| Best players who never made it 19:42 - Nov 20 with 5662 views | MrSheen |
Leaving aside our own, who are the best players you’ve seen, who you raved about to your mates afterwards, whose careers either failed to take off or who vanished without a trace?
I’ll start with Dean Connolly. I was at a loose end one bank holiday in the early 90s, and made my annual trip to Griffin Park. Brentford crushed Wigan 4-0. The visitors were pretty hopeless except for Connolly, who was fantastic on the ball and incredibly quick to find a pass to a team mate, who quickly lost the ball. At one point, he took the ball with his back to goal about 30 yards out, lost three defenders with a turn and a trick and smashed the ball against the bar. And was then taken off.
At the time he was on loan from Barnsley in the next league up, which didn’t surprise me given his air of superiority and an obvious lack of conditioning. Google tells me he was originally a Celtic junior but was picked up by Arsenal in his teens. Barnsley let him go soon after and I never heard of him again. I can’t forget how talented he looked. I wonder what happened. |  | | |  |
| Best players who never made it on 13:36 - Nov 21 with 1437 views | aston_hoop |
| Best players who never made it on 13:25 - Nov 21 by Tonto |
For those of us of a certain age and who played football manager....
Freddy Ado |
Thats a whole thread of its own! Tonton Zola Mokoko and Cherno Samba anyone? |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 13:37 - Nov 21 with 1432 views | MrSheen |
| Best players who never made it on 13:25 - Nov 21 by Tonto |
For those of us of a certain age and who played football manager....
Freddy Ado |
Before him, there was ...Nii Lamptey. The African Pele, the next global superstar. Played against us for Villa in 1994. Didn't make the Coventry squad on that day that won't be mentioned. Read his tragic life story here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nii_Lamptey
Features a despicable cameo from a former QPR director. | | | |
| Best players who never made it on 14:42 - Nov 21 with 1352 views | WoodlaneR |
Marvin Robinson. Saw him come on as a sub against us for Tranmere in 2003. We were 1-0 up, he came on got a goal and assist I think and won the game for them. He looked unplayable that day..... Ended up as a lower league/ non league journey man. |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 14:51 - Nov 21 with 1340 views | HantsR |
| Best players who never made it on 14:42 - Nov 21 by WoodlaneR |
Marvin Robinson. Saw him come on as a sub against us for Tranmere in 2003. We were 1-0 up, he came on got a goal and assist I think and won the game for them. He looked unplayable that day..... Ended up as a lower league/ non league journey man. |
I seem to remember that we were winning that game but threw it away when Danny Murphy and Lee Cook contrived to give the ball away. Maybe it was to Marvin Robinson? |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 14:52 - Nov 21 with 1338 views | queensparker |
One from leftfield, but always think of pre-injury Kevin Gallen.
After that game at Portsmouth and a year/18 months out, he was never the same player at all. Medical science was different back then and a cruciate was a much bigger deal.
Reckon he'd have played for England and in the top division for years instead of Huddersfield, Barnsley and us when we were in the sh*t. |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 15:15 - Nov 21 with 1311 views | bob566 |
Bently. Can't remember his first name. Some Blackburn wizard or so that signed for arsenal and then spuds and then spontaneously combusted. | | | |
| Best players who never made it on 15:28 - Nov 21 with 1300 views | Metallica_Hoop |
| Best players who never made it on 13:36 - Nov 21 by aston_hoop |
Thats a whole thread of its own! Tonton Zola Mokoko and Cherno Samba anyone? |
Dean Shiels, Justin Georcelin.
The days when you could groom 16 year olds  |  |
| Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent |
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| Best players who never made it on 16:00 - Nov 21 with 1251 views | JJB |
Is Brian Croft still one for the future? |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 16:20 - Nov 21 with 1225 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Best players who never made it on 15:15 - Nov 21 by bob566 |
Bently. Can't remember his first name. Some Blackburn wizard or so that signed for arsenal and then spuds and then spontaneously combusted. |
david bentley. started at Arsenal, then Blackburn, then Spuds.
I think Redknapp said he was the worst trainer he ever saw. did play for england to be fair, but retired early and yes, never fulfilled potential. |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 16:27 - Nov 21 with 1213 views | PeterHucker |
Jamal Campbell-Ryce.
When he was a teenager he played against us for Orient and I thought he was going to be a superstar.
It's very unfair to say he's "never made it" because he's got lots of caps for Jamaica and Wikipedia tells me that he's made nearly 500 League appearances. But nearly all of those are in League 1 or League 2 which is a bit of a letdown because I thought he was destined for the Champions League! |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 16:32 - Nov 21 with 1199 views | Clive_Anderson |
I thought Jerome Thomas was going to go all the way to the top after seeing him on loan for us. He used to tear teams to pieces in the third tier. | | | |
| Best players who never made it on 19:38 - Nov 21 with 1109 views | LongsufferingR |
| Best players who never made it on 13:25 - Nov 21 by Tonto |
For those of us of a certain age and who played football manager....
Freddy Ado |
Nah, can't agree with that one. I thought he was much Ado about nothing. |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 19:51 - Nov 21 with 1096 views | RangersDave |
I always thought that there were good players trying to escape from their fast but ultimately non deadly prowess in both Iorfa, and Dou Dou.
Remember one christmas at home against, i think it was Burnley, Dou Dou running the right wing and getting fouled twice for 2 Burnley sendings off.
Fast? Christ yes, both of them, and Iorfa did score a bit in the reserves but both came to nowt. |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 20:12 - Nov 21 with 1074 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
One that did, one that didn’t:
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| Best players who never made it on 20:47 - Nov 21 with 1040 views | lave16 |
| Best players who never made it on 20:12 - Nov 21 by BazzaInTheLoft |
One that did, one that didn’t:
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Leon Jeanne | |
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| Best players who never made it on 20:57 - Nov 21 with 1031 views | MedwayR |
I thought Dennis Oli was going to have a far better career than he did. Leon Jeanne too of course. Alvaro Vadillo looked incredible for Real Betis but got a serious injury, he’s currently playing for Granada and still only 25. One I spotted a few years ago was Solo Traore for Barcelona’s youth teams, I made a bit of his name, I reckon he’d be about 14-15 now so it’ll be interesting to see if he makes it. |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 01:39 - Nov 22 with 970 views | Loftgirl |
| Best players who never made it on 09:43 - Nov 21 by PinnerPaul |
Denis Bailey |
Hallelujah, hallelujah. |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 01:50 - Nov 22 with 965 views | Boston |
| Best players who never made it on 20:00 - Nov 20 by paulparker |
Jimmy carter should have gone further I remember watching him at a reserve game for QPR in the late eighties he was skill full as hell
Paul Lake had the world at his feet before injury crippled him
Lee power tore us a new one year for Norwich but didn’t do anything after |
Yeah, Jimmy Carter. Looked good, then transferred to Washington.... | |
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| Best players who never made it on 02:18 - Nov 22 with 956 views | lave16 |
| Best players who never made it on 01:50 - Nov 22 by Boston |
Yeah, Jimmy Carter. Looked good, then transferred to Washington.... |
Jesé RodrÃguez Ruiz --- looked decent at real Madrid then went to stoke
Samba Diakite .... looked class until his first tackle or 2 footed lunge where description fits [Post edited 22 Nov 2019 2:28]
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| Best players who never made it on 10:31 - Nov 22 with 841 views | paesanu |
Federico Macheda.
Dragged Fergie's Man U to a title near the end of a particular season.. and then what. Probably in his late 20s now.
Also Januzaj around that time maybe? Was supposed to fill Giggs' boots. |  |
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| Best players who never made it on 11:04 - Nov 22 with 815 views | MrSheen |
There’s a 16 year old kid at Celtic called Karamoko Dembélé. He played for their Under 20s at 13 and has already played for the senior team. He was born in London to Ivorian parents, but moved to Glasgow as a baby. He’s played for England U-15s, Scotland U-16s and both England and Scotland U-17s! He’ll probably decide he wants to be an optician in a couple of years. | | | |
| Best players who never made it on 11:07 - Nov 22 with 810 views | aston_hoop |
| Best players who never made it on 11:04 - Nov 22 by MrSheen |
There’s a 16 year old kid at Celtic called Karamoko Dembélé. He played for their Under 20s at 13 and has already played for the senior team. He was born in London to Ivorian parents, but moved to Glasgow as a baby. He’s played for England U-15s, Scotland U-16s and both England and Scotland U-17s! He’ll probably decide he wants to be an optician in a couple of years. |
the new Islam feruz!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Feruz | |
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| Best players who never made it on 11:41 - Nov 22 with 780 views | Snipper |
Stuart Slater of West Ham had a couple of great performances when he was starting out. He was tipped for greatness.
He ended up playing for Celtic & Ipswich, which is better than most, but I think he only played for England U19s.
Everybody was raving about him at the time. |  | | |
| Best players who never made it on 11:54 - Nov 22 with 764 views | BuckR |
Young lad we had on Loan from the Chels*a a few years back, Jimmy Smith. Looked the part and scored some worldies but never made the grade above league 2 I think | | | |
| Best players who never made it on 12:09 - Nov 22 with 742 views | Rs_Holy |
| Best players who never made it on 01:50 - Nov 22 by Boston |
Yeah, Jimmy Carter. Looked good, then transferred to Washington.... |
signed him for peanuts allegedly? |  | | |
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