Midfield_General Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 (edited) I was looking at the last relegation squad and what was noticeable was how many players we had that season for whom playing in the Premier League for Saints that season will probably be the peak of their career - ie they got a lot of game time but have since been proved to be lower level players, and in hindsight just were never good enough for that league. Players like Diallo, Mara, Lyanco, Caleta-Carr and Elyonoussi, plus some of the more borderline ones like Perraud. That got me thinking about the reverse though - which players have we had in recent years who looked average for us, and no-one really cared when they left, who actually went on to prove they were decent players that we maybe just couldn’t get the best from? Tadic feels like the obvious one. Felt like his best performances for us had tailed off and there were plenty who weren’t sad to see him go, then he tore it up for Ajax in the Champions League the following season and is still playing at a high level with Fenerbahce. Lemina appeared to be a complete waster but seems to have done alright and is now captain at Wolves I think. Hojbjerg maybe? Never really looked that special for us but went on to look an important player for Spurs for a few seasons when he had better players around him. Who else has proved us wrong to an extent? Edited October 29 by Midfield_General Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Tadic is probably the third best player I've seen play for Saints, after Virgil and Tiss, he was also a key player in the best two seasons I can remember. It'd say we definitely got the best out of him, at least under Koeman, Ajax just gave him the chance to play CL football and a domestic league which Steve De Ridder tore to shreds. Lemina... well he's miraculously below us in the table, let's see if he has another tantrum and downs tools for Wolves too. Hojbjerg is Hojbjerg. Mr 7/10, an industrious ball recycler in any shirt. My personal answer to this question would be Gabbiadini. I know he's not uprooted any trees anywhere else but there were times when he looked like a hell of a player for us. I can't help but wonder how he might have done in a Koeman team, if we'd had him on the bench instead of Long. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cabrone Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Osvaldo never fitted here but seemed to do well elsewhere. Not sure if we didn't get the best out of him or if he was never going to fit. Shame as he would have been a hell of a player if he'd had his head straight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Tadic was consistent throughout his time for us the drop off was more about who was making the runs/finishing the chances he created. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
East Kent Saint Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Lemina has only just found out he was the problem and claims he’s now at peace with the world , he is still making football mistakes on the pitch but is playing better than when at Saints. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Michail Antonio is one for me. I know he was only a loan, but we surely could have signed him. Went on to become a solid Premier League player. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coalman Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to ask about players who fulfilled their potential with us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 11 minutes ago, coalman said: Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to ask about players who fulfilled their potential with us. I’d say it was a very high percentage, personally, including the majority of our current squad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Anders Svensson used to pass into spaces where he was expecting movement from the rest of the team. I think he had to hold the way he was reading the game in check a bit, so the others could catch up. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheaf Saint Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Kevin Davies. When he came back from his failed move to Blackburn, he was very poor for us and looked like his career as a PL striker was well and truly over, but he found a whole new lease of life playing a somewhat different role for Bolton under Allardyce. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Gaston Ramirez. He clearly had talent remember that Villa game! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Anders Svenson. The Swedish David Beckham was a talented player but never really got the best out of him other than a few glimpses. Remember him being pushed out to left midfield a lot. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinjb Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Rory Delap. Buy a long throw specialist, with Peter Crouch and Beattie at hand and never use him. (Aside from once I think.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 8 minutes ago, Colinjb said: Rory Delap. Buy a long throw specialist, with Peter Crouch and Beattie at hand and never use him. (Aside from once I think.) His long throws were sh*t. He clearly refined his technique at Stoke but for us they were almost always is to clear. The best one I remember was for Tessem to score a winner against Sunderland. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 1 hour ago, Sunglasses Ron said: Michail Antonio is one for me. I know he was only a loan, but we surely could have signed him. Went on to become a solid Premier League player. We couldn’t afford him. Too expensive at £1million. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 28 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said: We couldn’t afford him. Too expensive at £1million. Ahhh I didn’t know that, thanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 We could've afforded him if we really wanted him but from what I remember he had no interest in a second season of League 1 football, which he was clearly too good for. Either way, I can't really see how he fulfills the criteria of the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Kucho Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Tall Paul could be on this list, scores everywhere except here. Let’s hope it works out soon. Jordy Clasie did well at Feyenoord and is captaining AZ Alkmaar now. Here he was rubbish, though think his private life played part in that too. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
East Kent Saint Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Clasie appeared to.be a quality signing but was well off the pace ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 4 hours ago, Lighthouse said: Tadic is probably the third best player I've seen play for Saints, after Virgil and Tiss, he was also a key player in the best two seasons I can remember. It'd say we definitely got the best out of him, at least under Koeman, Ajax just gave him the chance to play CL football and a domestic league which Steve De Ridder tore to shreds. Lemina... well he's miraculously below us in the table, let's see if he has another tantrum and downs tools for Wolves too. Hojbjerg is Hojbjerg. Mr 7/10, an industrious ball recycler in any shirt. My personal answer to this question would be Gabbiadini. I know he's not uprooted any trees anywhere else but there were times when he looked like a hell of a player for us. I can't help but wonder how he might have done in a Koeman team, if we'd had him on the bench instead of Long. It used to annoy me how all the fanboy pundits used to give Klopp all the credit for quickly turning Virgil into one of the world’s best defenders, almost from his first kick in a Liverpool shirt. No, he already was. He was an absolute class act for us too which is why they paid such a huge fee for him. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 18 minutes ago, Lighthouse said: We could've afforded him if we really wanted him but from what I remember he had no interest in a second season of League 1 football, which he was clearly too good for. Either way, I can't really see how he fulfills the criteria of the OP. I have to admit, my memory is a little sketchy from back then. According to Wikipedia though, he ended up going to Colchester the following season and Sheffield Wednesday after that (who I think were both also League 1 at the time). I guess my reasoning is that, Wembley aside, he didn’t really have a stellar spell with us. I wasn’t devastated when he left, and didn’t see him becoming a successful Premier League player (which I feel he became at West Ham). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 9 minutes ago, Turkish said: It used to annoy me how all the fanboy pundits used to give Klopp all the credit for quickly turning Virgil into one of the world’s best defenders, almost from his first kick in a Liverpool shirt. No, he already was. He was an absolute class act for us too which is why they paid such a huge fee for him. Totally. His first game for us was away to West Brom and he was absolute class that day. Other than maybe one or two wobbly appearances in his very early days (Man United at home), he was pretty much the finished article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 3 hours ago, Turkish said: Anders Svenson. The Swedish David Beckham was a talented player but never really got the best out of him other than a few glimpses. Remember him being pushed out to left midfield a lot. I was picking something up downstairs in John Lewis once, race to the counter and I out-manoeuvred the bloke next to me, that was Svennson. He was fine about it but his leggy missus looked miffed. He got served just after and had bought a new kettle. Overrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Chris Baird is one for me, should have been playing in place of Telfer/Nilsson in 04/05 and then seemed to be played out of place in the championship before becoming a bit of a rock for Fulham over a number of years. Not a flashy player but dependable and an asset we never made the most of, at a time when we couldn't ever defend. Kevin Danso is probably a similar one, where we played him out of position and didn't get the best of him. Nathan Dyer another who we didn't give as much time to as we could and went on to prove himself for Swansea Juanmi seems to have had a successful career either side of his time with us, but that seems to be down to him suiting the Spanish League better. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Luis Boa Morte went on to be a much better player at Fulham than he was in his season here. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swannymere Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Yohan Folly was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austsaint Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 On 26/10/2024 at 23:20, Turkish said: It used to annoy me how all the fanboy pundits used to give Klopp all the credit for quickly turning Virgil into one of the world’s best defenders, almost from his first kick in a Liverpool shirt. No, he already was. He was an absolute class act for us too which is why they paid such a huge fee for him. You could probably say the same about Sadie Mane. Klopp got all the credit for turning him into one of the world’s best attackers yet he was already a class act; just needed the bigger stage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenilworthy Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Maik Taylor was a very good young keeper who gave great service to Fulham and Birmingham. Had we kept him he would have solved the keeper position for us for a decade. Instead he was forced out so that Dave Jones could bring his mate Paul Jones in. Admittedly, Paul Jones was brilliant for half a season and then became dreadful. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austsaint Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 5 minutes ago, austsaint said: You could probably say the same about Sadie Mane. Klopp got all the credit for turning him into one of the world’s best attackers yet he was already a class act; just needed the bigger stage. Sadio I meant, not Sadie.🥴 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 1 hour ago, austsaint said: You could probably say the same about Sadie Mane. Klopp got all the credit for turning him into one of the world’s best attackers yet he was already a class act; just needed the bigger stage. He was poor when he first joined. Air shots, missing open goals as at White Hart Lane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenilworthy Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 13 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said: He was poor when he first joined. Air shots, missing open goals as at White Hart Lane. Comments such as "worse than Guly" were made. But Mane did only take until October to get going, which wasn't bad going since he signed at the start of September. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Alan McLoughlin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 On 26/10/2024 at 16:23, Miltonaggro said: He got served just after and had bought a new kettle. Overrated. Kettles are awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Wayman Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 (edited) On 26/10/2024 at 09:31, Lighthouse said: Tadic is probably the third best player I've seen play for Saints, after Virgil and Tiss, he was also a key player in the best two seasons I can remember. It'd say we definitely got the best out of him, at least under Koeman, Ajax just gave him the chance to play CL football and a domestic league which Steve De Ridder tore to shreds. Lemina... well he's miraculously below us in the table, let's see if he has another tantrum and downs tools for Wolves too. Hojbjerg is Hojbjerg. Mr 7/10, an industrious ball recycler in any shirt. My personal answer to this question would be Gabbiadini. I know he's not uprooted any trees anywhere else but there were times when he looked like a hell of a player for us. I can't help but wonder how he might have done in a Koeman team, if we'd had him on the bench instead of Long. Sadio Mane was outstanding for us and for Liverpool. His 4 minute or so hat-trick aginst Villa at St Mary's was probably the finest performance from a Saints player that we have ever had the privilege to witness. Edited October 28 by Charlie Wayman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barsiem Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Delap is a good shout. Great player for Derby, largely crap for us, and the decent for Stoke. I'd suggest Skacel. Obviously was brilliant in the SPL, which would have been much closer in standard to the Championship at the time when we signed him. He did very little for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinjb Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Ricardo Fuller another one. Extremely unfairly maligned, essentially kept us in the Championship at the back end of 2006. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 (edited) On 26/10/2024 at 13:32, Turkish said: Anders Svenson. The Swedish David Beckham was a talented player but never really got the best out of him other than a few glimpses. Remember him being pushed out to left midfield a lot. Past comments from Anders S. on Swedish TV. (Strachan).. said that Anders was too much like Felice Fernandes and ......... he couldn't play both of us in the same game ! (Rednapp) ..he was hopeless as a manager. He never talked tactics, only a few words of encouragement in dressing room before we started. Anders rarely had the chance to play in his best role, yet was often best in the Swedish International squad. One of his better spells was when Saints beat Spurs twice in a week ...( Once in League, Once in FA Cup game ). He ran the midfield singlehandedly, and Spurs couldn't touch him ...and he scored a great solo goal. Edited October 28 by david in sweden 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 44 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said: Sadio Mane was outstanding for us and for Liverpool. His 4 minute or so hat-trick aginst Villa at St Mary's was probably the finest performance from a Saints player that we have ever had the privilege to witness. Tadic for me, scored a goal and set up six others in one game. That’ll never be beaten. Mané is the fifth best player I’ve seen for us, after the three I mentioned and Niemi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austsaint Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 8 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said: He was poor when he first joined. Air shots, missing open goals as at White Hart Lane. True, but he was bloody good by the time he went to Klopp. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austsaint Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 8 hours ago, Colinjb said: Ricardo Fuller another one. Extremely unfairly maligned, essentially kept us in the Championship at the back end of 2006. And only cost 90k from memory. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted October 28 Share Posted October 28 Nathan Tella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stud mark of doom Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 (edited) Alan Shearer Obviously quite good for us but also had some spells without scoring and was learning the game. I recall thinking we’d got a pretty good fee for him (may have been a record for an English player - branfoot claimed his replacements Speedie and Dixon would get more goals than him). Literally as soon as he joined Blackburn he was incredible - scoring brilliant goals often from distance (something I don’t recall him doing for us) and kept that standard up for a decade or more. I think he scored more goals for Blackburn in the August after signing than speedier and Dixon did jointly in their entire saints careers Edited October 29 by Stud mark of doom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkshire Saint Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 Kevin Danso has quickly made his way up this list. Some say he is world class... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midfield_General Posted October 29 Author Share Posted October 29 3 hours ago, Stud mark of doom said: Branfoot claimed his replacements Speedie and Dixon would get more goals than him). Both of those could be added to the list too. Speedie had scored a reasonable number of goals everywhere he’d been before he got to us, including 23 in the top flight the previous season at Blackburn before being basically forced to join us against his will as part of the deal they agreed to get Shearer. Didn’t want to come, joined a struggling team under a poor manager and was a fairly nasty piece of work by all accounts who just caused problems because he didn’t want to be here. Only ever played ten games, put the nut on someone (Terry Hurlock?) on a team-building away day I think, was sent out on loan and that was that. Carried on scoring a few more later in his career at Leicester. Dixon I don’t remember much about but he’d been a legend at Chelsea for the previous 10 years, scoring 147 goals in 335 appearances. I think he had injury problems when he joined as I hardly remember him playing? Must have recovered though as he went on to score 19 in 75 for Luton and 9 in 31 for Millwall after he left so he wasn’t finished by any means when he left us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Boy Saint Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 On 26/10/2024 at 13:23, Whitey Grandad said: We couldn’t afford him. Too expensive at £1million. Also Reading, where he was out of sorts - hence the loan, played silly buggers when a season with us showed his potential and got a bit greedy - the sort of thing that Cortese would have gone “sod you - we’ll shop elsewhere” - and then Reading did bugger all with him. As an aside - just read the thing in the Echo about the U21s 2-0 loss to Palace, towards the bottom it says that ABK has opted not to play with the Academy! I’d love a job like he’s got. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 7 hours ago, Yorkshire Saint said: Kevin Danso has quickly made his way up this list. Some say he is world class... Hasenhuttl took him on loan, yet never played him in his best role (as CB). His only real game time came in games we lost and he wasn't the worst player on the pitch either. Sadly, Danso has had some serious health issues of late, and I'm unsure of the latest update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 On 26/10/2024 at 14:23, Whitey Grandad said: We couldn’t afford him. Too expensive at £1million. Actually Whitey, I think Reading demanded £2 million. Way too much for " Skinflint Cortese ", who had seriously questioned why (at first) Alan Pardew wanted to pay £1 million for...Rickie Lambert. Just about shows his level of knowledge / expertise in the footballing world. Nigel Adkins continued to build his squad on " cheap buys " , and his squad that got us promotion in 2012...cost a mere £6 million in total. Cortese then paid out £25 million on fees for Ramirez and Osvaldo, both on high% interest borrowed money ...before reckoning the total cost of their enormous salaries on those long term contracts). Those deals almost bankrupted the club a second time . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkshire Saint Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 7 hours ago, david in sweden said: Hasenhuttl took him on loan, yet never played him in his best role (as CB). His only real game time came in games we lost and he wasn't the worst player on the pitch either. Sadly, Danso has had some serious health issues of late, and I'm unsure of the latest update. I hadn't heard about the health issues. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now