Alexander Hleb - incredible player during one purple patch
Average players who went through a world-class patch, then returned back to being average
- Thread starter Irrational.
- Start date
Willian
Toto Schillaci was world class in Italia 90 but apart from that he was pretty meh.
Come off it guys Lingard was never world class ffs.
Come off it guys Lingard was never world class ffs.
I think people use the word "world class" way too easily. Most of the players mentioned had a decent peak before going back to being average / below average but nothing close to world class.
Lingard and World Class in the same sentence is blasphemy
Lingard and World Class in the same sentence is blasphemy
Would probably throw Darren Fletcher into the mix.
Good squad player for Man. United like O'Shea, Park and the rest then became essential around 2008/09 and of course the harsh red that forced him out v Barca in the CL.
Then reverted back to squad player after although of course the bad illness didn't help. Was o.k for West Brom but past it at Stoke when they went down in 17/18.
Good squad player for Man. United like O'Shea, Park and the rest then became essential around 2008/09 and of course the harsh red that forced him out v Barca in the CL.
Then reverted back to squad player after although of course the bad illness didn't help. Was o.k for West Brom but past it at Stoke when they went down in 17/18.
Dani Guiza
Payet?
Payet?
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Nah, Arshavin was amazing for quite some time, it’s just he got international exposure a bit late. Probably not quite world class at 2005-2006, but close to it, and, obviously, hit an insane peak near 2008 before a drastic decline.
Can here to say this. Winner.
I would certainly give my shout to Danny drinkwater tbh.
Was bang average, had a good season with Leicester, and are now kicking down young boys at youth level.
Was bang average, had a good season with Leicester, and are now kicking down young boys at youth level.
I was literally just about to bring up Toto 'breaker of Irish hearts' Schillachi from Italia 90.
Fernando Llorente.
Alvaro Negredo.
Alvaro Negredo.
This bloke once winning Premier League player of the month:
Ok, I'm taking liberties with the world class tag, but he might well be the most legitimately average player mentioned so far and he certainly hit a nice bit of form.
Signed for Southampton in March 97, the same season that Ali Dia had played for them. This is the table on the 4th of April Southampton bottom with 1 win in their previous 10.
On April 5th, Evans comes off the bench to score twice in a 3-1 win away at Nottingham Forest. He and Southampton suddenly get good. They draw 1-1 with Derby, he scores in a 2-0 win against West Ham and again in a 2-2 draw against Coventry. By the 19th they're out of the relegation zone.
Southampton go on to win 2 of their final 3 matches too and survive by 1 point. Evans wins player of the month for April and those 4 goals he scored that month were the only top-flight goals of his career.
I've mentioned him before on here because I really like his story, proper Roy of the Rovers stuff.
Ok, I'm taking liberties with the world class tag, but he might well be the most legitimately average player mentioned so far and he certainly hit a nice bit of form.
Signed for Southampton in March 97, the same season that Ali Dia had played for them. This is the table on the 4th of April Southampton bottom with 1 win in their previous 10.
On April 5th, Evans comes off the bench to score twice in a 3-1 win away at Nottingham Forest. He and Southampton suddenly get good. They draw 1-1 with Derby, he scores in a 2-0 win against West Ham and again in a 2-2 draw against Coventry. By the 19th they're out of the relegation zone.
Southampton go on to win 2 of their final 3 matches too and survive by 1 point. Evans wins player of the month for April and those 4 goals he scored that month were the only top-flight goals of his career.
I've mentioned him before on here because I really like his story, proper Roy of the Rovers stuff.
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Fletcher didn't revert back to a squad player. He was still a mainstay in the team up until the illness, which nearly ended his career. He struggled to be fit enough to play and only managed to get on the pitch here and there in the four seasons after that.
He shouldn't be on this list.
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Danny Drinkwater.
Matter of fact, that Leicester team.
Matter of fact, that Leicester team.
Anyone remember Michael Ricketts? Played for Bolton and had a very good season during 2001/02. I seem to remember him getting an England call up too.
Demba Ba was world class against Slippy G. The way he nicked it and made the best out of slippy situation, you would think he had Ultra Instinct. Instant.
Aaron Lennon against Evra
Shinji Kagawa. Bundesliga player of the season prior to his transfer to United but failed to replicate that level during his time in England.
Mkhitaryan
Kezman
Roque Santa Cruz
Asamoah Gyan
Kezman
Roque Santa Cruz
Asamoah Gyan
Grafite the guy from Wolfsburg with Dzeko was amazing for one season.
Definitely not a single person mentioned here is world class, but here are players who had good spells at the top level of football but were mostly shit in their careers.
Michu
Zeki (sp)
Sully Muntari
Payet
Van der Vaart
Michu
Zeki (sp)
Sully Muntari
Payet
Van der Vaart
Alex Manninger to stay on a similar theme to my Mickey Evans post.
Came in for an injured David Seaman at a key point in the 97/98 season and kept 6 clean sheets in a row, helping Arsenal to the title. Was given special dispensation to be given a league winner's medal as you usually had to play 10 games at that time and he only played 7 by the end of the season. Won player of the month for March '98 and played very well. Spent most of his career as a backup goalie at various clubs and also managed to pick up a Serie A title with Juventus in that capacity.
Came in for an injured David Seaman at a key point in the 97/98 season and kept 6 clean sheets in a row, helping Arsenal to the title. Was given special dispensation to be given a league winner's medal as you usually had to play 10 games at that time and he only played 7 by the end of the season. Won player of the month for March '98 and played very well. Spent most of his career as a backup goalie at various clubs and also managed to pick up a Serie A title with Juventus in that capacity.
That name reminds me of another striker who had a brief peak around the ssme time- Marcus Stewart.
Smalling. Say what you want about his overall game, but as a pure defender under Van Gaal and Mourinho's first season he'd go on 10 game stretches where he looked unstoppable until an injury happened either to him or his CB partner.
Van der Vaart? Are you serious? Payet, too, had several great seasons.
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Shouldn't Mutu be till the drugs kicked in?
Ipswich player?
Where?
Balotelli?
A fantastic talent that hadn't even came close to fulfilling his potential. Had his debut for Inter at the age of 17 (and it was a great Inter side), became their youngest ever CL goalscorer, at the age of 22 assisted Agüero with the title-winning goal & knocked out Germany out of the Euros semi-finals with a brace... eventually, the amount of stupid things that he did overcame his natural talent, but he really has nothing to do with this thread's criteria.
Michu but injuries.
Papiss Cissé was completely insane when he just came to the Premier League in the winter of 2011/12 season. 13 goals in 14 games, scored a brace against Liverpool & Chelsea, scored against Spurs.. including that goal. Newcastle genuinely had one of the most threatening attacks in the league with Cisse and Ba for half a season. You can probably include his 2010/11 Bundesliga season with 22 goals in 32 games — he never came anywhere close to that level before or after that short spell.
Van der Vaart was a star in the Netherlands, was a star for Hamburg (why do you think Real signed him?) and at Spurs he had a good period as well. He also won over 100 caps for the Dutch NT. "shit player with a purple patch" indeed...
I won't pretend to be a close follower of Ligue 1 or Payet, but I remember him posting some ridiculous numbers for Lille and for OM, before joining West Ham, where I guess he gained most of his fame. After his return to France he also played his part in OM's EL final run.
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Papiss Cisse, when he arrived at Newcastle and had an absolutely outrageous first 6 months and scored like 10 + goals including a few worldies. I remember thinking they had uncovered a star but then he barely scored again the following season.
Edit: damn, @harms got in ahead of me
Edit: damn, @harms got in ahead of me
Yeah. Only Mahrez, Kasper and Vardy were at elite level. The others were...one season wonder.
Can you imagine, Morgan and Huth in your premier league winning squad?
Would Kanchelskis fall in to this bracket?
Being pedantic most players being mentioned in this thread were usually good/very good players not average imo. Granted it would probably be tough to find someone everyone agreed was never good outside of a short run of form.
Some i think are getting sold short due to their time in England like Yeboah, Rosicky and Arshavin.
Yeboah was very good highly talented forward for years in Germany before he moved to Leeds and scored great goals, but from what i've heard was a party animal that eventually became injury prone. Rosicky was a talent from his early CL performances with Sparta Prague then had 4-5 strong years in Dortmund and continuing great performances for Czech rep in that time. He then had a very inconsistent time due to injuries after the Arsenal move.
Arshavin hit a high level very quickly and kept it going from about 2002-09 with a peak from about 2004-09. However he was never the most dedicated of players and wasted a lot of time by moving abroad late. It's not surprising that someone not keeping themselves in consistent great shape starts to decline quickly at circa 29-30. we see it with various top players every generation, even among those that are dedicated the body sometimes just goes down a few levels at that age. I think when Russia fecked up the 2010 world cup playoff against Slovenia on away goals, he checked out of living the lifestyle needed to do well over a long period of time at high level club, especially the most physical league of the time.I t wasn't much surprise to me when he briefly got back into better shape in the run up to Euro 2012 and played very well there (despite the team getting trolled by a classic Greece 25% possession, 3 shots on goal backs to the wall performance)
Injuries and in the latter case not enough dedication was these players downfall, not having average talent but being able to briefly punch above that.
I'd nominate Oleg Salenko for his 93/94 la liga season where he played some excellent football for a weak Logrones team and scored as many as Stoichkov, Mijatovic and Bebeto managed in the league that year, quite a few of them great goals. That got him a move to Valencia, but never played nearly as well before or since. He also had the 6 goals at the WC that year which will keep his name alive for historians and football nerds from that era.
Probably better than just average, yet Pierluigi Casiraghi was a player i thought had very few obvious strengths despite several seasons at Juventus, who then had a couple of very good seasons with Lazio during mid-90s. Most of the time a very wasteful forward from the games i've watched him in. Italians that watched him more might disagree though.
Some i think are getting sold short due to their time in England like Yeboah, Rosicky and Arshavin.
Yeboah was very good highly talented forward for years in Germany before he moved to Leeds and scored great goals, but from what i've heard was a party animal that eventually became injury prone. Rosicky was a talent from his early CL performances with Sparta Prague then had 4-5 strong years in Dortmund and continuing great performances for Czech rep in that time. He then had a very inconsistent time due to injuries after the Arsenal move.
Arshavin hit a high level very quickly and kept it going from about 2002-09 with a peak from about 2004-09. However he was never the most dedicated of players and wasted a lot of time by moving abroad late. It's not surprising that someone not keeping themselves in consistent great shape starts to decline quickly at circa 29-30. we see it with various top players every generation, even among those that are dedicated the body sometimes just goes down a few levels at that age. I think when Russia fecked up the 2010 world cup playoff against Slovenia on away goals, he checked out of living the lifestyle needed to do well over a long period of time at high level club, especially the most physical league of the time.I t wasn't much surprise to me when he briefly got back into better shape in the run up to Euro 2012 and played very well there (despite the team getting trolled by a classic Greece 25% possession, 3 shots on goal backs to the wall performance)
Injuries and in the latter case not enough dedication was these players downfall, not having average talent but being able to briefly punch above that.
I'd nominate Oleg Salenko for his 93/94 la liga season where he played some excellent football for a weak Logrones team and scored as many as Stoichkov, Mijatovic and Bebeto managed in the league that year, quite a few of them great goals. That got him a move to Valencia, but never played nearly as well before or since. He also had the 6 goals at the WC that year which will keep his name alive for historians and football nerds from that era.
Probably better than just average, yet Pierluigi Casiraghi was a player i thought had very few obvious strengths despite several seasons at Juventus, who then had a couple of very good seasons with Lazio during mid-90s. Most of the time a very wasteful forward from the games i've watched him in. Italians that watched him more might disagree though.
Charlie Adam for about 18 months, first in the Championship and then EPL, tailed off in the 2nd half of 10/11 as Blackpool got relegated, got a move to Scouseland and was shite ever since.
No imo. I was more of an Igor Korneev ( a lazy wasted talent) fan in the early 90s for the right side of the national team, but Kanchelskis was a noted talent since winning the 1990 under-21 Euro against a highly talented Yugoslav side with Boban, Prosinecki, Suker, Boksic, Mijatovic etc in the team. Injuries ruined Kanchelskis when he moved to Fiorentina. He came back early from a knee and ankle injury after a hilariously mistimed Taribo West tackle to play in the Russia vs Italy World cup 98 playoff on a pitch that might be the worst ever seen in a high level international game of my lifetime. A collision there with Pagliuca wrecked his knee and he played on for a while causing even more damage. Was never the same player after that.
Kanté was arguably the best of the lot.