Players you wrote off early in their careers?

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
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Which players did you write off almost immediately?

How much satisfaction did you get when you could tell people how right you were?

Has your foresight led to any oppurtunities?
 

devilish

Juventus fan who used to support United
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The legend himself Paddy McNair. I come from a generation who were raised up watching the likes of Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi play. Paddy was the polar opposite of those players.
 

Steve Bruce

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My uncle is a big Liverpool fan and my best mate and during the 90s until recently I had a bundle of players I wrote off immediately for them.

Andy Carroll, Ryan Babel, smicer, markovic, so many youth players it would take me all day to write down. Most recent was Keita.

My predictions at the moment is Elliot won't make it at Liverpool and he'll be at a lower premier league side by 25 latest as well as Nunez and Gakpo will be flops.

For United I predicted a few players but never had satisfaction of being right, I get more satisfaction being wrong.

In saying that I've made predictions about Liverpool players and United players and been wrong. I really thought Adnan was going to be a superstar and after his first season I wouldn't have swapped him for Coutinho. Well I got that spectacularly wrong.
 

BuzzKillington

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Park Ji Sung, I was pretty sure we’d signed him for the merch opportunities, we ended up getting a great player.

Edit: Seems I misunderstood the brief and thought this was about when they subsequently proved you wrong.
 
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KirkDuyt

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Lisandro Martinez. Surely I'll be right any day now :nervous:

I actually secretly thought Antony would be amazing.

It's like these cnuts prove me wrong just to spite me
 

RaddyRed

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Harry Kane. In his break through season with Spurs we were linked and I was dead against it. Thought he looked a donkey.


Loads of satisfaction as I pretend I never said that


Strangely led to no opportunities yet.
 

Pickle85

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Harry Kane. In his break through season with Spurs we were linked and I was dead against it. Thought he looked a donkey.


Loads of satisfaction as I pretend I never said that


Strangely led to no opportunities yet.
I thought for about three heavy scoring Kane seasons that he was just on the longest ever recorded purple patch. Turns out he's actually quite good.
 

dove

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Most of our youngsters coming through in the last 15 years. I would say my hit rate is > 95%.
 

Remember the geese

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Harry Kane. In his break through season with Spurs we were linked and I was dead against it. Thought he looked a donkey.
Kane for me too. I could see that he was playing well for Spurs during his breakout, but I dismissed it for a short while and played the percentages. I assumed that a player with no real hype or previous success on any of his loans was suddenly going to explode into this World Class player.

As for a success story, a bit obvious perhaps, but it was very apparent to me that Paul Pogba at 16, was going to be a quality player. I would tell my Gooner mate that we had a player in our academy who was going to be better than the golden child at the time, Jack Wilshere.
 

Skills

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McNair
Blackett
McTominay

Admittedly i fecked up my call on Kane though
 

Ayoba

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Harry Kane. In his break through season with Spurs we were linked and I was dead against it. Thought he looked a donkey.

Aye same here. I thought he'd be another James Beattie, a one season wonder.
 

tenpoless

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Now that I think about it... I dont think I have ever written off a player until their third season at the club. I even got excited with players like McNair, Fonsu Mensah and Brandon Williams.
 

Uniquim

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I'll focus on the some of ones I was wrong about:

Wasn't even that early in his career, but I wrote off Kasper Schmeichel quite early. Both when he joined Leeds (didn't watch any of their games tho), and when he joined Leicester. He had been on loan for ages, and dumped down the leagues when he left City. Thought he was signed mainly for his name, but turned out to be a brilliant signing for Leicester in the end.

Gabigol after his intial time at Inter, and failure at Benfica, but then he found form again with Santos, then came to Flamengo. Now he's one of my favorite players to watch. Think he'd do better in Europe now then when he was young.

Ron-Robert Zieler. Thought he was a dud once he left for Germany, and started playing for Hannover's 2nd team. He had previously had a loan at Northampton and hardly played, so thought he'd disappear down the divisions, but he went on to make a pretty good career for himself in Germany, and even played for the national team.

Probably lots more.
 

pacifictheme

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I wouldn't say wrote them off but I certainly thought salah would do very little at Liverpool.
 

FrankWhite

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Lisandro Martinez. Surely I'll be right any day now :nervous:

I actually secretly thought Antony would be amazing.

It's like these cnuts prove me wrong just to spite me
Antony can still be amazing. Give it time :) . My prediction was that it'll take 9 to 18 months to start showing elite talent. I still stick by it.
 

Siorac

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I never saw any talent in McTominay. He just didn't seem to have... it.
 

Jev

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I think I was wrong about Darren Fletcher, if I remember correctly. Thought he would be more like a Darron Gibson or a McTominay, who I also both wrote off early.

I have more of the other, though, players I thought would be absolute stars who didn't turn out that way. Thought Cleverley would become top-class for us, and Dele Alli was a future world-class player. Anderson as well. Also had exceptionally high hopes for Martial but in that case I still believe the talent was immense, just never really materialized for a variety of reasons.
 

gormless

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I think I was wrong about Darren Fletcher, if I remember correctly. Thought he would be more like a Darron Gibson or a McTominay, who I also both wrote off early.

I have more of the other, though, players I thought would be absolute stars who didn't turn out that way. Thought Cleverley would become top-class for us, and Dele Alli was a future world-class player. Anderson as well. Also had exceptionally high hopes for Martial but in that case I still believe the talent was immense, just never really materialized for a variety of reasons.
To be fair, Fletcher was stuck on the wing early in his career, it didn’t suit him at all and he looked awful. Fair assessment to make at the time
 

Red_Heisenberg

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Rafael. When we first signed him I thought his talent and a young age would see him progress into the worlds best.

Rafael was a decent player, but hit nowhere near the heights I expected.
 

paulscholes18

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Iwobi, may have been his first start for Arsenal I said he he didn't look any good, but IIRC he got given MOTM.
Think it's safe to say he's proved me right.
 

dinostar77

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Antony, came to utd as a one footed, one dimensional player. Now in 2025, hes a two footed world beater.
 

Judas

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Pepe to Arsenal. This place was going bonkers over him, but it was obvious before he even made the move he wasn’t anywhere near the level or standard required.
 

RedRonaldo

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Saka. Not exactly writing him off, but I remember I was so mad back then when Southgate keep playing him in Euro and benching Sancho.

He is now my favourite young player in England.