Find Of The Season.

cson

With the season more or less over who was the most surprising player of the season, we've discussed player of the year etc on the forum, but what player was the most unheralded, surpisingly good this season?

My choices, Kevin Doyle (He's probably got the credit for it though) going from Eircom League to being in the top 5 goalscorers in the premiership this year is something else.

Aside from him the two relegated keepers have done well for what they had in front of them, Ben Foster and Scott Carson.

Benni McCarthy for Blackburn has scored 16 this season and Berbatov for Tottenham has had an incredible first season.

Anyone else?

JPA

For Villa I'd say Agbonlahor. Has come from nowhere in a way and since moving off the right wing has been sensational.
I expect him to be even better next season and to maybe start getting in the England squad.

gucci

cson wrote:

Benni McCarthy for Blackburn has scored 16 this season and Berbatov for Tottenham has had an incredible first season.

Anyone else?

i dont mean to be smart or anything but mcarthy and berbatov were both playing top flight football at big clubs before moving to the prem so they could hardly be describes as "finds"
id go for dan agger, been excellent find and a worthy replacement of hyppia

super_furry

Yeah, Daniel Agger has gone from relative obscurity to one of the best Premiership defenders.

Guy:Incognito

Surely someone is going to try shoehorn in C. Ronaldo or D.Drogba.

I personnally think C.Ronaldo was goalkeeper of the year. ( sure why not)

cson

gucci wrote:

i dont mean to be smart or anything but mcarthy and berbatov were both playing top flight football at big clubs before moving to the prem so they could hardly be describes as "finds"
id go for dan agger, been excellent find and a worthy replacement of hyppia

I understand you point but McCarthy came from Porto and the Portuguese league is miles apart from the prem, he adjusted well, well enough to score 16 times which is quite good given (with the greatest respect ) the type of football Blackburn play.

As for Berbatov, he was relatively unknown outside Germany.

Guy:Incognito

cson wrote:

As for Berbatov, he was relatively unknown outside Germany.

I'd imagine the football fans of Bulgaria would disagree.

dcarroll

so would the football fans of Ireland regarding Doyle

Guy:Incognito

Berbatov had 5 seasons in one of the top leagues in Europe scoring a lot of goals as well as having about 40 caps though.

cson

68 goals in 158 games for Leverkusen, 31 goals in 44 internationals for Bulgaria is some going too, (And yeah Stekelly, I'd imagine most Bulgarians would disagree with me on him being unknown )

Still 10 in 30 games for Spurs and creating a good few as well is pretty good going for him. There'd still be the doubt factor there, I remember Spurs buying a certain Sergei Rebrov for the same money who had a great pedigree with Kiev.

herbieflowers

Except he was cac in his first season. Berbatov has shown he's a world-class player. Rebrov didn't show that.

cson

herbieflowers wrote:

Except he was cac in his first season. Berbatov has shown he's a world-class player. Rebrov didn't show that.

Exactly the point i'm trying to make. There were no guarantees Berbatov would adjust as well as he did to the premiership and do as well as he did which in my eyes would make hima candidate for find of the season.

Any Spurs fans think he'd be as good as he is, back at the start of the season?

PiE

Stekelly wrote:

I personnally think C.Ronaldo was goalkeeper of the year. ( sure why not)

"Well the best form of defense is attack so..."

Agger's been pretty good and he can only get better IMO. Showed true quality with how he adapted his game to compete with Drogba after being whipped in the first leg of the CL.

KdjaCL

Only in the premier league is a proven international who has played in a champions league FINAL considered a find of the season.

And not once but twice!!!! Berbatov and Mc Carthy both played in CL finals yet are finds.....lol Thye must be so proud they are finally good.

Young for me, 1st full season in PL and looks a decent player.


kdjac

herbieflowers

Playing a CL final doesn't equate with being great, many rubbish players have played in the final, many players have been hyped and haven't lived up to it from the CL. When I saw Berbatov play for Leverkusen he wasn;t half the player he is now for Spurs, he was cumbersome, awkward and was rarey a threat

PHB

McCarthy won the CL

Royale with Cheese

PHB wrote:

McCarthy won the CL

Djimi Traore won the CL

Passport

Solomon Kalou.

half a million.

Royale with Cheese

herbieflowers wrote:

When I saw Berbatov play for Leverkusen he wasn;t half the player he is now for Spurs, he was cumbersome, awkward and was rarey a threat

A cumbersome awkard striker who was rarely a threat... who was second top goalscoarer in one of Europe's better leagues the season before he joined Spurs. Right...

herbieflowers

Royale with Cheese wrote:

A cumbersome awkard striker who was rarely a threat... who was top goalscoarer in one of Europe's better leagues the season before he joined Spurs. Right...

Yup from what I saw of him he was nothing special.

PHB

Has he also won the golden boot before

Kalou hasn't been too bad, he's got 9 goals this year and is only 21.

Mossy Monk

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Djimi Traore won the CL

Heh.

herbieflowers

PHB wrote:

Has he also won the golden boot before

Kalou hasn't been too bad, he's got 9 goals this year and is only 21.

Think so, point was I didn't expect him to produce the type of form he's shown for Spurs this season from what I saw of him playing CL with Leverkusen

Sajan

Passport wrote:

Solomon Kalou.

half a million.

I'm not exactly sure that is correct. I think he cost somewhere between 8 and 10 million.

leninbenjamin

this depends on what you mean by "find". do you mean taking a player from non-league/semi-pro obscurity a turning him into a good player who can compete at the highest level? or do you mean taking an already established decent player and turning him into a great? or a young player who's just found his feet? does he havve to have been at the club only this season or can he have been working his way through for a while?

not making a distinction, Berbatov, Agbonlahor, Doyle, Agger and Mikel are among those who i think deserve a mention (probably a few more but i can't really think right now). dunno if i could say one find was better than the other though.

~Rebel~

Completely Off Topic, But OMG, I think we have the mexican non union equivilent of the Devil in our midst! Sajan, as if thats not close enough (swap that j for a t), but his postcount is 333, half The Number Of The Beast. he's like The Beast, but only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays..


Back on topic, for pool id go with Agger, for Prem i think Doyle, Agbonlahor (though he was amazing in the reserves before he made the step up so wasnt completely unheralded) and Matt Derbyshire - Fox in the Box Mark II

herbieflowers

Yeah Derbyshire's been well impressive, good call...Agbonlahor had a great start and end to the season, hopefuly he can be a bit more consistent as Villa progress as a football side under MON

Vokes

Although only signed in Jan, Blacburn's Christopher Samba has looked an excellent piece of business. 3 Goals & 2 Assists in 11 league games aint half bad for a CB !

Villain

Agbonlahor and Young, the future at Villa park is bright

Chucky the tree

Young?!

The Muppet

Stekelly wrote:

I personnally think C.Ronaldo was goalkeeper of the year. ( sure why not)

Don't be sillly, John o Shea was goalkeeper of the year.


Doyle would get my vote for best find.

godtabh

My player of the year would be Sisenando Maicon of Inter Milan. He had a brilliant season and came from no were (Monaco!).

Villain

Chucky the tree wrote:

Young?!

Yep we might of have had to pay over the top for him but he was great for Watford in the early part of the season and showed on Saturday how he can score himself and Gabby look two very good young players.

zAbbo

Spending 10mil on a youngster who was already playing well is hardly a massive 'find'

Kalou for 500k, but who knows what else was in that deal.

Villain

Well it depends on how to determine a "find", is it buying an unknown player for low money who turns out to be a good player or is it bringing a youth player through or is it finding a player who has come into the top division and played well.

zAbbo

yeah I getcha, but I'd consider Gabby more of a find that Young.

Notable mentions for Vaughan and Anchibie of Everton

S.M.B.

Doyle already had a very good season behind him in the Championship whereas I hadn't thought much of Stephen Hunt. He's done extremely well after forcing his way into the Reading side so I'd throw him into the mix too.

cson

irish1 wrote:

Well it depends on how to determine a "find", is it buying an unknown player for low money who turns out to be a good player or is it bringing a youth player through or is it finding a player who has come into the top division and played well.

Well a find could be either, a foreign player brought in or a youth player brought up through the ranks.

At Arsenal for example its a combination of both, young players brought in. Its seemingly the future of acadamies, the big clubs buying in talented 15/16/17 year olds from other clubs with a view to bringing them through. A perfect example of this is Fabregas, bought for 0.5 million and gio van bronckhorst from barca.

Wenger has built a team off this policy - Eboue, Toure, Clichy, Diaby, Denilson, Fabregas, Walcott, Djourou, Senderos, Hoyte, Aliadiere, Bendtner, Muamba, Lupoli........it goes on.

Anyway back on topic, Have to agree with S.M.B. there, Stephen Hunt has had an excellent season considering he wasn't evn starting for Reading last season.

dcarroll

what, i thought he was around ten million?

besty

James Vaughan - Everton. He looks a real prospect.

cson

dcarroll wrote:

what, i thought he was around ten million?

Van Bronckhorst himself did cost Arsenal a badly spent £10 million but when he was sold to Barca Fabregas was included in the deal.

Reganio 2

Danny Agger has been awesome since he broke into the team after his arrival from Bronby (Correct me if I am wrong but did we not sign him 2 seasons ago??), Gabby Agbonlahor has been brilliant, Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt were awesome. My Find of the season is Stephen Ireland came out of nowhere and broke into the City team straight away and was picked for Ireland as soon as Stan saw him (altough its not hard to get called up for the Ireland squad) He has something like a goal a game for Ireland dosnt he?.

tetsujin1979

Andy Keogh? Wasn't well known outside League 1, Mick signed him for peanuts, and now he could be a starting striker in the Premiership, ironically enough as his previous club Leeds head for League 1.
The next Stephen Elliott - relatively unknown striker signed by Mick McCarthy, given his chance to prove himself in the Championship and not come up short, now if he can avoid the injuries...

evad_lhorg

Lescott for everton has been excellent and derbyshire for Blackburn.

gustavo

None so far for us , all our new signings have been crap

eirebhoy

Lee Naylor.

herbieflowers

Matt Taylor's had a decent season ad scored some great goals!

Rollo Tamasi

Darly Murphy. Shone in the Sunderland team this season.

eirebhoy

Anthony Stokes aswell should get a mention. Playing in the Arsenal reserves last season and went to Falkirk and scored at a rate Larsson would have been delighted with. He still made the wrong decision by turning down Celtic though, bias aside.

PHB

Ah I think time will tell.
Keane seems to be moulding him into a professional footballer, which is good to see. If he wants to become top class, he needs somebody like Keane teaching him.

Fratton Fred

herbieflowers wrote:

Matt Taylor's had a decent season ad scored some great goals!

fourth season in the premiership though. It's only this season, because of his goals, that he is getting any sort of credit.

I'd agree with Stephen Hunt and I'd also suggest Leroy Lita as well.