Schalke were pretty much doomed in January as they found themselves well adrift at the foot of the table, but they still tried to throw some money at veteran players in the hope they would lead a heroic fightback.
Klass Jan Huntelaar, Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi were all signed, but they did absolutely nothing to revive their fortunes and the end result was an awful relegation that could be tough to bounce back from.
Those January signings were a desperate gamble, but a report from Ruhrnachrichten has revealed how the humiliation didn’t stop there.
It seems in Germany they have an award that can be closely translated as the “Loser of the Year Prize” – It’s essentially handed out to the player who has had an absolute shocker all season, but it’s also voted on by the writers at Kicker so it’s a kind of Football Writers Worst Player of the Season vote.
Mustafi must have really pushed the boat out to “win” the prize as he was only there for half a season and 13 games, but you can be sure Arsenal will be glad that he’s not there anymore after a run of genuinely dreadful performances.