'Forgotten' Ex-United Players

[Waldner]

Who have you come across in the past that made you think 'Oh he used to play for United!'?

I was at a pre-season friendly today (Barnet vs MK Dons) and the Dons had both Luke Chadwick and Alan Smith in their team - Chadwick was actually the better player surprisingly! Smith looked an absolute shadow of his past self and failed to trouble a non-league defence. Such a shame to think that 7 years ago he was playing in a Champions League Semi-Final! One of the prime examples of how injuries can slowly ruin a career.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Injuries or trying to convert a striker into a CM? half joking.

 

[Donaldo]

Who have you come across in the past that made you think 'Oh he used to play for United!'?

I was at a pre-season friendly today (Barnet vs MK Dons) and the Dons had both Luke Chadwick and Alan Smith in their team - Chadwick was actually the better player surprisingly! Smith looked an absolute shadow of his past self and failed to trouble a non-league defence. Such a shame to think that 7 years ago he was playing in a Champions League Semi-Final! One of the prime examples of how injuries can slowly ruin a career.

Smith is possibly the worst professional footballer I've seen live.

 

[lem8sh]

Smith is possibly the worst professional footballer I've seen live.

He was never that bad

 

[pauldyson1uk]

Smith is possibly the worst professional footballer I've seen live.

OH please, you have to be taking the piss.

 

[Waldner]

Smith is possibly the worst professional footballer I've seen live.

I doubt that very much! He wasn't a bad player at all. It was a shame to see him struggling today though, I was really excited to see his name on the back of the programme.

 

[Donaldo]

Relax, it's a personal opinion. I saw him at SJP on a few occasions when injuries had probably had their say and he was just quietly picking up his cheque.

Terrible terrible player then.

 

[alastair]

Anyone who has seen Grant Holt play live will tell you that Alan Smith was gold in comparison.

 

[lysglimt]

Anyone who has seen Grant Holt play live will tell you that Alan Smith was gold in comparison.

At least Grant Holt could score goals - his strike-rate for Norwich was about 70 in 160 games

Alan Smith never managed 50 goals in his career

 

[rcoobc]

My mate saw Wes Brown in LA the other week.

I feel like when one-club United players are here at the age of 28, we should give them tenure. O'Shea, Brown, Neville, Butt would be around then.

 

[rcoobc]

Silvestre and Barthez were both pretty forgettable. Both came in at the end of one great United team, and left before the start of the next great United team.

Or something like that anyway.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Not really sure what happened with Luke Chadwick, I remember him as a revelation in his first season. There was a book in WH Smith at the time 100 best United players of all time & they put in Luke at No. 100 because his potential seemed so great in that breakthrough season & he was such an exciting player to watch. Next thing we know he comes on as a sub & gets substituted 20 mins, or whatever, later never to be seen again.

Remind me again what went wrong? Was it simply that he was just too ugly to play for a team with Beckham & Giggs in it? He's looks pretty normal these days to be fair to him.

 

[rcoobc]

O'Shea looked better than Ronaldo at left back (O'Shea not Ronaldo) in his first few games from what I remember.

I can never find the video online though.

 

[Moriarty]

Silvestre and Barthez were both pretty forgettable. Both came in at the end of one great United team, and before the start of the next great United team.

Or something like that anyway.

Tweety was all right but Barthez was never my favourite goalie.

 

[nimic]

I quite liked both Silvestre and Barthez, actually, while still being somewhat content with them leaving. I adored Wes Brown, but much the same with him.

It actually dawned on me the other day (that is, I remembered, I obviously knew it from before) that Henke Larsson played half a season for us. That was pretty weird. Scored a goal or two, too.

 

[gormless]

Chris Eagles. Scored a goal against Everton once

 

[Stack]

At least Grant Holt could score goals - his strike-rate for Norwich was about 70 in 160 games

Alan Smith never managed 50 goals in his career

Hard to compare Holt to Smith in goal scoring terms as Holt has played his career as a striker and Smith hasnt.
Alan Smith spent big chunks of his career being moved around. At Leeds he was initially a striker but because of his versatility he got pushed from one position to another. Same deal with us to a certain extent. He scored goals when he was allowed to play as a striker but I would bet he only got to play that position for about 1/4th of his time at Leeds and with us. I think he scored about 70 goals in his career. Not really a bad return for a player who spent 3/4 of his career in midfield or doing utility jobs despite the fact everyone thinks he spent his career playing as a striker.

 

[Baxter]

Chris Eagles. Scored a goal against Everton once

That 4-2 game. One of my favourite United games. Lovely curling goal right at the end.

Jonathan Spector. Scored 2 against us in that 4-0 loss. Bebertan on the wings.

 

[duffer]

I bet not many of you remember the promising talent that was Gary Overton. A mate of mine swore he was the new Robson.

 

[sglowrider]

Gary Birttle

 

[SharkyMcShark]

I do like to keep tabs on our cadre of unfulfilled cheap foreign forwards - Forlan, Obertan, Dong, Bellion, Manucho, Diouf (Bebe?)

 

[Wittmann45]

That 4-2 game. One of my favourite United games. Lovely curling goal right at the end.

Jonathan Spector. Scored 2 against us in that 4-0 loss. Bebertan on the wings.

Yep, lovely day that turned out to be. United beat Everton after being 2-0 down and Chelsea drew with Bolton. Phillip with an OG too

Eagles run onto the ball was comical as well, looked like a new born baby horse just out of the womb. That finish was special though

 

[Wittmann45]

Lee Martin the winger, not the left back

Remember David Jones, the man who was too be the next great United midfielder? I was watching Zaha against Blackburn last season and he was playing for them. Also, Bentley was back playing for Blackburn, well, he was on the bench

Also Ritchie Jones, who seems to be on trial at some random MLS club in the states

Finally:

Possebon! Playing in the 4th tier of the Brazilian league now. I thought he might have had a chance at United, shows how wrong I was

 

[1211+subs]

Anyone old enough to see Alan Foggon play for United would probably put him in top 3 worst ever buys. IMHO

 

[SharkyMcShark]

Things that I know that I know, yet forget for a while, and then am amazed when I re-remember:

Kleberson was in the Brazil 2010 World Cup squad

 

[Van Piorsing]

Son of Cruyff. Won treble in such invisible style but still I think it was a cool idea to approach Barcelona and give him a chance.

 

[No11]

Gary Birttle

Birtles and Davenport.
Peter Barnes was another strange one.

 

[fen4e]

Watching the CL Qualifier of Ludogorets (BUL) and Partizan (SRB).

Eric Djemba-djemba just came in as a sub in the 67' min for Partizan.

Got yellow carded after 3 min of play.

 

[Carl]

Lee Martin the winger, not the left back

Remember David Jones, the man who was too be the next great United midfielder? I was watching Zaha against Blackburn last season and he was playing for them. Also, Bentley was back playing for Blackburn, well, he was on the bench

Also Ritchie Jones, who seems to be on trial at some random MLS club in the states

Finally:

Possebon! Playing in the 4th tier of the Brazilian league now. I thought he might have had a chance at United, shows how wrong I was

You weren't far wrong IMO. Pogatetz(sp?) is the reason he's playing at such a low standard, not hos ability. He was close to breaking through to a regular bench place IMO.

 

[B20]

I remember my dad trying to argue that Alan Smith was more talented than Robbie Fowler, back in his Leeds days.

I laughed.

 

[Cutch]

You weren't far wrong IMO. Pogatetz(sp?) is the reason he's playing at such a low standard, not hos ability. He was close to breaking through to a regular bench place IMO.

Was a bad tackle, but it wasn't even a break, just badly bruised. If he couldn't come back from that then he was never gonna be cut out to play at a high level.

 

[gerrydaly]

Anyone old enough to see Alan Foggon play for United would probably put him in top 3 worst ever buys. IMHO

Yep. About the same time we signed Colin Waldron from Burnley. 76-77 season.

 

[thegregster]

Anthony Tohill-famous in Ireland for playing Galeic football. Had a trial which included playing a game in the reserves at CB.

 

[Crackers]

Anthony Tohill-famous in Ireland for playing Galeic football. Had a trial which included playing a game in the reserves at CB.

Sorry to have to point it out, but it's actually called Gaelic football. Gae as in Gay and lic as in well, lick.

 

[vanthaman]

Things that I know that I know, yet forget for a while, and then am amazed when I re-remember:

Kleberson was in the Brazil 2010 World Cup squad

I had completely forgotten that too, at first I thought you'd written 2010 instead of 2002

 

[Grinner]

I dunno why but I always recall an ITV commentator going on about Maiorana as the next big thing when he played against us.

 

[thegregster]

Sorry to have to point it out, but it's actually called Gaelic football. Gae as in Gay and lic as in well, lick.

It was a typo.

 

[Crackers]

It was a typo. I am from Ireland.

Oh..
No worries so!


Sorry if I sound like a condescending prick.

 

[ricky-romeo]

chadwick actually look good when he made his breakthrough into the first team. his pace was quite terrifying. remember he got his number changed from 40 something to 15 then. he then got injured and had a surgery thus lost his speed which ended his united career. i used him quite frequently in CM 2001/02 as well!

from time to time i'll google ex united players, especially those from the youth setup, such as bojan djordjic, mads timm etc just to know what they are doing right now. not to forget dong as well.

 

[.Rossi]

Simon Davis