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

Since the thread clearly says average players that went through a world-class patch...

O'Shea. Looked the LB of the future in 2003. Perhaps fans went OTT on his 2002-03 performances.
 
Has someone mentioned Adnan Januzaj already? Looked like the real deal for a couple of months under Moyes and was probably the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy season.

Does Mario Gotze qualify for this too? Was touted as the next Messi (or at least the German Messi) and had a spectacular fall from grace after his Bayern move. I will never forget the sight of him scoring the World Cup winner against Argentina.
 
Back when Hoffenheim first played in the Bundesliga, Ibisevic looked incredible for the first half of their season, scoring 18 goals before the winter break.
While being a solid player afterwards, he never came close to these few months.
 
HTG said:
Back when Hoffenheim first played in the Bundesliga, Ibisevic looked incredible for the first half of their season, scoring 18 goals before the winter break.
While being a solid player afterwards, he never came close to these few months.
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That's a great shout, it reminded me Grafite who had that one season.
 
harms said:
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.

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For once, a Youtube thumbnail may actually be right with that goal.
 
Mindhunter said:
Has someone mentioned Adnan Januzaj already? Looked like the real deal for a couple of months under Moyes and was probably the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy season.
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Because everyone else had decided to give up quite early. And this kid wasn't in on the joke.
 
Our own Angelo Henriquez scored 30 goals in 37 matches on loan for Dinamo Zagreb. They bought him and he went back to scoring 11, 2 and 9 in three seasons
 
Can't be bothered sifting through the first 4 pages but if Ramsay isn't on there I'll be horrified.
 
Fabio Grosso was regarded as one of the top leftbecks in the world for one season.
Alex Song had fantastic season before he left to Barca.
Ron Vlaar looked like Maldini reincarnation during 2014 World Cup.
 
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He's not "average" but Firmino is never hitting his 17/18 numbers ever again

27 goals in all comp. He's never even scored 20 for Liverpool before or after that season.
 
First player that comes to mind is Gabbiadini who was at Southampton. Looked like a superstar for about three months, only to disappear into obscurity since.
 
Diego is another one. Looked unstoppable during his time at Bremen. Moved to Juve and never recaptured his form.
Milos Krasic was similar, I think.
 
HTG said:
Diego is another one. Looked unstoppable during his time at Bremen. Moved to Juve and never recaptured his form.
Milos Krasic was similar, I think.
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He only looked good at Bremen. He totally sucked in the PT league before. He was basically a loosing possession machine :D
 
André Dominguez said:
He only looked good at Bremen. He totally sucked in the PT league before. He was basically a loosing possession machine :D
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He seemed to recapture some form at Atletico I think. He was such a talented player but never fulfilled his potential
 
Klopper76 said:
Ipswich player?
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Yeah a championship striker who got promoted with Ipswich then had a wildly productive season helping them to a 5th place finish. Relegated the following season.
 
Irrational. said:
With Dele Alli being left out of the squad altogether against Leicester today, it got me thinking: this man was destined for greatness. I remember him being seen as the best English talent in years - and when he had that amazing 20 goal season we had posters like @GlastonSpur saying he was better than Pogba. He was considered to be unpurchasable in the same way that Kane currently is.

Since then his career has taken a nosedive and he can't get a game for love nor money. When he does play he looks very average.

Are there any other players who were amazing for a period of time, and then returned back to being completely average?
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Correction: I said he showed more potential at that age than did Pogba at the same age.
 
James Rodriguez, that World Cup he was class, was decent at times after but never hit that level again.
 
Mendieta is definitely the example that stands out, genuinely world class for a time. Before and after that period he was just good.
 
Amauri looked like a world class mix of Drogba and Ibra for two years at Palermo and Juve and then returned to being a relegation team level striker.
 
JPRouve said:
Stats say nothing. Payet has been the same inconsistent player since his last years at Saint Etienne, he has never been world class.
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His last season in France and his first season in the prem it would be hard to find many players consistently performing at the level he was.
 
mancan92 said:
His last season in France and his first season in the prem it would be hard to find many players consistently performing at the level he was.
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His last season in France before joining the PL wasn't different to his last with Lille and his season with West Ham wasn't different to his 17/18 season with Marseille who are also not different to his last season with Saint Etienne. Payet is consistently inconsistent, he plays at his best level every other seasons.
 
The mention of Grafite reminds me of Zvjezdan Misimovic, who was the playmaker and imo most important player on that Wolfsburg team, the one that really made everything work. He'd been a Bayern Munich failure (not sure if he even got into the main team at all) in early '00s then mostly inconsistent for a few seasons at Bochum and Nurnberg before moving to Wolfsburg. There he was outstanding in his passing and dictating of games with a record 20 assist season (de Bruyne broke it by one a few years later also for Wolfsburg) as they won the league title and had 15 in the follow up season.

However, after two excellent seasons that seemed to establish him as one of the premier midfielders in the league, he moved to Galatasaray where he barely played (might have been off-field issues here tbf) and then on to Dinamo Moscow where he was just solid before moving again for the money in China.

I wouldn't say he was an average player talent-wise, but his club career other than Wolfsburg was distinctly mediocre.
 
JPRouve said:
Stats say nothing. Payet has been the same inconsistent player since his last years at Saint Etienne, he has never been world class.
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I think he was world class for a 3 year period in which the world was celebrating him.
 
arthurka said:
Denílson. Went for world record transfer fee to shit in a matter of months.
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Jackson Martinez was pretty good with Porto and useless the minute Atletico purchased him. I think that it happened in the plane to Madrid.
 
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