5 instances when football duos didn't work out

Football teams depend on effective partnerships to win. Whether it be in defense, midfield or the soon-to-be-extinct strike partnership, a functioning duo could be the difference between success and failure for a club.Over the years, we have seen some amazing duos. Think back to the rock solid centre-back pairing of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at Manchester United, or Chelsea’s brilliant coupling of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.There have been several other notable pairs over the years, take for example Manchester United’s strike partnership of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, or Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton at Blackburn.But as with everything else, there are exceptions, and certain combinations just don’t work out. Here are five examples of instances where footballing duos didn’t produce expected results:

#1 Christian Dailly and Gary Breen (West Ham)

Christian Dailly and his partner in defence didn’t do a stellar job for West Ham

Scottish defender Christian Dailly had an ok spell with the Hammers; that is until they signed Coventry’s Gary Breen on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2002/03 season. This centre-back pairing turned out to be horrific, as West Ham would find themselves relegated from the Premier League by the end of the season, for the first time in their history.

Many West Ham supporters still blame the duo for having experienced the drop. However, Dailly always believed that the Republic of Ireland international was a decent centre-back. After Breen moved on to Sunderland, Dailly had this to say before a match-up between the two teams: "Gary's a better player than we saw at West Ham, though.”

“Anyone who wins around 60 caps for your country, as Gary has done, must be a decent player.”