I may have ever so briefly entertained the thought that just maybe Pogba for Mina, Gomes + cash was a good deal...
What is the most delusional thing you have ever heard or said yourself?
- Thread starter IRELANDUNITED
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I once said that Tyler Blackett was a Yaya Toure regen.
Chelsea wise
I thought AVB was going to develop into one of the greatest managers ever and my excitement when we got him even trumped Mourinho the first time.
I thought Scott Sinclair would be our Ryan Giggs, was even relatively calm about Robben going because it "freed up a space for him".
General Football wise
The U21 Euro's of 2007 had me convinced De Ridder, Drenthe and Ryan Babel would all become superstars.
I thought it was written in the stars for Ivory Coast to do a Greece in the 2014 world cup.
I got a lot wrong in the past but i think that's as far as my embarrassing predictions go at this moment thankfully.
I thought AVB was going to develop into one of the greatest managers ever and my excitement when we got him even trumped Mourinho the first time.
I thought Scott Sinclair would be our Ryan Giggs, was even relatively calm about Robben going because it "freed up a space for him".
General Football wise
The U21 Euro's of 2007 had me convinced De Ridder, Drenthe and Ryan Babel would all become superstars.
I thought it was written in the stars for Ivory Coast to do a Greece in the 2014 world cup.
I got a lot wrong in the past but i think that's as far as my embarrassing predictions go at this moment thankfully.
"Don't worry, I won't be out too late tonight "
I said James Wilson would end up better than Harry Kane. Granted this was before Kane hit the heights he’s at at the moment, and before it became known how injury prone the former was.
I think everyone has made a lot of wrong assumptions about players:
Regarding United:
I thought Liam Miller would do well for us
I thought Ben Foster would be our new regular goalkeeper
I once rated Tom Cleverley as a player who never would make it at United (Which he kinda did)
I also believed in Moyes (and Fellaini)
I still believe in both Jones and Lukaku
I was really sceptical about VNL - that's the one thing Mourinho got right.
I lost faith in DDG after that Blackburn howler (2-3 goal) on new years eve I Think it was.
But I also did get it right a few times
I thought RvN would be World-class from the first time I saw clips of him on Eurosport
I never believed in Mourinho
As an United-18 player I questioned Welbeck simply because he didn't score enough.
Regarding United:
I thought Liam Miller would do well for us
I thought Ben Foster would be our new regular goalkeeper
I once rated Tom Cleverley as a player who never would make it at United (Which he kinda did)
I also believed in Moyes (and Fellaini)
I still believe in both Jones and Lukaku
I was really sceptical about VNL - that's the one thing Mourinho got right.
I lost faith in DDG after that Blackburn howler (2-3 goal) on new years eve I Think it was.
But I also did get it right a few times
I thought RvN would be World-class from the first time I saw clips of him on Eurosport
I never believed in Mourinho
As an United-18 player I questioned Welbeck simply because he didn't score enough.
Liverpool was the most successful club when the PL formed though...
That Spurs would finish third this season 
Hmm, I thought Mourinho would stay at United for a long time and stop being Mourinho. How wrong I was.
I also thought Sandro would become a world class DM.
Hmm, I thought Mourinho would stay at United for a long time and stop being Mourinho. How wrong I was.
I also thought Sandro would become a world class DM.
Prior to those defeats we’d put together a decent winning run: six straight wins in all competitions I think, and I did wonder whether we’d turned a corner and Moyes wouldn’t be the disaster I’d expected him to be.
The manner of those three defeats, particularly the Sunderland pens, absolutely killed all hope.
At youth level there was a point where I believed that Lingard wasn't far from Pogba's potential level.
There was nothing delusional about expecting Schneiderlin to be at least decent for us given his level of performance at Southampton over several seasons.
Maybe some fans’ expectations were excessive, but nobody could have predicted that his form would nosedive and never recover even after he’d moved on to a lower pressure club.
Maybe some fans’ expectations were excessive, but nobody could have predicted that his form would nosedive and never recover even after he’d moved on to a lower pressure club.
The most delusional thing I read on here was a mod shouting me down telling me that Welbeck was going to leading the line for us for the next decade, and nailed on to be a club captain as well.
He was sold the following season.
The most delusional thing I heard was how our squad was not even Europa League standard when Jose was sacked.
A good friend of mine was convinced Guardiola would be sacked before Christmas on his first season at Barça, which is probably the wrongest football prediction someone I know personally has ever expressed. He has never heard the end of it, and never will.
Kakuta/Boga/McEachren/Chalobah/Musonda/Aina will be the first to break into the Chelsea first team since Terry.
I was wrong then but CHO, Mount or in a few years Anjorin will be the one.
I prefer the term "optimistic" rather than delusional.
I was wrong then but CHO, Mount or in a few years Anjorin will be the one.
I prefer the term "optimistic" rather than delusional.
I honestly think it was more blind optimism or hope. Towards the end of his reign he was getting the best out of some average players for us. Naively I assumed that with the purse strings lifted we could buy world class players in all positions like Real Madrid or Barca do.
I'm probably missing something obvious, but what the hell is VNL?
Oh wait. It's Lindelof of course. But why on earth would you refer to him by a completely unknown middle name?
- I told a colleague that Memphis looked like the real deal in his first pre-season
- I predicted England would win World Cup 2014
- I predicted England would win World Cup 2014
When we signed Sanchez last January I remember saying to someone at work we could win the UCL. Haven’t lived that one down yet!
Selling Fellaini was a mistake.
As far as my own opinions that backfired in hindsight, although I still think that some of them were reasonable at the time:
Sanchez/Di Maria would be a huge success, obviously, but, again, it wasn't deluded to think so when they just came to us.
Football aside, it's mostly about Putin's politics:
- Anderson to become the Scholes successor and possibly the best midfielder in the world (and I still think he had the talent to do it); one of his last games for us, IIRC, was a fantastic performance against Chelsea in the Cup — 3 assists or something like that... I thought that it was the turning point
- Bebe should've stayed longer — it was obvious that he lacked some basic tactical and technical training, and Fergie was the mastermind behind some of the most incredible player's transformations
- Schweiny would be a huge success and the next captain figure at United that we sorely lacked
- Götze was the most talented out of him, Hazard and Neymar trio (although who knows how he would've developed if not for his health issues)
- Lindelöf won't make it here
- Welbeck will sort out his issues with finishing and become a world-class striker
Sanchez/Di Maria would be a huge success, obviously, but, again, it wasn't deluded to think so when they just came to us.
Football aside, it's mostly about Putin's politics:
- Putin won't go to war with Ukraine
- He won't be as stupid as to kill former spies abroad with unique easily recognisable poison etc.
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I thought Djemba-Djemba would be great for us and had Manucho down as our OGS replacement.
I have an Arsenal mate who’s bigged up so many of their youth players in the noughties to be worldbeaters or heirs to one of their best players... Most notable one is when he told me and our mates that Quincy Owusu-Abeyie would be the new Henry. He had so much faith in Wenger being a player magician and little did he know that Wenger had pretty much already peaked by then. Me and my mates always rib him on that one particularly, especially when it comes to discussing our fantasy teams and asking who’s a good forward to use.
I have an Arsenal mate who’s bigged up so many of their youth players in the noughties to be worldbeaters or heirs to one of their best players... Most notable one is when he told me and our mates that Quincy Owusu-Abeyie would be the new Henry. He had so much faith in Wenger being a player magician and little did he know that Wenger had pretty much already peaked by then. Me and my mates always rib him on that one particularly, especially when it comes to discussing our fantasy teams and asking who’s a good forward to use.
I was pretty convinced that Rashford was just Welbeck 2.0 - Another youngster you lot were overhyping just because he was yours.
Well, he's very much not
Oops me.
(The comparisons to Mbappe are/were still stupid, though).
Well, he's very much not
Oops me.(The comparisons to Mbappe are/were still stupid, though).
If there will really be a transfer ban you might actually get one right this time!
Schneiderlin was the signing that excited me most years. I thought he was going to be absolutely amazing for us. I was wrong, very wrong.
Just merge this with the Rawk goes into meltdown thread.
preceded by "those of us who understand the game will miss you"
Either I don’t understand the term ‘delusional’ or none of you guys do.
I thought Hargreaves was a much better footballer than Carrick
However bad your delusion might've been at times, just know that it'll never come close to this.
It's not a middle name, his last name is actually Nilsson-Lindelöf.
I liked Johnny Vaughan when I was younger, thought he was hilarious.
Jesus how wrong I was
Jesus how wrong I was
Many did. Even RAWK were quoted as saying "Shit. They're back."
This is magnified because of the ridiculous AFTV, but there seem to be countless Arsenal fans who just cannot accept that they're not an elite club any more. The goalposts have shifted due to a variety of factors, the most significant being the oil clubs and the ethos of the Arsenal ownership, and they just cannot realistically hope to compete at the top table.
A few years ago when they regularly finished in the top three, reached the knockout stages of the Champions League, and won the FA Cup, that was deemed not good enough by many Arsenal fans. They used to lose narrowly to Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and that would provoke anger!
Arsenal fans were not the only factor in the club's decline, but the years of moaning, whinging and creating a poisonous atmosphere definitely didn't help. And now I see them...and they're happy because they're supposedly moving in the right direction. They're now 5th in the league, they probably won't make top four, they're out of the FA Cup well before the business end of the tournament, they lost to BATE Borisov in the Europa League, and they think they're making progress.
This is far worse than where you were before when you used to moan about...it's the same every season, we get top four and lose in the CL knockout stages! If it was a Wenger season it would be vilified, but now because they're got a new manager they think they're moving in the right direction.
But what they're going to find is that they'll hit a glass ceiling (if indeed Emery manages to get them back in the CL). They don't have the budget, investment, or playing squad to challenge for the biggest trophies. Tottenham are finding that out now. Their best chance of doing this would have been to get behind the team when they had their best and most successful post-war manager at the helm.
I wonder what nonsense they will be talking 5, 10, 15 years down the line when they've not only not won the biggest trophies, but also haven't even got back to the level of success that Wenger achieved in his later years.
A few years ago when they regularly finished in the top three, reached the knockout stages of the Champions League, and won the FA Cup, that was deemed not good enough by many Arsenal fans. They used to lose narrowly to Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and that would provoke anger!
Arsenal fans were not the only factor in the club's decline, but the years of moaning, whinging and creating a poisonous atmosphere definitely didn't help. And now I see them...and they're happy because they're supposedly moving in the right direction. They're now 5th in the league, they probably won't make top four, they're out of the FA Cup well before the business end of the tournament, they lost to BATE Borisov in the Europa League, and they think they're making progress.
This is far worse than where you were before when you used to moan about...it's the same every season, we get top four and lose in the CL knockout stages! If it was a Wenger season it would be vilified, but now because they're got a new manager they think they're moving in the right direction.
But what they're going to find is that they'll hit a glass ceiling (if indeed Emery manages to get them back in the CL). They don't have the budget, investment, or playing squad to challenge for the biggest trophies. Tottenham are finding that out now. Their best chance of doing this would have been to get behind the team when they had their best and most successful post-war manager at the helm.
I wonder what nonsense they will be talking 5, 10, 15 years down the line when they've not only not won the biggest trophies, but also haven't even got back to the level of success that Wenger achieved in his later years.
Surely Christensen already is the one?
It might have been a bit excessive to think that Hargreaves was "much better', but he was certainly in the ballpark of being as good as Carrick, and arguably better, although they had differing assets. Carrick looks the better player now because he didn't get a really bad injury as Hargreaves did, and his career didn't fizzle out. Hargreaves got more England caps than Carrick, despite having a shorter career, because he probably was the better player.
Nah, his Radio X show is fairly amusing on the drive home from work.
I once said we should sign James Beattie. We then signed Wayne Rooney instead, who I thought would never make it because he had such a ridiculous name.