Remembering the prospects
April 16, 2009
The stars have come and gone while the money paid for them was became bad debts. Many have been claimed to be the ‘next <insert big name star>’ but the money paid for them has never been returned.
This week Adriano said goodbye (for now) at age 27. Which other stars have you been most disappointed with?
I have compiled a list of players who I thought could have done better in the big leagues. Who disappoints you most? Comments pls!
1. Mario Jardel
2. Stephane Dalmat
3. Adriano
4. Hugo Viana
5. Ricardo Queresma
6. Sergei Rebrov
7. Nani
8. Damien Duff
9. Mark Bosnich
10. Javier Saviola
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ohhh, mark bosnich did play well in the premier league but after joining man utd, it went down hill. massimo taibi is more of a flop than bosnich is, methinks.
the biggest flop is sergei rebrov, he has an excellent scoring record in his domestic league and a reputation in the champions league but when he joined spurs, he wasnt the same player anymore. apparently living in london, scared the bejesus out of him – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054171/Ex-Spurs-star-warns-Russian-footballer-avoid-walking-London-dark-skinned-people-rob-you.html
hugo viana is probably second in the list, 11m pounds if i remember correctly. 1st season played mostly as sub, then went on loan to sporting lisbon, came back to newcastle and was never seen in a toon shirt again.
alfonso alves. man, this guy. he scored against man utd on his debut and then went missing.
francis jeffers. FOX IN THE BOX!
robert earnshaw.
david nugent.
who remember sean “crocodile” dundee, i think he was german and went to liverpool.
and yb’s personal favourite – emile mpenza. what what, in the butt.
I’m in agreement with Will on his first point. If you are going to include Damien Duff then you’ve got to stick in Harry Kewell, Scott Parker, Steve Sidwell and Sean Wright-Phillips whose careers also also once they joined one of the more popular clubs.
Back in the nineties when media coverage was not the monster that it is today, we relied heavily on word of mouth from people who are either biased or ones who’ve only managed to catch one or two skill clips on tele and suddenly become experts. That could be the main reason why most
YB’s Top 5 ‘I expected a hell of alot more from… (off the top of my head and who’s not already on Will and Jay’s lists)’
*Not in any particular order
Liam Miller
When Roy Keane says someone is the shit you kinda take his word for it
Jordi Cryuff
Literally didn’t live up to his namesake
Michael Chopra
The ‘Next’ Alan Shearer
Joe Cole
When Joey was 12, Sir Alex gave him a United shirt and told him “One day you’re going to be wearing this” or something along those lines
Andriy Shevchenko
It was more exciting watching an eastern european kebab vendor
The curious case of Hugo Viana gets an honorable mention. Awarded the european young footballer of the year award the year before joining Newcastle. Reported £11 Million in fees. Is it more a case of right player in the wrong team or simply wrong player for the league. In retrospect I think he came to the league too early. Back then English clubs(who are not arsenal) did not have the readily available tools to groom technically astute starlets. Had he ventured into the english game after a few more years at sporting, I reckon he would be a household name for the right reasons today. Shame.
And what about Mpenza? what you on about? the belgian chocolate rocket rocked at Man City!
Andy Van Der Meyde
Kleberson (generally unheard of before the world cup / joining man utd, but is of course a world cup winner)
Per Koldrup (star in Seria A and only got two games for Everton – very strange)
Jon Dahl Tomasson (although he did alright in the Dutch league)
Actually to be honest it was a bit hard to trim it down to just 10 ppl haha! There were too many players bought at exorbitant prices and did shit. Cue in Darren Bent. But at least he’s still got time to make up for it!
Totally agree with Francis Jeffers (where is he now?), Liam Miller, Michael Chopra, Jordi Cruyff, Andy Van Der Meyde and Per Koldrup.
Kleberson to me was an unknown before Utd, so he wasn’t really the next Dunga or something like that. He probably belongs to the same category as Eric Djemba Djemba (remember him??)
Plus its harder to remember those who weren’t in the BPL. Of my own list, only Adriano and Saviola never played in the BPL.
OOHH I just remembered one more. The next Sol Campbell. 8.1mil pound flop from Southampton named Dean Richards
I just realised a chunk of my comment is missing, too bad i cant remember my point! huhu
actually andy van der meyde is a good one, was an excellent prospect during his early days in the dutch league then went to inter and flopped there. then to everton and flopped too. so hes a double flopper.
im trying to think of a player who played in the serie a, la liga and premier league, and flop in all three.
fyi, sheva lit up serie a and the champions league before joining chelsea.
Yes he did and since we (or i was at least [and because he's the president of the 'chelski ruined my career' association]) were speaking in the context of the premiership, I just had to include him.
talking of flops there are many around the world, but i’ll stick to some former and current players in the EPL
1. berbatov: the biggest attacking flop so far for the red devils (played better at spurs)
2. kleberson: another brazilian at united who just went missing
3. veron: played well only a few games
4. nani: not worth being at united
5: babel: may be not a flop in the end, but played for 1st team at ajax and on the bench at liverpool
6. shevchenko: a total flop at chelski, back to milan, where he starts most games on the bench as well
7. taibi: may be the biggest flop for united (unless someone else is worst than him & not spotted yet :D
8. quaresma: on loan at chelski, but still bery critisized at Inter, and plays rarely at chelski as well
There are others, not coming to mind right now :P