Which player had the biggest purple patch followed by the steepest decline?

colombianmancunian

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 26, 2022
Messages
724
As some mentioned before: Michu, Dells Ali, Bakayoko.

Lingard was never awesome. James RODRIGUEZ was indeed a good player but laziness killed his career.
 

432JuanMata

Full Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Messages
3,094
Location
Dublin
Amar Zaki for Wigan started off on fire including a overhead at Anfield then 2nd half of the season scored once and never heard from again
 

432JuanMata

Full Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Messages
3,094
Location
Dublin
Also if mentioning partnerships remember Cleverley and Anderson also Rojo-Jones under LVG or Mou had about 6 games in a row and where like peak Italy 06. Though Rojo would of got 2 reds if Var was around
 

DatIrishFella

Band of Brothers, Thief
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,571
Location
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Steven Reid. Former Blackburn and Ireland midfielder. Guy was linked with United and Liverpool for one random season after putting in some stellar performances (in fairness he was like a budget Steven Gerrard) but nothing ever materialized and he was wrecked by injuries and became a shadow of his former self.
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
Scoring goals does not mean you're world class.
I didn’t say that the goals made him world class either, but he was fantastic in that period. Brimming with confidence in his overall play. He was every bit a world class forward during that period of time.
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

Full Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
1,044
Arshavin?
As a top league player he would fit, but overall i would put him in the category of highly talented underachievers rather than just a purple patch type. He wasn't a player that suddenly got much better around zenit's uefa cup run/Euro 2008, it was the same form he'd had for about six years by then, but he'd stayed too long in the rpl when obviously too good for it.

He also was never the most dedicated of players - not terrible, but more Sneijder/van der Vaart'ish than a Milner or Cristiano - and seemed to lose a lot of motivation after Russia blundered the 2010 WC playoff against Slovenia. Like many players that don't have that extra determination to keeping themselves constantly in great shape, and like to coast at times, he just hit a real decline circa 30.
 

mshnsh

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Messages
1,361
Location
old trafford
Fernando Torres - just never understood his career trajectory.

Was always a good player for Athletico. Had an amazing 3-4 year run at Liverpool. Won the Euros and WC with Spain.

Then joined Chelsea and turned completely to sh*t. An incredibly abrupt and steep decline for seemingly no reason.
Had already started his decline in his last season at Liverpool.
 

paraguayo

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
1,339
Supports
neutral
Ronaldinho is one of the obvious ones.

Adriano

Elano

Gorcouff

Gotze

Ronaldinho?

He had at least 5-6 years of being amazing, even if you discout his youth years which he was comfortably the best youngster around
 
Last edited:

Sleigh

Full Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Messages
361
Supports
Leicester City
Michu is the obvious one.

However others include Andy Johnson, Papa Cisse and Marcus Stewart.
 

Jed I. Knight

The Mos Eisley Hillbilly
Joined
May 29, 2013
Messages
3,619
Location
Tatooine
Mendieta? Kaka?! Ronaldinho?!?

Jeez, guys, might as well throw in Maradona and Pele in here as well, given that they never quite reached the same highs again after peaking.
 

Beans

Full Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
3,512
Location
Midwest, USA
Supports
Neutral
Hazard

Andy Caroll

Drogba was quality but he really only had one world class season, and only 2 seasons with 20 league goals.
 

KeanoMagicHat

Full Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2019
Messages
3,940
Wesley Sneijder. Sold for €15m to Inter by Madrid in 2009. Fantastic 2009-10. Largely useless thereafter.

A bullet dodged by United, too.
So many terrible ones here Kaka and Ronaldinho for example, this is another one. Sneijder won the league with Ajax and was outstanding 6 years earlier. He was a hyped youngster. Then he went to Real Madrid for quite big money and was very good there. He’d had nearly 60 caps for Netherlands before he joined Inter and was prominent in two tournaments. He was in Euro 2008 team of the tournament.

When he joined Inter he was the equivalent (or better) of Frenkie De Jong had he joined us this year and you wouldn’t have said De Jong came from nowhere and had a purple patch then, would you?
 

Piratesoup

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Messages
6,939
Supports
Bayern München
Adriano by far for me. Looked like Ronaldo 2.0 for a while, then just flamed out.
 

Sir Erik ten Hag

Full Member
Joined
May 21, 2022
Messages
1,205
So many terrible ones here Kaka and Ronaldinho for example, this is another one. Sneijder won the league with Ajax and was outstanding 6 years earlier. He was a hyped youngster. Then he went to Real Madrid for quite big money and was very good there. He’d had nearly 60 caps for Netherlands before he joined Inter and was prominent in two tournaments. He was in Euro 2008 team of the tournament.

When he joined Inter he was the equivalent (or better) of Frenkie De Jong had he joined us this year and you wouldn’t have said De Jong came from nowhere and had a purple patch then, would you?
The jury is still out for De Jong.
 

mshnsh

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Messages
1,361
Location
old trafford
Ronaldinho?

He had at least 5-6 years of being amazing, even if you discout his youth years which he was comfortably the best youngster around
His short peak lasted from season 2003/4 to season 2005/6 (age 26).

Maybe calling it a purple patch is harsh given that he was supremely gifted but the peak was too shortlived and the decline from dizzying heights at a young age very rapid.
 

Bole Top

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
3,508
some of you clearly can't read, even though the OP is easy to understand. how the feck do you turn Hazard's 8 or 9 years (Lille/Chelsea) into a purple patch?
 

Piratesoup

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Messages
6,939
Supports
Bayern München
His dad died and he became an alcoholic. Tragic
I know, but it was still an incredibly fast decline. At one point I thought he was nailed on for multiple Ballon d'Ors, and barely a year later he was basically ke a worse version of current Balotelli. I can't think of any case that compares.

- Nunez (potentially)
- Any player in the world (potentially)
 

MadDogg

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
15,810
Location
Manchester Utd never lose, just run out of time
I mentioned this somewhere else recently, but Mikael Silvestre had an amazing half a season in 03/04. For the first half of that season he was brilliant at centreback, I remember the general consensus on this forum was that he'd been our best player and second only to Henry in the league. There was one specific defensive action that I always remember that literally got me on my feet as I watched it on tv, with the opposition (which I always feel was Newcastle but I could be wrong there) launching a counter attack and having a 3v1 against him with our entire half to run into. He took out the first player near the halfway line as he passed it, sprinted over and slid in to dispossess and knock over the second player, the ball rolled to the third player near the sideline and Silvestre was instantly back on his feet and ran out to put in another sliding tackle that put the ball out of play and the attacker on the ground. 3v1 and he didn't just stop the attack, he stopped each and every one of them individually. Loved it, and I've always wished I could watch that back or just remember for sure which match it was.

Of course, that half a season turned out to be a massive purple patch, with Silvestre falling apart as soon as Rio got that suspension in January for missing the drug test. He never got remotely close to that level again unfortunately.
 

JPRouve

can't stop thinking about balls - NOT deflategate
Scout
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
65,353
Location
France
Technically does Zidane qualify? He was arguably the best player during the 2006 world cup and the next day he was definitively warming his sofa.
 

RedDevilQuebecois

Full Member
Joined
May 27, 2021
Messages
7,787
Lukas Podolski could be categorized as one of those. I remember when he took the 2006 World Cup by storm after 3 solid seasons at Köln, but then he started to fade when he signed for Bayern. After a short return at Köln, it was the same thing over again when he joined Arsenal. He could have been better even if injuries played a part in udermining his career, but he was never up to the original hype.
 

AndersB

Full Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2016
Messages
696
El Hadji Diouf and Andy Carroll.

Both had very short purple patches (comically short for the former), but it earned them both great moves to Anfield
 

Iker Quesadillas

Full Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2021
Messages
3,895
Supports
Real Madrid
His short peak lasted from season 2003/4 to season 2005/6 (age 26).
A peak is not the same as a purple patch.

Ronaldinho was very good before 2003. Barcelona signed him for big money, and this article from AS about Real Madrid not signing him calls him a "crack." He'd done well for PSG and had already won a World Cup with Brazil, impressing in his appearances there. Also, he scored 24 goals and recorded 14 assists in 06/07, hardly bad numbers.