Did you ever write off a player...and get it wrong?

Early in his career, thought C Ronaldo just wouldn't cut it, fancy dan stuff. Got that wrong, he has become one of the greatest of the last 20 years...but suspect I wasn't the only one.

Remember a certain A Shearer scoring a hattrick for Southampton as a 17 year old and thinking "meh, David Kelly did that at international level".

acquiescefc

I remember watching a certain French guy play 6 a side for us against Baltimore Blast.

upandcumming

Wrote Diego Costa clean off when he joined Chelsea. Happy to say I called Hazard to bury Spurs last year!

Beasty

I've seen a number written off at United by a lot of people only for them to continue working hard and overcome the negative commentary. First one I remember a lot of disquiet about was Remi Moses - he was never going to be a World beater but equally he ended up doing a very solid job. The likes of Wes Brown and Chris Smalling flattered to deceive early in their careers but in the end won the fans over. Even Michael Carrick was subject to a lot of criticism but ended up being one of the most influential players in the squad

With Ronaldo I was watching him week in and week out when he arrived and I never doubted his talent. However adapting to a new country and teammates at such a young age was always going to be a challenge. Think it was the 2004 FA Cup final when I really started thinking he was going to be something very special

mansize

Aaron Ramsey...

keeponhurling

When that young lad Messi came onto the scene, I felt nobody with a mullet like that can amount to much.

Turned out he did ok

Tom Mann Centuria

The fact Victor Moses still gets a game for big teams is a shock to me. He's not terrible, but he's definitely over achieving with his last two clubs, he's just 100% trier, all game, every game, which is maybe rarer these days. I wrote him off 3 clubs ago.

keeponhurling

^was Wes Brown not the opposite?
When he emerged on the scene he won the treble and looked like he had it all. Fast, strong, could attack, great defender etc.

Still had a solid career but never quite fulfilled potential (maybe largely due to injuries)

The_Kew_Tour

Yep Ryan Giggs around 2003

Lol, yep I know, of all the players to get most of his career

HalloweenJack

I don't write players off but more the opposite, I build players up and then see them fail with bewilderment.

Chancer3001

Paul Scholes.

All that lad is score goals. Doesnt do anything else.

Then I saw him live....joke

Early days but David Luiz has turned it IMO
Laughed at Chelsea when they re-signed him but I was wrong
Aided by Conte and the protection of Kante but still. Credit where credit is due.

Jose has worked wonders on Marcus Rojo
I wanted him gone last summer and he's now one of our most consistent defenders

Unearthly

Thought Harry Kane would be just another purple patch English striker 2 years ago

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I thought Falcao had utterly lost it but he's doing well at Monaco again.

GreNoLi

Carrick, woefully misused by England surprise surprise.

JaMarcusHustle

Darren Fletcher for a large part of his early years at United. Hated seeing his name in the line up. A couple of years later he was first name in the team sheet then. He really turned it around.

Minderbinder

Thought Coutinho would never do anything in the PL. He looked so lightweight and ineffective at Inter.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Imagine if Eamonn Dunphy was a poster here.The longest post in boards history would be recorded on this thread.

Nalz

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

Darren Fletcher for a large part of his early years at United. Hated seeing his name in the line up. A couple of years later he was first name in the team sheet then. He really turned it around.

Me too.

But I've been right about everyone else :-)

Osmosis Jones

I remember talking about how Ibrahimovic wasn't all that about 2 hours before he put 4 past England.

billyhead

As a United fan there have been a few Ronnie Johnson, Ruud Van Nistlerooy and Andrei Kanchelskis

Ferris_Bueller

I thought Mane would be a complete flop at Liverpool this season, still early days but he has probably been their best player to date.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Drogba after his first season at Chelsea.

Ivefoundgod

Minderbinder wrote: »

Thought Coutinho would never do anything in the PL. He looked so lightweight and ineffective at Inter.

I couldn't believe a PL team had signed him, very same as you I thought he would have no chance in the PL. Was really really poor for Inter, not sure if tactics didn't suit him but not like he was playing a different position. I suppose Inter weren't setting the world on fire at the time either. I saw him ending up playing for the likes of Villareal at best. Having said that I still don't think he's as good as some people rate him.

Another one, thought Viduka was just too slow to cut it in the Premier League, and had an attitude problem.

And then this happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-qA557gKw

Dirty Dingus McGee

Deleted User wrote: »

Another one, thought Viduka was just too slow to cut it in the Premier League, and had an attitude problem.

And then this happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-qA557gKw

Such a talented player who underachieved.

If he'd actually bothered his arse he'd have been one of the worlds great strikers, on his days he was lethal.Strong,good in the air, great touch,composed finisher and a rocket of a shot.He basically single handedly saved Leeds from relegation in 2002-2003 when he went on a ridiculous run of firm in the last 15 games or so.


Top class player but an unfulfilled talent.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Such a talented player who underachieved.

If he'd actually bothered his arse he'd have been one of the worlds great strikers, on his days he was lethal.Strong,good in the air, great touch,composed finisher and a rocket of a shot.He basically single handedly saved Leeds from relegation in 2002-2003 when he went on a ridiculous run of firm in the last 15 games or so.

Top class player but an unfulfilled talent.

I don't think he underachieved. He just got caught up in the spiral down that was Leeds. I remember thinking that they got lucky with Bridges, who was great, and then he got injured, and they brought in Viduka, and he had such a great touch and eye for goal. Plus he stuck with the club after a lot of others bailed. He always looked a bit overweight and unbothered, but he was one hell of a striker, so calm in front of goal.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't think he underachieved. He just got caught up in the spiral down that was Leeds. I remember thinking that they got lucky with Bridges, who was great, and then he got injured, and they brought in Viduka, and he had such a great touch and eye for goal. Plus he stuck with the club after a lot of others bailed. He always looked a bit overweight and unbothered, but he was one hell of a striker, so calm in front of goal.

He never really bothered his arse though.If he had worked a bit harder he would have got a move to a much bigger club (he was linked with some of the big Italian clubs early in his Leeds days).He done brilliantly for Leeds but he could have been playing for an even bigger club.

Iang87

Zlatan at Inter.

Never thought much of him. Thought he was incredibly overrated. I gave him zero credit for all he could do bringing players into play and focused purely on his scoring and thought he didn't do enough of it when it mattered.

I the went full circle on him and really enjoyed watching him thinking he was great until last summer when I wrote him off again.

I think I'll just continue to write him off cos when I get it right it'll be right forever

corcaigh07

Gareth Bale, I was happy to see him play against Liverpool once upon a time. Guaranteed win if he was playing against you, I completely wrote him off.

But then, he moved up the pitch and now praying Ireland keeps him quiet in the Aviva.

gimmick

How about the opposite? I thought Bojan had it all to become close to par with Messi. In 2007 - 2009 he looked different class. That changed fast.

garra

I wrote off Suarez when he left Liverpool to join Barca, not my best prediction and may have been influenced by emotion.

DrumSteve

Lucas.

Though to be fair, I never wrote him off.

GavRedKing

I think most people would have written off Ronaldo at Utd in the early days to some degree, the talent was there but it was hard to judge where it would take him and if he had the drive to match his talent and could he push on or become a "what if" type player.

artanevilla

Probably not on the same level as some of the players on here, but I had written off James McClean as a Stephen Hunt clone (i.e headless chicken), but he's shown to be quite an effective player.

ronjo

I got one player wrong twice.
Francis Coquelin.

Thought he was rubbish......... THen last season he was great for a few months so I totally changed my opinion on him
Back to rubbish again....

ERG89

Kalanic at Fiorentina. Thought he was bad at Blackburn (who were a f*cking mess) but is now one of the more underrated forwards in Europe.
The opposite is Shakiri thought he was going to be great but now is achieving nothing with Stoke.

astrofool

GavRedKing wrote: »

I think most people would have written off Ronaldo at Utd in the early days to some degree, the talent was there but it was hard to judge where it would take him and if he had the drive to match his talent and could he push on or become a "what if" type player.

I can't find it anymore, but poster Jesus_thats_gre had some Dunphy-esque levels of writing off Ronaldo, hilarious to look back on it.

Francie Barrett

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

Drogba after his first season at Chelsea.

Snap.

Francie Barrett

I remember tearing strips out of the management at Liverpool after we signed a 35 year Gary McAllister thinking he was too old and nowhere near good enough to get into the team. Was happily proven wrong on that one.

DJIMI TRARORE

Gary Mcallister signing for liverpool at 35,i think most people laughed

knucklehead6

astrofool wrote: »

I can't find it anymore, but poster Jesus_thats_gre had some Dunphy-esque levels of writing off Ronaldo, hilarious to look back on it.

I don't post here very often, and really should feel bad for this but still....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50619808&postcount=37

astrofool

knucklehead6 wrote: »

I don't post here very often, and really should feel bad for this but still....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50619808&postcount=37

Man, it was a close run thing between Harry Kewell and Ronaldo...

sky88

henrik larsson at celtic thought it was because he was in a poor league but proved at barcalona that he would have been a superstar if he had moved earlier for me.

idnkph

Daryl horgan when he was at sligo rovers. There was big talk about him being a great player LOI standard. Saw him play a few times and said meh dunno what the buzz is about but 6 years on I'm happy to see him doing well with Preston.

Royale with Cheese

I didn't get the hype around Ronaldo when he was a teenager and was convinced van Persie would go on to be a better player. To be fair, they both turned out pretty good. I also didn't think that out of the two of them it'd be van Persie lifting the Premier League trophy for United ten years later either

Deise Vu

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

I thought Mane would be a complete flop at Liverpool this season, still early days but he has probably been their best player to date.

When Mané made his debut for Southampton it was on live TV. He was so bad I thought he was one of those joke players that had blagged their way into getting a game with a fake CV. The commentator even made some remark on the lines of "Southampton would have won by a street if they didn't have this guy up front".

I believe he has settled down since.

Liam O

Maybe it was to do with my belief that he undeservedly beat Nani to PoTY that time but I didn't think Bale was anything more than a Walcott(who I do rate) level player who just sprinted with a heavy touch and that defenders would soon figure him out. I think it took the move to Madrid for me to realise he was on the top echelon of players, something Nani was always (just ) below.

eagle eye

I don't think I ever wrote off a player and got it wrong but I did have high hopes some and got that wrong. I remember thinking Keirrison would be the next big thing from Brazil and I was so wrong. After I said Barcelona went out and paid something like 15 million euro for him so at least I wasn't the only one fooled.

Right now the player that I think can be a superstar for years to come is Marcus Rashford, so watch out United fans because when I get it wrong it goes real bad!

jive

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Imagine if Eamonn Dunphy was a poster here.The longest post in boards history would be recorded on this thread.

That guy Ronaldo is a cod.

As per previous post, Harry Kane. And I'm still writing him off. I'm disagreeing with above post and writing off Rashford too although both seem like nice guys. I'll probably be wrong about Kane but I'm fairly confident Rashford won't cut the mustard at a big club.

artanevilla

jive wrote: »

That guy Ronaldo is a cod.

As per previous post, Harry Kane. And I'm still writing him off. I'm disagreeing with above post and writing off Rashford too although both seem like nice guys. I'll probably be wrong about Kane but I'm fairly confident Rashford won't cut the mustard at a big club.

Kane has 63 goals in 103 league games for Spurs, and has been among the top scorers in the Premier League for the last three years, and is among them again this season. He's 23. I think he's made it.