Michael Johnson's football career drew to a probable close on Tuesday as Manchester City announced that the player's contract had been paid off. Johnson was once thought of as a potential England international. It is not difficult to see why. He broke into the City team aged 18, but his downfall has been equally swift. He was arrested for drink-driving twice last year and any hopes that he would live up to his billing as a future England captain have been quietly forgotten. Johnson is 24 and one can only hope the next stage of his life turns out better than his disappointing football career. "I am more disappointed than anyone, but that's the way it goes," he said. Johnson is not the only footballer to have promised so much and delivered so little. The sport is littered with such cautionary tales.

Ariel Ortega

Ariel Ortega has dribbled and chipped his way to some of the greatest goals ever scored, but he was always destined to be a letdown. As soon as Ortega started to impress at River Plate as a teenager, he was slapped with the tag "The new Maradona". If anyone was likely to deal with such adulation, Ortega was not that man. He has proved a tempestuous and stubborn character across his career, hence the nickname El Burrito –"the little donkey". Ortega never lacked talent but he sabotaged his career at its most crucial moments. He could have been the star of the 1998 World Cup but instead picked up a red card for headbutting Edwin van der Saar in the quarter-final. The Argentinian was on his way to a booking for diving when he pushed his forehead on to the big goalkeeper's chin.

Ortega's career in Europe was also controversial. He scored goals for Valencia, Sampdoria and Parma but blew his chances at Fenerbahce when he failed to return from international duty. He was banned for four months. His fondness for alcohol and lack of application in training followed him throughout his career. Maradona, who roomed with Ortega before he passed down the No10 shirt, has this to say about his supposed successor: "Everyone thinks the little donkey is a little idiot, but I think he is very intelligent. He spoke to me about how professional he was and also about how unprofessional he could be just because he fucking felt like it."

Georgi Kinkladze

Long before Manchester City boasted proven internationals in every position, they had one of the most entertaining players in Premier League history. For all City's money, the new owners have not found anyone as entertaining as Georgi Kinkladze. For a time in the mid-90s, Kinkladze could be found waltzing through defences. He would pick up the ball from Steve Lomas, dribble around a host of defenders and then chip the ball over the out-rushing keeper into the net.

Since leaving City, Kinkladze has struggled to reproduce that form. He was signed by Ajax to replace Jari Litmanen, who was meant to go to Barcelona. Litmanen's move fell through and Kinkladze was pushed out to the left wing to accommodate the Finn. When the Ajax manager Morten Olsen was replaced by Jan Wouters, things went downhill. "I could have been Maradona and he wouldn't have changed the system to accommodate me," Kinkladze said. The player was moved on and never really settled at a club again. He went to Derby and then had trials with Portsmouth, Dundee, Celtic, Leeds, Panathinaikos and the Russian club Shinnik Yaroslavl. He ended his career at Rubin Kazan after a spell with Anorthosis in Cyprus, but the Georgian never recovered the form that made his old Manchester City manager, Alan Ball, call him "the best player to ever come out of eastern Europe".

Michael Branch

When Michael Branch was sent to prison for drugs offences last November, the officer in charge of his case said: "This was significant criminality committed by someone who would once have been viewed as a role model. The message here is that entering the illegal drugs trade is a route to prison, not to financial gain and a celebrity lifestyle."

The police had found £50,000 of high-purity cocaine in his house in July. Branch, 34, made his Everton debut half of his lifetime ago, as a 17-year-old tipped to lead the line for the club for a decade. In the end he only scored three goals for the club and ended his stop-start career playing to crowds of a hundred or so at Burscough FC in the Northern Premier League Division One North.

Christopher Wreh

When Christopher Wreh arrived at Arsenal in 1997 he was not scared of the challenge ahead: "When Arsenal first tried to sign me, people at Monaco told me not to come here because they had [Dennis] Bergkamp and Ian Wright, but it never bothered me. I never thought I had anything to prove to people. In Liberia I'm a star and I trust in my own ability." While Wright and Bergkamp remain two of Arsenal's greatest ever players, Wreh's career should act as a warning sign for the likes of Nicklas Bendtner.

Wreh started well at Arsenal. He scored on his debut and scored the winner on his way to picking up the 1998 FA Cup. But things soured quickly. He scored in the Charity Shield against Manchester United at the start of the 1998-99 season before being shipped out on loan to AEK Athens, Birmingham City and Den Bosch. When none of these moves worked, he was moved on to Al-Hilal, then Bournemouth, St Mirren, Persepolis, Bishop's Stortford and Buckingham Town. He finally retired after a spell with Perseman Manokwari in the Indonesian Football League.

Andy van der Meyde

David Moyes is famed for his ability to get the best out of an inexpensive bunch of players. If he can work miracles on Everton's budget, so goes the argument, he could win multiple Champions Leagues at one of the Manchester clubs. Maybe he could, but he would have to invest £2m better than he did when buying Andy van der Meyde.

Van der Meyde grew up at Ajax playing alongside the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rafael van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder. He found his way to Merseyside via two seasons at Internazionale.

It is no overstatement to say his life fell apart at Everton. He drank, started cheating on his wife (who used a private detective to find him out) and had his pet dog, "Mac", stolen by burglars. Van der Meyde's football career went downhill but he showed some talent at kickboxing and planned to fight professionally. In the end, that came to little. He's now living in Apeldoorn with his new wife, a former Playboy model. He hopes to become a youth coach, for which he seems more than experienced.