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Players we all thought were rubbish, but weren't


mcbendy

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I'll admit it. I watched Jan Bednarek's first few appearances for Saints and decided he was crap. Now he's one of the first names on the team sheet. The discussion about Alfie Jones had me wondering 'what do we know?'

 

Who else have we basically written off and then been proved wrong? Mane, Wanyama? Who else?

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I'll admit it. I watched Jan Bednarek's first few appearances for Saints and decided he was crap. Now he's one of the first names on the team sheet. The discussion about Alfie Jones had me wondering 'what do we know?'

 

Who else have we basically written off and then been proved wrong? Mane, Wanyama? Who else?

 

Shouldn’t it really be somebody who we literally all thought was rubbish like Iago Falque who was rubbish for us but carved himself a really good career for himself?

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This thread would probably be shorter than if there was a "players we thought were amazing when we signed them but turned out to be rubbish"!

 

I don't know about "rubbish", but Chris Marsden was a journeyman footballer that had barely played top flight football when we signed him, and he turned out to be a great bit of business.

 

Likewise with Beattie - part ex for Davies, plucked from Blackburn's youth team with no league goals to his name, barely anyone had heard of him, and he went on to be one of our best strikers of the 00's.

 

It's hard to define rubbish in this context though, as why would Saints sign someone who is rubbish! I suppose, for me, some of Dave Jones's older signings like Hirst and Palmer raised eyebrows, but both did jobs for us.

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Danny Fox?

 

Think he got allot more stick than he deserved.

 

Lallana often played on the left in front of Danny and way too often Lallana would drift into the middle leaving Danny Fox exposed or in 2 on 1 scenarios. Teams highlighted that and often concentrated their attacks down that side exposing that weakness reflecting badly on Fox.

 

It was part of the way we played during that period, Lallana drifting into the middle to overload midfield and offer creativity in the centre the downside was leaving the left flank exposed reflecting badly on Fox.

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I went the opposite way with Fox. I thought he was great but soon realised he was terrible.

 

What about that fellow that had a mare on his debut against Palace on the first day? Got beat 4-1 and it was all his fault then came back into the team about two months later and played a blinder.

 

I was quite underwhelmed with David Connolly, Dan Harding and Richard Chaplow (second time) but they all did a great job.

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I went the opposite way with Fox. I thought he was great but soon realised he was terrible.

 

What about that fellow that had a mare on his debut against Palace on the first day? Got beat 4-1 and it was all his fault then came back into the team about two months later and played a blinder.

 

I was quite underwhelmed with David Connolly, Dan Harding and Richard Chaplow (second time) but they all did a great job.

 

Alan Bennett.

 

He did look really useful for a spell but was always tarred with that horrible game.

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Mane thought he was toilet at first!

That’s because he was, and we suffered because of it. I was one of his biggest critics. It took him a long while to adjust to the Premier League which is why clubs like Liverpool prefer to let clubs like us develop them first.

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Who thought he was rubbish? I know there were a few morons booing him because he didn't set the world alight in his first few games, but I wouldn't count that. On paper, he looked a decent signing, and so he turned out to be.

 

Batman/Delldays

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Morgan Sxhneiderlin seemed lightweight and ineffectual for quite a while after he first came. Glad we stuck with him. Despite what happened to his career, he's still one of our best midfielders of all time.

 

Not a player, but Strachan as a manager had been hopeless before he came to us, and was hopeless after us, but he certainly got us playing. Adkins was an underwhelming appointment that resulted in some of the most exciting times to have been a saints supporter.

 

Otherwise I'd second Marsden as a player. Journeyman who became the heart of the team.

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Timmy Flowers got a hell of a lot of abuse when he first started playing for us, then turned out to be great (although his debut was comically bad).

Can remember a fair few getting on Claus' back at the start too (maybe deserved to be honest).

Matt Oakley was underrated by huge amounts of our support for nearly all of his career, but when he went it was obvious what he added.

Pelle got a fair bit of abuse when he first joined, though people softened to him.

Tadic was completely misjudged by many, then became a world beater after he left.

Mane was given dogs ear abuse on here by many people.

Redmond got the same treatment as Mane.

 

I'm sure there's more i've missed, but a hell of a lot of our support know very little about football.

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Didn't BT get a bit of stick in his early days at SFC?

 

Most players we sign get stick.

 

If you come through the academy you can get away with utter incompetence.

 

Remember, some fans still cling to the hope Hoedt can become VVD

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Ricardo Fuller. The best £90k we ever spent.

 

Was going to say fuller, To this day still the only ever first score correct score bet I have ever won was because of him .

Edited by simo
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Most players we sign get stick.

 

If you come through the academy you can get away with utter incompetence.

 

People still cling to the hope Hoedt can become VVD

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I think we all cling to that hope....but it wont happen :lol:

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Didn't BT get a bit of stick in his early days at SFC?

 

If I recall correctly he was good in his first season - didn't score many but showed some of his ability in that time. Then in his second season he struggled and everyone wrote him off.

 

I'd add Jo Tessem to the list, he looked pretty rubbish at first. But in fairness Dave Jones was playing him right back.

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Timmy Flowers got a hell of a lot of abuse when he first started playing for us, then turned out to be great (although his debut was comically bad).

Can remember a fair few getting on Claus' back at the start too (maybe deserved to be honest).

Matt Oakley was underrated by huge amounts of our support for nearly all of his career, but when he went it was obvious what he added.

Pelle got a fair bit of abuse when he first joined, though people softened to him.

Tadic was completely misjudged by many, then became a world beater after he left.

Mane was given dogs ear abuse on here by many people.

Redmond got the same treatment as Mane.

 

I'm sure there's more i've missed, but a hell of a lot of our support know very little about football.

 

That I completely agree with, some know very little and are stuck in the dark ages of hoof football, getting stuck in bla bla bla.

A lot of people on here hardly watch football outside of England, making some of their opinion comical as it is their only base reference.

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Mane thought he was toilet at first!

 

Hands up, me too. Even when he left I thought he was over-rated. To me his running with the ball always looked more accidental than skill (bit like Woody's description of Buzz Lightyear "that's not flying, that's falling with style" ).

 

Happy to admit how wrong I was.

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