Players you had forgotten existed

PaulRich said:
Stephen Carr. Tasty fullback for Spurs in his day - might be right in thinking he was linked to us at one point but injury scuppered it.
Click to expand...



Always remember this strike because it's the type you'd love to do in a game yourself. Head over the top of the ball, full power, straight as an arrow into the top corner, from a far distance past a diving keeper clutching thin air.

Beauty.
 
Kerlon .. infamous seal dribbler
Bellion .. Was meant to be the next Henry
Bebe .. former hobo
Anderson .. once upon a time bossed Gerrard
Dong Fangzou .. bought to raise sales in China
Butner .. man of tattoos
Freddy Adu .. 14 year old star, but 2 years of talent
Eckelserley (excuse spelling) .. ginger defender
Darren Gibson .. Fergie loved him
 
MrBest said:
Kerlon .. infamous seal dribbler
Bellion .. Was meant to be the next Henry
Bebe .. former hobo
Anderson .. once upon a time bossed Gerrard
Dong Fangzou .. bought to raise sales in China
Butner .. man of tattoos
Freddy Adu .. 14 year old star, but 2 years of talent
Eckelserley (excuse spelling) .. ginger defender
Darren Gibson .. Fergie loved him
Click to expand...

Bellion was a reserve player for Sunderland, they must have thought it was a joke when that fax came in. You should probably add Overtan to the list - even Blanc was surprised Utd were in for him.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/f...surprises-Bordeaux-manager-Laurent-Blanc.html
 
I was kinda surprised to see a few weeks ago that Gabriel Agbonlahor had only just left Villa. He was never particularly brilliant, but was a semi-talented, mildly productive youngster who was always just sort of there in decent Villa sides and who gave across the impression he'd maybe be a Defoe level talent. Probably sometime around when MON left Villa he just sort of stopped doing anything of note, having only occasionally done anything of note beforehand.

I was always trawling through Wikipedia the other week (as you do) and discovered a player called Florent Sinama Pongolle, who despite being fairly rubbish for Liverpool managed to rack up a decent number of appearances over a few seasons whenever he wasn't being loaned out to confirm he was fairly rubbish elsewhere. He had, like, two okayish seasons in La Liga that Agbonlahor would've given a modest thumbs up, signed for Atletico Madrid, resumed to scoring ratios that made Gary Neville look like Van Nistelrooy, briefly did nothing for Dundee United when they descended into chaos/hilarity, and now bangs in goals for fun in the Thai League. Which I guess is a happy ending for him.
 
Just recalled Manucho. The sort of obscure signing that'd have maybe made sense if he was, like, 19 and an overrated talent who we misjudged. Instead he was already about 25, and had been moderately decent in the Angolan league. He played a couple of games, was rubbish, people said he needed time, other sensible people pointed out he was basically about to retire anyway, he left, then Danny Welbeck took his place and became the greatest footballer Manchester and - indeed - the universe has ever seen.
 
Most arsenal players post-2006.

Carlos vela, Jeremy aliadere, denilson, Abu diaby, Almunia, chamakh etc

Actually think a lot of them have low key retired. No wonder they won feck all for so many years.
 
Shunsuke Nakamura. Had belters with his left feet. Still going strong with Jubilo Iwata in his 40. He was a hipster choice before hipster was a thing.
 
SalfordRed18 said:
Most arsenal players post-2006.

Carlos vela, Jeremy aliadere, denilson, Abu diaby, Almunia, chamakh etc

Actually think a lot of them have low key retired. No wonder they won feck all for so many years.
Click to expand...

My enduring memory of Aliadiere is when he managed to go on loan to three clubs within the one season. He went to Celtic, got annoyed when they didn't play him, went back to Arsenal, then went to West Ham. He kept up his trend of not scoring goals (the mark of a good forward), went back to Arsenal, and then was again shipped off to Wolves.
 
vangagal said:
Shunsuke Nakamura. Had belters with his left feet. Still going strong with Jubilo Iwata in his 40. He was a hipster choice before hipster was a thing.
Click to expand...

I could've sworn it was spelled Shinsuke, so looked it up. Proper Mandela Effect moment there.:lol:
 
Carroll, Downing, Adam.

Well at least I'm trying to forget they existed.

Its really hard to ignore Henderson's existence when he's conned his way into being captain of Liverpool, when a more talented player we had in Allen is in the championship. Seriously, guy wouldn't look out of place at Newcastle or Huddersfield. Get him out of my club.
 
Cheesy said:
I was kinda surprised to see a few weeks ago that Gabriel Agbonlahor had only just left Villa. He was never particularly brilliant, but was a semi-talented, mildly productive youngster who was always just sort of there in decent Villa sides and who gave across the impression he'd maybe be a Defoe level talent. Probably sometime around when MON left Villa he just sort of stopped doing anything of note, having only occasionally done anything of note beforehand.

I was always trawling through Wikipedia the other week (as you do) and discovered a player called Florent Sinama Pongolle, who despite being fairly rubbish for Liverpool managed to rack up a decent number of appearances over a few seasons whenever he wasn't being loaned out to confirm he was fairly rubbish elsewhere. He had, like, two okayish seasons in La Liga that Agbonlahor would've given a modest thumbs up, signed for Atletico Madrid, resumed to scoring ratios that made Gary Neville look like Van Nistelrooy, briefly did nothing for Dundee United when they descended into chaos/hilarity, and now bangs in goals for fun in the Thai League. Which I guess is a happy ending for him.
Click to expand...

Gabby was very good in the MON days, huge part of our counter attack game in a front three of him, Carew and Ashley Young.

ALways felt he could've scored more but he still managed four seasons of 10 + goals in the league so not too bad for guy who wasn't elite striker and played on the wing for large spells.

As you say he lost interest after MON left bar odd few games here and there. It was a joke to give him a new 4 year deal in 2014 as I could've told you he was declining at that stage.

Pongolle came with Anthony Le Tallec. Think they won a French under 21 title or something so were massively hyped but neither amounted to anything at the top level.
 
Does Matt Jarvis still play? Was a good winger for Wolves, got an England cup and West Ham signed him for about 12m but he made little impact.

Last I heard he was at Norwich but haven't seen his name for ages.
 
Cheesy said:
Just recalled Manucho. The sort of obscure signing that'd have maybe made sense if he was, like, 19 and an overrated talent who we misjudged. Instead he was already about 25, and had been moderately decent in the Angolan league. He played a couple of games, was rubbish, people said he needed time, other sensible people pointed out he was basically about to retire anyway, he left, then Danny Welbeck took his place and became the greatest footballer Manchester and - indeed - the universe has ever seen.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about Manucho and other random, fleeting failures we'd had over the years. I remember watching the ACoN when we first signed Manucho (before he played for us) and thinking he looked really good. Made his debut against Stoke (I think) in the same game Welbeck did, and Welbeck scored an absolute screamer, while Manucho did nothing.

Dong Fangzhuo was another baffling signing. Signed him in January 2004 just before he turned 19. He didn't have a work permit to play in England, so we loaned him out to Antwerp, where he played 9 games before the end of the season as Antwerp finished bottom and got relegated. He stayed there the next season, and the season after, doing pretty well (34 goals in 71 league games), although all in the second tier. He still didn't have a work permit, despite having been at the club 2 and a half seasons, but was offered Belgian citizenship so that he would be. He turned it down because it would have meant him having to give up his Chinese citizenship, so he had to wait until December 2006 before he was eligible to play in England. He was recalled from Antwerp but didn't make his debut until May 2007, in that Chelsea game where they had to give a guard of honour to largely our reserves. His next appearance was against Coventry in the League Cup, where we lost 2-0, and his final appearance came in the last CL group game as a late sub after we'd already guaranteed we'd win the group. We let him go for the next season and he returned to the club we signed him from in China, where he was so bad he got dropped to the reserves. Legia Warsaw took a punt on him 2 years after that, but he only played 2 games there and didn't even see out the year before being moved on to Portimonense in Portugal. Three appearances in Portugal and he ended up at now defunct Armenian side, Mika, where he managed 21 games in 2011 before heading back to China in 2012 to play 43 games in their second tier for Hunan Billows over two seasons. In 2014 he moved to another second tier side, Hebei Zhongji, where he played just 7 games before presumably retiring at the age of 29.

Rodrigo Possebon, who if I remember correctly was fairly highly rated, fell off a cliff after leaving us. We shipped him out on loan to Braga, but he made just one appearance and was sent back to us. We let him go to Santos the following summer, where he managed 30 appearances over two seasons, but they weren't too keen on him and let him go. He went to Vicenza in Italy in 2011, but failed to make an appearance, so he ended up back in Brazil where he ended up signing for another six clubs between 2012 and 2017, failing to make 10 appearances for any of them. In January 2018 he signed for Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but was released a month later after failing to impress, having failed to make a single appearance. He's currently without a club, and only turned 29 in February.
 
Cheesy said:
Just recalled Manucho. The sort of obscure signing that'd have maybe made sense if he was, like, 19 and an overrated talent who we misjudged. Instead he was already about 25, and had been moderately decent in the Angolan league. He played a couple of games, was rubbish, people said he needed time, other sensible people pointed out he was basically about to retire anyway, he left, then Danny Welbeck took his place and became the greatest footballer Manchester and - indeed - the universe has ever seen.
Click to expand...

Kept Hull up.
 
Alex99 said:
I was thinking about Manucho and other random, fleeting failures we'd had over the years. I remember watching the ACoN when we first signed Manucho (before he played for us) and thinking he looked really good. Made his debut against Stoke (I think) in the same game Welbeck did, and Welbeck scored an absolute screamer, while Manucho did nothing.

Dong Fangzhuo was another baffling signing. Signed him in January 2004 just before he turned 19. He didn't have a work permit to play in England, so we loaned him out to Antwerp, where he played 9 games before the end of the season as Antwerp finished bottom and got relegated. He stayed there the next season, and the season after, doing pretty well (34 goals in 71 league games), although all in the second tier. He still didn't have a work permit, despite having been at the club 2 and a half seasons, but was offered Belgian citizenship so that he would be. He turned it down because it would have meant him having to give up his Chinese citizenship, so he had to wait until December 2006 before he was eligible to play in England. He was recalled from Antwerp but didn't make his debut until May 2007, in that Chelsea game where they had to give a guard of honour to largely our reserves. His next appearance was against Coventry in the League Cup, where we lost 2-0, and his final appearance came in the last CL group game as a late sub after we'd already guaranteed we'd win the group. We let him go for the next season and he returned to the club we signed him from in China, where he was so bad he got dropped to the reserves. Legia Warsaw took a punt on him 2 years after that, but he only played 2 games there and didn't even see out the year before being moved on to Portimonense in Portugal. Three appearances in Portugal and he ended up at now defunct Armenian side, Mika, where he managed 21 games in 2011 before heading back to China in 2012 to play 43 games in their second tier for Hunan Billows over two seasons. In 2014 he moved to another second tier side, Hebei Zhongji, where he played just 7 games before presumably retiring at the age of 29.

Rodrigo Possebon, who if I remember correctly was fairly highly rated, fell off a cliff after leaving us. We shipped him out on loan to Braga, but he made just one appearance and was sent back to us. We let him go to Santos the following summer, where he managed 30 appearances over two seasons, but they weren't too keen on him and let him go. He went to Vicenza in Italy in 2011, but failed to make an appearance, so he ended up back in Brazil where he ended up signing for another six clubs between 2012 and 2017, failing to make 10 appearances for any of them. In January 2018 he signed for Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but was released a month later after failing to impress, having failed to make a single appearance. He's currently without a club, and only turned 29 in February.
Click to expand...
Didn't he get a really nasty injury in a league cup match? Was never the same again. I remember him having a real thundercnut of a shot.
 
GifLord said:
Didn't he get a really nasty injury in a league cup match? Was never the same again. I remember him having a real thundercnut of a shot.
Click to expand...
Steven7290 said:
Exactly, against Boro IIRC. Pogatetz or something like that was the one with the horror tackle that broke his leg in half
Click to expand...

His injury wasn't that bad, actually. He got injured in September 2008, with a leg break being the fear, but he was back playing within a month. If it was the tackle that got him, it was a mental scar, rather than any lasting physical damage.
 
Anyone remember Josh McEachran?

Watched Stoke vs Brentford at the weekend and was extremely impressed with the Brentford number 10, thought he was some random youngster but nah, he’s the moderately famous once Chelsea youth. Great little player, still only 25 years old, amazingly.
 
Michu
Oscar
Ramires
Raul Meirelles
Gervinho
Pappis Cisse
Carrasco
Jelavic
Eder
Graziano Pelle
Vaz Te
Mario Suarez
Hulk
 
George Boyd
Steven Fletcher
Barry Bannan

All playing tonight for Sheffield Wednesday.

Nostalgia...
 
Sebastian Giovinco and Freddy Adu. I actually had to use google to find Giovinco's name.
 
GazTheLegend said:
Anyone remember Josh McEachran?

Watched Stoke vs Brentford at the weekend and was extremely impressed with the Brentford number 10, thought he was some random youngster but nah, he’s the moderately famous once Chelsea youth. Great little player, still only 25 years old, amazingly.
Click to expand...

His little brother (George, 17) is at Chelsea and played a big part in winning the FA Youth Cup, U18 Premier League and the U17 World cup with England.

Josh didn't really have the physicality to be a top Premier League player but I reckon he'll get another crack in the top division.
 
GifLord said:
Didn't he get a really nasty injury in a league cup match? Was never the same again. I remember him having a real thundercnut of a shot.
Click to expand...

Steven7290 said:
Exactly, against Boro IIRC. Pogatetz or something like that was the one with the horror tackle that broke his leg in half
Click to expand...

Classical Mechanic said:
Did anyone actually watch Possebon in the reserves? He wasn’t very good, mediocre at best at that level.
Click to expand...

What classical Mechanic said. Generally, he was highly rated by those who didn't watch youth/reserve games, mainly because of his exotic name and heritage. In actual fact, he was bang average, could only pass the ball sideways and was no better than the likes of Matty James.

People point to that injury as to why he didn't make it, when in actual fact, he just wasn't that good to begin with.
 
Who was the lad that played at Pompey who had a habit of scoring goals from near the half way line? He was alright.
 
duffer said:
His little brother (George, 17) is at Chelsea and played a big part in winning the FA Youth Cup, U18 Premier League and the U17 World cup with England.

Josh didn't really have the physicality to be a top Premier League player but I reckon he'll get another crack in the top division.
Click to expand...

He’ll be back in the premier league for sure from what I saw, he was far too good for Stoke. He’s got a touch of class about him, hard to define, but everything he does is a level above the championship through sheer football intelligence.
 
GazTheLegend said:
He’ll be back in the premier league for sure from what I saw, he was far too good for Stoke. He’s got a touch of class about him, hard to define, but everything he does is a level above the championship through sheer football intelligence.
Click to expand...

George plays just like Josh too. Great technical little player.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.