bolton Wanderers team of the mid-2000s to saving Sunderland from certain relegation in 2016, the moments that make Allardyce for us are those when he feels woefully underappreciated but temporarily redeemed.
10: Alan Pardew*
*The inclusion of "Pards" is not an indicator that anyone here at Balls.ie actually likes him. You just cannot ignore him and his deeply questionable, occasionally hilarious "character".
Trying to headbutt David Myler, calling Manuel Pellegrini a "fucking old cunt", pushing a linesman, squaring up to Arsene Wenger, suggesting on Match of the Day that Chelsea's Michael Essien had absolutely "raped" his Manchester City opponent, and maintaining a relentless self-confidence that doing the same things over and over and expecting different results may indeed not be the definition of insanity. At one stage the man who was going to be the next England manager, the above is perhaps Pardew's most ridiculous moment. Granted, it didn't happen in the Premier League. All the same, its worth a re-watch.
9: Jimmy Bullard
A footballer who has built his whole reputation upon being a character, a chancer, a Jack-the-lad, Bullard was recently announced as one of the new hosting team for Sky's Soccer Am. In what amounts to a wonderful collection of hilarious moments, Bullard's unpredictability is his charm. Our personal favourite from this admittedly brief selection has to be Bullard's involvement with a goal-mouth scramble from his days with Wigan.
8: Ian Holloway
Unfortunately, Holloway's managerial career has largely taken place beyond the remit of the Premier League. A guaranteed source of interest, you will generally find him apoplectic with rage about some footballing injustice, or, far more commonly, enlivening an otherwise mundane press-conference with his funny remarks. Despite spending only two full seasons in the league, he left quite an impression.
7: Mario Balotelli
Mario Balotelli has long since realised that burning the candle at both ends creates a beautiful light. All the same, that candle doesn't tend to last too long. His welcome at clubs as rich and varied as Inter Milan, AC Milan, Manchester City and Liverpool has usually concluded in a rapid manner. Of the four years he has actually spent in England, the multifarious nature of his antics could generate a list of this size on its own. After careful consideration though, it is with the event that prompted his "Why Always Me?" celebration that wins the day. How would you prepare for a Manchester Derby? Well, Balotelli decided that letting off a host of fireworks in his own bathroom was better then anything you could imagine.
6: David Ginola
If ever there was a player for whom doubts regarding his ability to "do it on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke" were raised, it was David Ginola. Yet, for the seven years he spent in England playing with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Spurs and Everton, his effectiveness was clear. Be it selling coffee, cars or taking pride of place in Kevin Keegan's Newcastle team of entertainers, Ginola was perhaps more "French" then was thought previously possible. The changing attitudes and increasing openness of English football in the 1990s provided a steady foundation upon which the whole range of his character could emerge.
5: Paolo Di Canio
As both a manager and a player in the Premier League, Di Canio's impact has been striking. An immediate favourite with fans of Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Charlton Athletic, Di Canio delivered more than just exquisite goals. In 1998 Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock after being sent off, leading to an eleven-game ban. It would be his last game until his January 1999 move to West Ham. With the Hammers, Di Canio would provide innumerable moments of brilliance, controversy and the outright bizarre. Upon being appointed Sunderland manager in 2013, Di Canio's "style" would ultimately be his undoing. Banning ketchup, mobile phones, mayonnaise and singing before games, Di Canio didn't see 2014 on Wearside.
4: Kevin Keegan
Despite winning all there was to win with Liverpool as a player, going to Hamburg in his pomp and winning the Bundesliga there, being awarded the Ballon D'Ór in 1978 and 1979, managing Manchester City back into the Premier League and guiding an ebullient, free-flowing, glorious Newcastle United to second in the league successively, Kevin Keegan is largely remembered now for what remains one of the Premier League's most iconic moments. In later years, Alex Ferguson would get under the skin of Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez particularly, but never, ever, did it come to this. For all that we may laugh, a distraught Keegan looks a man who already realised the chance of beating Ferguson's United was gone. All the same, laugh anyway.
3: Jose Mourinho
Becoming a more and more refined taste for Premier League fans, when Jose Mourinho arrived in England thirteen years ago, he did so with a bang. Setting the tone for what was to be a tempestuous - but highly successful - first stint with Chelsea, every utterance from Mourinho warranted a careful listen. By the time he returned to Chelsea in 2013, there was a more caustic, sinister element to many of his antics; the Eva Carneiro case being first among them. However, although few would admit to liking Mourinho anymore, he remains essential viewing in a Premier League narrative packed with characters.
2: Eric Cantona
When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you.
And with that, Cantona would disappear from Premier League football for nine months. Singled out as the catalyst which enabled Alex Ferguson's Manchester United to begin their Premier League domination of the 1990s, his example to the fabled Class of '92 rarely goes unmentioned either. However, with his turned up collar, #7 jersey and mesmerising playing style, Cantona epitomised a sense of otherness that the English top flight were keen to embrace. His celebrations - as much as the goals that warranted them - became an event in and of themselves. Cantona remains the most popular Manchester United player of the Alex Ferguson era.
1: Harry Redknapp
Truthfully, 'Arry could have made up the top 10 of this list all on his own. A consistent source of enjoyment for Premier League fans, the "Del-Boy" persona associated with Redknapp often undermines the extent of his success at this level; his Spurs side Bale, Modric, Defoe and van der Vaart were a joy to behold. However, lauding genuine talent and achievement is not what this list is about. Redknapp speaking out of his car-window on transfer-deadline day, getting hit with a ball in the back of the head while being interviewed and chastise the "fuckin' reserve" who did it, telling funny stories about past players of his - that's what we want and miss from Harry Redknapp. The Championship's gain is the Premier League's loss.
SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Jerseys Of The Premier League's 25 Years
SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Irish Players Of The Premier League's 25 Years
SEE ALSO: The 25 Memorable Irish Moments Of The Premier League's 25 Years
