Players you were right and wrong about

What are the players you thought would never amount to anything, but did, and the ones you thought would be great, but it didn't work out?
And the ones you thought wouldn't amount to anything, and didn't, and the ones you just knew would be great, and were?

For a while I thought Norman Whiteside wasn't all that, but ended up becoming one of my favourite players of the time.

One of the saddest ones who didn't make it was Alan Davies who had a superb FA Cup final in 1983 in place of Steve Coppell. He looked like a really exciting prospect. After preseason I think he suffered a leg break and struggled to break back into the side.

More up to date, I hated Darren Fletcher with a passion, and thought he was absolutely useless, but he proved himself to be a really good player for us, and was unlucky with illness disrupting his United career.

I remember being really impressed with David Beckham when he broke into the team in the early part of the 95/96 season. The 2:1 win at Blackburn when he scored the winner, he was superb. I remember raving about him to my mates at work. His passing in particular.

Ashley Young

Depay. Thought he will be great signing for us.

One player sticks out in my mind and that's Michael Carrick. I remember one game where I really lost my shit because he always seemed to be a perpetual passenger in midfield since he joined (probably because he was playing next to Scholes). Then suddenly he just owned the midfield over the next few years. Fair play.

Maybe Marouane Fellaini these days, but I still don't think he's that good. Mentally more solid than I ever gave him credit for, but I still think he's a limited footballer.

I was right about Rooney. Said he would break United's scoring records when he joined, so he did. But I also reckoned he would make a great central midfielder in his later years. Oops.

Never thought Peter Beardsley would make it and had very high hopes for Guialano Maoirana or whatever his name was (late 80 Fergie fledgling).

Wilson comes to my mind. I thought he'll be a great youth prospect when he emerged on the scene in that Hull game under Giggs, but after that, meh..

Young for his predictability but he has impressed me with his left foot in past 2 seasons, and his professionalism as a squad player.

I can't really say Depay was a disappointment because he was never that good in his 1st season, so did a bucket of players that we have bought in past decade.

Beardsley is a great example. Not too many will even know he was with us in his younger days.

I remember going to see United v Everton very early 90s when Giggsy and Darren Ferguson both made their debuts Giggs as a sub if I remember right.
There'd been loads written about Giggs in the papers before he played for the first team andi was looking forward to seeing him. When I went home that night the old man asked me how Ryan had done so I said something which im reminded of at least twice a year by my father
"I didnt think he was all that but I think fergie jnr will be a great player for us "
What do I know ?

The list from both sides of the equation is near endless. There are a few names that spring to mind though.

Exceeded initial expectations:
Lingard
Fletcher
Valencia
Evra
Keane (Micheal)
Butt
Carrick
Cantona - I was young and stupid at the time.

Failed to meet initial expectations:
Januzaj
Macheda
Depay
Miki
Many many more

No one has mentioned Ronaldo.

I thought he was good, but had no idea.....

Not that I did or didn't rate, but I recall moaning about buying Rooney, as I thought the fee paid could've been used on more needed parts of the team.

Knew Januzaj would amount to very little, and I still don't buy that its only down to his attitude.

Bosnich, for all his alleged unprofessionalism, was our best keeper between Peter & Edwin.

That Veron was going to blow everyone away.

Thought Miki would be awesome.

Do you remember his debut against Bolton, he looked like a genuine superstar after that game.

He took longer to reach his potential than expected though.

Best player in the world at 21 and officially at 22.
Before that he played in a team on a decline.

Yeah I'm not slating him mate, just saying that he took a little longer to get there than expected.

After his explosive entrance against Derby, he kind of stagnated for a few seasons. Often flattering to deceive with up and down performances. Oh and the stepovers, the endless recycled stepovers. Painful viewing.

The the wink happened. Everything else is history.

Wrong ones...
Darren Fletcher - thought he would never be an important member of the squad. Now, I actually think that one of the main reasons we lost CL final against Barcelona in 2009 is the moment he got that red card against Arsenal in the semi-final. Was that important for us at the time.

Michael Carrick - underrated him massively when we signed him and didn't see his qualities.

Anderson - opposite of Carrick. Massively overrated him.

Juan Sebastian Veron - thought it would be one of our best signings.

Many of LVG signings such as Di Maria and Bastian.

Players I was right about?
David de Gea I guess. Really wanted we sign him and despite early struggles didn't doubt him. Thought Vidic and Evra would also be a massive success with us. Had a feeling Ronaldo will be a great player, but then again not that he will reach the level he did.

As for the current players. Think Lukaku, Rashford and Lindelof will prove many people wrong.

Anderson son son.

Me too. I didn't see that coming tbh. Never thought he was among the best in terms of skills, but of course you can't see what the player got inside his brain.

Good call. Very disappointing how he turned out.

Memphis Depay. Both wrong and right.

Before he was linked with United, I never rated him. I couldn't see what the fuss was all about. He just didn't seem to have anything special about him.

Then, when United were linked and eventually signed him, I watched all the youtube compilations and was convinced that I was wrong. He was one of the best young prospects in Europe. He started well, he seemed to be building a lethal combination with Shaw, he destroyed Brugge.

But unfortunately, I was right after all.

I was harsh on Henning Berg, I thought he was crap but he come on as sub in a match vs Inter Milan in the Champions League quarter final in 1999 and made a crucial block on the goal line. On the whole he was a decent back up defender for us.

I got it horribly wrong about Obertan, when we signed him I thought he was going to be our new Ronaldo I don't know what I was basing this on, because he had a good tournament in an international youth competition possibly.

I never rated Welbeck, Cleverly and Januzaj from day one. I also always rated Carrick.

Looks like I was wrong about Messe though.

Ali Dia.

Wrong ? I was convinced Nick Powell would make it big time at OT.

Wrong ? I was convinced Vidic would never make it big time at OT.

Wrong ? I was absolutely certain that Gabby Heinze would become an OT legend.

Right ? I was in the Jose Alvade Stadium for the pre-season friendly the night Ronaldo made Gary Neville look like a poor Sunday Morning League player after a skin full the night before.

Right ? I was one of the few on here who said Depay would never be even 10% as good as the hype.

Right ? I cried salt when we announced that Moyes would take over from SAF - but thousands of others were as well.

Edited to add - Apologies to Gary, it was John O'Shea perhaps

Young. In a big way. Totally written him off in my head a few times, wished him out of the club for years. Now I think he's a massive asset for us.

At United, Lingard (so far) & Young have been better than I thought. Don't really want to mention those who underperformed to expectations.

You may be slightly harsh on yourself. I don’t think Ashley Young has lived up to expectation as a first team winger. As a squad player full back he is like you say a big asset. I’m sure we didn’t sign him to be that though.

I thought Veron would guarantee us title's and CL wins for years - boy was I wrong.

I thought Depay was going to be the new Ronaldo. Wrong.

I thought Powell was going to become a good young first team regular. Wrong.

I even thought Darmian was going to be our regular right back. Wrong (still love him for that time he distracted Sturridge at a corner by telling Sturridge he had something stuck to his face and Sturridge, as vain as he is, was too worried about what might be stuck to his face and trying to get it off to pay any attention to the corning coming in. Classic.)

I was gutted when Cantona retired and felt even worse when we signed (an already ageing) Sheringham as his replacement, I couldn't have been more wrong.

One I was wrong about that really sticks with me was Cleverley. The 11-12 season (His first full season back with us if I remember correctly) was the first time I properly watched him, and I was wowed. In the first few games when we were blowing teams away, he was looking like an English Iniesta. Lots of fast slick passing and movement, actually ghosting past players etc. I really thought we had something special on our hands there. Even after the injury I thought he would pick up where he left off and just keep improving, sadly I was mistaken.

The strange thing for me is that I was always convinced that anyone we signed during the Busby / Atkinson / Ferguson years was going to be a good signing, especially some of SAF's signings who I didn't know much about until they arrived - Keane, Van Nistlerooy, Stam, DDG, Evra, Park and, of course, Vidic and Heinze.

On the other hand, since then we've made some really, really disappointing signings.

Anderson Abreu

Mkhitaryan - I thought he was going to be very good for us. Maybe there is still time, but I have feeling not.....

Carrick has to be right up there. We'd been used to Keane, so Carrick seemed an underwhelming signing for a fairly high fee too.
My word it worked well though.

Wrong: Matic (thought he was well passed it), VDS (rated him but didn't think he would be as brilliant for us as he was), Depay (bought into the hype and thought he was going to be insanely good), Veron (still one of the signings that got me most excited but it didn't work out), Lingard (I can't pretend that he was often poor before this season but I never thought he would reach the levels he has this season, Cleverley (initially thought he was going to be great), Darmian (I let posters trick me into thinking we had signed a brilliant FB)

Ravel Morrison - I thought he was destined to be a future Ballon d'Or winner, i thought he was that good!

Obviously goes to show to be a footballer you need more than just 'talent'.

But I don't think people realize what United (and England) missed out on Ravel Morrison not fulfilling his potential, travesty really that United and football never got to witness a potential great in terms of natural talent.

I used to watch all the under 18's and reserve games at that time just to see him play.

Players I thought would be awesome:

Ricardo Quaresma
Yohan Gourcuff
Juninho Paulista (would go on to do better things)
Gael Kakuta
Gerard Delafeaou


Players I did not expect to reach such heights:

David de Gea
Gareth Bale (Obvious one)
Luka Modric
Michael Carrick ( Thought he was a stop gap)

Right about De Gea, wrong about Adnan, Depay, Welbeck, Wilson and Macheda. Also thought Kagawa would be better than Hazard and that Mata was going to be far better than Silva.

When he was at Chelsea that definitely looked possible! I was very wrong about Depay too

To be honest, a lot of United youngsters/fringe players have turned out worse than expected rather than the other way. The only ones I can think of that turned it around are De Gea, Jones, maybe Smalling. I’ve didn’t write off Lindelöf like most of you, if that counts? And I firmly believe Shaw will turn out well.

I was right about Ousmane Dembele and Mbappe. I said to buy them both before the hype even started to build up around these two and if we had of moved for them we could have got them for peanuts.

Just give me the fecking job already!