Average players who went through a world-class patch, then returned back to being average

[gormless]

This is a strange one but Adebayor. He wasn't bad either side of his 30 goal season in 2007-08 but never hit those heights again.

He was excellent that year. Really should have been consistently world class, he had all the attributes. I know some put it down to the bus attack in Togo.

My choice would be Jermaine Jenas. In 2008 he had a 3 month period where he was genuinely playing like prime Kaka. Ended up being selected in the England team for Capello's first game, scoring, and then went back to being Jermaine Jenas

 

[killerboi2]

Jelavic (had to look up his name because I couldn't remember) ... Couldn't stop scoring at Everton for half a season and people thought he was gonna be the next big thing, then went back to being average the next season.

 

[Cascarino]

Arshavin. Had a brilliant game against Holland at Euro 2008, started really brightly at Arsenal, put 4 past Liverpool at Anfield, and then just faded.

 

[hellhunter]

Cleverley and Anderson pivot.

 

[G-MUFC]

Di Maria - looked world class in the first few games for us. Then the weather turned cold and his house got robbed so he stopped trying and wanted to immediately leave.

Jack Wiltshire is a player that springs to mind. He's now 28 and he should be in the peak of his career but he's a free agent. He looked a very tidy player when he was younger.

 

[JSArsenal]

He was excellent that year. Really should have been consistently world class, he had all the attributes. I know some put it down to the bus attack in Togo.

My choice would be Jermaine Jenas. In 2008 he had a 3 month period where he was genuinely playing like prime Kaka. Ended up being selected in the England team for Capello's first game, scoring, and then went back to being Jermaine Jenas

I'd agree with that. In fact I'll throw Flamini and Rosicky onto the list as well. They were both great in 07/08. Adebayor had all the tools to be a great PL striker but he didn't have the mentality. The next season he was caught offside out of sheer laziness so many times. It was a sharp and starling regression.

Spurs used to be a real black hole for talent back in the day.

 

[Gopher Brown]

Cleverley and Anderson pivot.

3 games doesn’t count. Unless it does.

 

[gormless]

I'd agree with that. In fact I'll throw Flamini and Rosicky onto the list as well. They were both great in 07/08. Adebayor had all the tools to be a great PL striker but he didn't have the mentality. The next season he was caught offside out of sheer laziness so many times. It was a sharp and starling regression.

Spurs used to be a real black hole for talent back in the day.

I would swap Rosicky for Hleb. Hleb was excellent in that season, best dribbler in the league, then he went to Barca and just sort of disappeared.

That Eduardo leg break really did ruin the mentality of that Arsenal team, and potentially led to a decade of general poor performance. Until Feb/March in 08 Arsenal were United's main competitors, and weren't that far removed from the winning mentality they used to have.

 

[Silverman]

Mutu arrived and was on fire. Then the drugs wore off.

William Prunier (one match).

Pissed myself laughing at these

 

[Sleigh]

Who is the Newcastle player that score worldies impossible goals, world class even?

I recall he even pulled one vs Chelsea, that impress Drogba so much he applauded it.

Harem Ben Arfa?

 

[The White Pele]

Papiss Cisse at Newcastle.

Dusan Tadic at Ajax.

 

[JSArsenal]

Harem Ben Arfa?

Papiss Cisse I think. Who was the midfielder they used to have that got some plaudits? Chiekh Tiote?

 

[Web of Bissaka]

World class strikes.
He's not exactly an average player, as he has an impressive goals/appearances per season before, but at PL level, it's average->WC->average.

Cheers to the posters who helped me remember his name.

 

[el3mel]

Amr Zaki was amazing for about half a season.

As an Egyptian I will tell you Zaki was really a pretty good player but his dogshite mentality fecked up his career completely.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Cleverley and Anderson pivot.

Spot on!

 

[Champagne Football]

Stephen Ireland - looked like the new Scholes for 2 seasons before becoming utter shite soon after

Tony Yeboah

Fellaini for a while at Everton looked unplayable

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Wes Morgan & Rob Huth were very average defenders who had 1 colossal season.

That's true.

 

[Green_Red]

Saviola for Barca.
Dos Santos too, he was a hot prospect wasn't he.
Lots and lots of players that fit this description.

 

[GMok]

Michu, considering his steep decline. He went from PL top-bracker scorer to playing in 4th division.

 

[MU655]

Arsenal have had a few: Arshavin, Rosisky, Wilshire, Hleb (disappeared at Barcelona, but thought he was good at Arsenal)

 

[thatsme]

For two seasons Mata was brilliant at Chelsea, but then Jose went back there and ruined him and was never remotely as good from that point on.

 

[Lee565]

Anelka, daniel Sturridge.

 

[gormless]

Scott Mctominay.

 

[ReallyUSA]

Payet

McTominay

 

[Jam]

Cisse and Ba had some incredible months at Newcastle, then both dropped a few levels.

I may be under-rating, but didn’t Benni(y?) McCarthy have an absolute world class spell before reverting back to a (decent) mid-table striker.

Then there’s the likes of Zaki/Michu/Mido etc, 3 months wonders.

 

[WeePat]

Jelavic bulldozed everything in his way for about 6 months at Everton.

I didn't know much about Diego Milito prior to signing for Inter but that man was an absolute pest the season they won the treble.

 

[paulscholes18]

Papiss Cisse
Michu
Santa-Cruz
Benteke
Micheal Johnson
Harry Winks

 

[Albin Johansson]

That period when lingard was scoring bangers for us (and England). If i recall it correct he once came in late vs Chelsea and headed one in that won us the game, and it just felt that he was a special game changing player. Weirdly I can't even say what he did better at that time, it just seemed like he had an amazing output on his quite limited attributes.

 

[LARulz]

He was amazing there. Enough to impress SAF.

And Bayern

 

[rcoobc]

Aaron Ramsey obviously.

For a really weird period, he was arguably the best midfielder in the world.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

Owen Hargreaves

 

[SAFMUTD]

Michu in that season wonder for Swansea, Payet had one amazing season for Westham where it seems every set piece he took was a goal.

Fernando Torres for Liverpool, it wasnt that he became average but we was unstoppable for them and as soon as he went to Chelsea it just wasn't the same worldclass player anymore.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Its very hard to draw the line sometimes. It could be a great player with very short peak and went shite afterwards, or average player with purple patch of great form which only last for a while...it really depends on how you rate the player

There have been quite a lot of those players with very short peak though:

Adriano
Denilson
Pato
De la Pena
Quaresma
Anelka
Mendieta
Kevin Phillips
Micah Richards
Adebayor
Joe Cole
Wilshere
Walcott
Anderson
Phil Jones
Janujai
Lingard
Asensio
Isco
Bernado Silva

If you judge players by their talents to decide whether he is just an average player with purple patch or great player with short peak, then how do you define someone like Anderson? Apparently he has won the golden boy before, a very talented player in the beginning, but he has a very shite career.

 

[sokol11]

Martial?

 

[abundance]

Adriano was such a sad story.
Poor soul slid into a very serious clinical depression after the sudden death of his beloved father.
Didn't train, didn't sleep, drank A LOT.
Couldn't be arsed about anything in life anymore, he basically stopped even trying to pretend he was a footballer before 23.

Götze too, much less dramatic but still very sad; after a long dip in form it was discovered he suffered from a rare metabolic illness that caused chronic muscle fatigue and weight gain. Very hard to stay afloat in modern football with such condition.

 

[B20]

Lee Bowyer

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Martial. But his WC period was four games.

 

[hasanejaz88]

Mhikitaryan is the epitome of this for me.

He always gets brought up when people talk about BL players not doing well in the EPL but he was average/poor for his first two seasons at Dortmund and then had a single world class season in 15/16. Since then though he has continued on his previous Dortmund season level of being average and poor, though he's become better at AS Roma this season.

His weak mentality made him an average player.

 

[Foxbatt]

Owen Hargreaves

His injuries ended his career.

 

[Red00012]

Lingard comes to mind - he had that one sensational run of games a few seasons back

He’s young he can still be world class again