Who will be the new Diouf/Diao after the world cup?

evilhomer

After the World cup 2002 clubs around the world scrambled to buy players who had impressed in World Cup finals.

Liverpool under the guidance of Mr. G Houllier bought two "peaches" in the form of Diouf and Diao.

Other teams also payed big for players, Zlatan Ibramhiovich hit the big time after the 2002 WC also (although to much more success then houlliers signings).

I mean Inter Milan even tried to sign Gary Breen after a sucessful world cup campaign!! :eek:

So my question is as you can probably tell from the title, Who will be the new Diouf/Diao after the world cup?

What player will some team fork out huge sums of money for, only for him to fall flat on his face at club level?

My choice for number one contender is Asamoah Gyan of Ghana.
After his brace against the Czech Republic.

Other players sure to have a high price tag are players from the Ecuador team.

Who do you think?

besty

Muntari of Ghana

PHB

Muntari was a known decent young player before the World Cup started.

besty

By who?

Pigman II

LEE Chun Soo

Ruskie4Rent

besty wrote:

By who?

I used to buy him in fbm2005

PHB

He was rated highly in FM and Pro Evo

But aside from that, if I'm not mistaken, he had trials for United at a young age, and, oh yeh, is now currently playing for Udinese on a regular basis!!!

He has been linked with a big money move to Juve and United in the past.

He isn't an unknown, you just don't know him.

Big Nelly

Messi:D

iregk

Yup I second what has been said about Muntari, he has been touted for quite a while now.

Táck

Dempsey off America was impressive for me...

BaZmO*

It'll more than likely be a player that played against England, or at least they'll be the ones we'll hear about. So with that in mind I can see Sancho the defender from T&T who had excellent games against England and Sweden in particular being picked up by a mid table PL team.

DaBreno

To compound our shame yet further, Liverpool also signed Phil Babb based on a WC performance. Ack.

Mitch Connor

Edwards of T&T, and Boka (the IC fullback i think) could get themselves good moves.

RE*AC*TOR

Diouf was also African player of the year, IIRC.

Attractive Nun

That lad from the Ukraine, plays for Spartak Moscow. K-something. He looked pretty good.

iregk

Kahilineshnko. Looked a nice player alright.

Big Nelly

evilhomer wrote:

Liverpool under the guidance of Mr. G Houllier bought two "peaches" in the form of Diouf and Diao.

Liverpool had already bought Diuof before the WC for a bargain 10 mil or watever it was because Houllier said his value would go up over the WC, by the end of the WC everyone was laughing at 10mil

The Rooster

Big Nelly wrote:

Liverpool had already bought Diuof before the WC for a bargain 10 mil or watever it was because Houllier said his value would go up over the WC, by the end of the WC everyone was laughing at 10mil

Thats not true. Diouf had a very good world cup. Against France in particular he was excellent.

People didnt start laughing until after his first season with Liverpool - even though he managed to retain his African Player of the Year award!

p.pete

How exactly is the African player of the year decided anyway?
Based on the fact that Liverpool had made the signing before the world cup then it'll be Rosicky of Arsenal.

Lex Luthor

Convey of USA....Bolton or Boro will buy him

Lemlin

p.pete wrote:

How exactly is the African player of the year decided anyway?
Based on the fact that Liverpool had made the signing before the world cup then it'll be Rosicky of Arsenal.

Not sure about that. Rosicky has been a good player for a long time now. Few people had heard of Diouf before the World Cup.

Táck

Lex Luthor wrote:

Convey of USA....Bolton or Boro will buy him

is he in his 30's?

evilhomer

T&#225 wrote: »

Dempsey off America was impressive for me...

Scored today, I wonder will anyone take the bait?

I'm sure due to Ghanas progress to the second phase that a couple of their players will be linked with moves to the premiership.

eyerer

evilhomer wrote:

I mean Inter Milan even tried to sign Gary Breen after a sucessful world cup campaign!! :eek:

Why did that fall through, were Inter unable to afford such quality?

KdjaCL

Most of the good players are just that good players.

Atm My Player of the 3 games is .....Essien like a more skilful, faster and better Roy Keane.


kdjac

Pigman II

KdjaC wrote:

Atm My Player of the 3 games is .....Essien l

Pity he will be just the player of the 3 games. Suspended for Brazil game. Therefore Ghana are going home imho.

ErinGoBrath

I'm thinking Pimpong of Ghana will be the new Diouf/Diao

evilhomer

eyerer wrote:

Why did that fall through, were Inter unable to afford such quality?

He failed the medical, apparently. :rolleyes:

pimpong could be one of the players alright.

KdjaC : Yeah Essien looks a different player for Ghana, Doesn't have the leash on that Moruinhio puts on all the players at Chelsea!

I would love to see the Chelsea lads given a chance to express themselves properly (and not just give the ball to Lampard).

PHB

I think you are over-estimating Essien's preformances. While he has been impressive, he is just playing as he was when he was playing for Lyon, and what has amazed people is that he is actually a very good player, it's just Mourinho's shackles.

He's impressive compared to the normal Essien at Chelsea, but he isn't playing at his best imo. It's a pity, cause I think he coulda given Ghana a chance against Brazil, but without him, they can't contain Kaka or Ronaldinho.

Draupnir

Kranchar from Croatia, the managers son, looks a player to me. I'd be looking to get him in if I was managing anyone from 5th down in the Premiership.

The Rooster

I think Essien has shown what a great buy he would have been for ManU. Its going to be great fun at the Bridge next year with Makelele, Essien, Ballack and Lamps fighting for at most 3 places. Team spirit will inevitably go downhill IMO.

Back on topic: Harry Kewell and Luis Garcia

~Rebel~

Anyone notice how well All the chelsea players are doing though? carvalho, cole, essien, robben, crespo, drogba all played out of their skins, lampard was grand and gallas was his usual self too (though unlucky with not being able to reach that Korea goal). Maybe they're learning something at the bridge after all!


<edit> agree with Gyan, also could see Omar Bravo and Zinha make a move to europe. Bravo gets in some great positions, while he didn't finish well in the last game, he still looked very active, and zinha looks unreal on the ball at times. His goal in the first game was quality.

Fitzo

maxi rodriguez of Argentina...

Kingp35

~Rebel~ wrote:

<edit> agree with Gyan, also could see Omar Bravo and Zinha make a move to europe. Bravo gets in some great positions, while he didn't finish well in the last game, he still looked very active, and zinha looks unreal on the ball at times. His goal in the first game was quality.

Omar Bravo yes, Zinha not a chance. He was rubbish against Angola and got dropped for the Portugal game. Hardly the sign of a top player

PHB

maxi rodriguez of Argentina...

He plays for Atletico Madrid. He played 25 games for them, and scored 10 goals for them.

evilhomer

Looks like Didier Zakora, maybe on his way to white hart lane!

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?HLID=397831&CPID=8&title=Spurs+close+on+Zokora&lid=&channel=worldcup2006&f=rss&clid=6

Could he be the expensive flop? (it's always a risk buying players from the french league, which Liverpool can testify to!)

Chucky the tree

evilhomer wrote:

Looks like Didier Zakora, maybe on his way to white hart lane!

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?HLID=397831&CPID=8&title=Spurs+close+on+Zokora&lid=&channel=worldcup2006&f=rss&clid=6

Could he be the expensive flop? (it's always a risk buying players from the french league, which Liverpool can testify to!)

THis was talked about before the world cup started.

Its a risk by players from every league aswell.

Ruskie4Rent

Paying any amount of money for just a bloke who can play good football is a risk. You never know what can happen to them when they join you, they might hate the palce, the players, the manager, the league and they can get injured. Not to mention the strains that their personal life might put on their form.
It's not as easy as splashing a couple of million on a literal goal machine.

$lattman

Ribery of France was hyped up before the WC but he has really failed to impress, missed 2 absolute sitters last night! Maybe he's just not used to the international stage but he looks to be one of those players who excels in France and can't hack it anywhere else, much like Cisse...

Nalz

$lattman wrote:

Ribery of France was hyped up before the WC but he has really failed to impress, missed 2 absolute sitters last night!

I agree...

but my vote goes to Appiah from Ghana

Draupnir

I agree...

but my vote goes to Appiah from Ghana

Former Juventus midfielder Appiah, the captain of Ghana currently playing for Fenerbahce?

Sometimes I wonder do people on this forum watch football at all!

Draupnir

$lattman wrote:

Ribery of France was hyped up before the WC but he has really failed to impress, missed 2 absolute sitters last night! Maybe he's just not used to the international stage but he looks to be one of those players who excels in France and can't hack it anywhere else, much like Cisse...

Missed two chances last night but I wouldnt say they were absolute sitters, both were technically difficult to execute. But he should have put one away.

I dont agree that he was poor though, he was very dangerous going forawrd and is still young, I'd like to see United buy him if the rumours were true.

Draupnir

I think the reason we have seen so many Chelsea players play well in this tournament is two fold:

1. They are all riding a wave of confidence at the moment from their successes at Chelsea.

2. A lot of them are in their prime at the minute. Chelsea have a team of established players who have a lot of experience.

evilhomer

Zinha of Mexico?

Looked great tonight, but would he reproduce it week in week out if someone in the premiership bought him?