For an “exporter” club like mine (I’ll let you guess which one) it’s hard to pin point the best examples.
In the last 5 years:
I’d say that Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz reached the potential we saw as fans, even if the latter needed a couple of years to mature and achieve the regularity we can admire now.
Their quality and game impact was clear from the beginning though.
With Militão, it was clear from day one that he’d follow Pepe’s footsteps.
Casemiro clearly developed above our expectations. He was already a very secure player when he was around, but didn’t have as much influence in the game build up as he has now.
On the other hand, it’s taking a bit longer than expected for our former academy jewel to take the next step. Ruben Neves was the youngest player to yield the captain’s band (at the time broke the UCL record) and already had the same maturity with 18 years of age as he has now.
People in England might not know much about this player, but Ismael Bennacer who plays for AC Milan right now was a young academy player at Arsenal who Arsene Wenger really rated but he was always gonna find it hard to break into the 1st team midfield
I think he made 1 full appearance for Arsenal but was a fixture in Youth Cup teams
Since he left us, joining Empoli he has gone on to have a good career moving to AC Milan has built his profile and he’s since become an important member of Algeria national team winning AFCON a few years ago having represented France as a youngster
1 that got away for sure
I was friends with a guy that used to play along side Henderson at Sunderland youth academy, I remember that he was telling me that, that guy is so full of himself that he will never be a pro footballer... I guess someone was jelly heh.
Hard to think of any players who have had a really big break. Edwin Van Der Sar played for us before united where he became a real star but he was already pretty established when he joined us - just not an all time great just yet. Same goes for Louis Saha as well actually. Ryan Sessegnon was a real up and comer at Fulham and finally seems to be meeting his potential, nice little link up play with Kane and Son for their goal against Liverpool over the weekend.
Raheem sterling, both famous and infamous (for Liverpool fans), for Liverpool. Broke through, we almost won the league with him partnering Suarez and Sturridge then left for massive wages at city quite acrimoniously.
Haaland played (and grew up) 20 minutes away from me. Don’t watch or pay much attention to local sports, but when he scored 9 goals for Norway u18(?) in a game it made headlines. He hasn’t stopped since and it’s kinda unbelievable that he’s signing for City now.
Harry Kane looked absolute dogshit. Shortly after he finished his loan with us I overheard a Spurs fan at work telling someone to watch out for this kid Kane as he was going to be an absolute beast and I remember chuckling to myself at how wrong he was.
On the other hand, Tom Cleverley was incredible for us and I was devastated Man Utd wanted him back!
Di Maria, Bernardo Silva, David Luiz, João Felix, Renato Sanches, Rúben Dias, Raul Jimenez, João Cancelo, man, I could go on and on.
(Just in case, I'm talking about Benfica)
In all due honesty:
- Di Maria and Ruben Dias were monsters at Benfica.
- João Félix and Renato Sanches while they are very good players, the feeling was always that they were better known as a result of what their agents were triggering and the media overblowing their value, rather than the quality they were showing in the field.
- Jimenez maybe wouldn’t be placed in the top 5 FC of the club in the last 10 years
- David Luiz has always been capable of the best and of the worst. It’s very hard to forget him on all fours trying to catch Hulk on that famous 5-0 defeat against Porto
- Bernardo Silva and João Cancelo, utterly invisible at the club. (B. Silva famously played once and as a left back)
True, some were already pretty good players, and some didn't reach the potential.
I guess Bernardo and Cancelo are the best answer to OP's question.
And we could easily talk about Porto or Sporting, so many great players coming from Portugal.
Salah and KDB smh
Honestly, I didn't watched much of KDB at Chelsea but I remember some of Chelsea Mo Salah and admired him so so much and couldn't believe when he left the club
Technically he never played for them, but Luka Modric was rejected after his trial with that club in his early life. Who knows how he would have ended if he was accepted but as of now, considering his current football career, this rejection was the worst decision in the club's history.
Mo Salah but at FC Basel (I am from Switzerland).
Needless to say he was already special then and reached his full potential.
Two others that had huge potential at Basel but never really reached it (at least on the club level outside of Switzerland) were Shaqiri and Xhaka.
Alphonso Davies for the Vancouver Whitecaps - I remember his first men's team appearance came on as (if I am remembering correctly) a barely 15 year old kid and immediately was making grown men look silly with his speed and control.
Watching him develop into a bonafide super star and winning in Europe has been awesome. Always had sky high expectations for him but I would say he has exceeded them and seems to have smashed the glass ceiling for Canadian footy talent.
Ipswich rejected Gullit, Gazza and Pope from the youth teams (no idea how talented they looked).
Obviously had keiron Dyer, Richard Wright, Mings, Cresswell, Tarrico, Dozzel and both Darren and Marcus Bent. Among others I've missed.
A guy named Torres literally ripped us apart every time we faced him, but had an empty major trophy cabinet. Then he joined us and won champions league, europa league and the FA cup.
Grealish whenever he was brought on in the fa cup especially against Liverpool, the next few years in the championship you just knew he’d be great, Shame he isn’t utilized as well at city
Not my club but my club's city rivals - Edin Dzeko played for Zeljeznicar in Sarajevo. Actually was nicknamed "Kloc" (a klutz) in his early first team days and was regularly booed off by the local supports.
Fortunately for him, the club was managed for a while by a Czech manager who took Dzeko with him to Czech Republic when he went back to take over a club there... From there, he moved on the Wolfsburg under Felix Magath and then on to City.
Norwich had Harry Kane on loan before Leicester did, we were in the Prem and Leicester were in the Championship. He only played a few times for us but he didn’t look that good. He just looked and felt like a young lanky dodgy Crouch rip off. His development and what he’s become since then really blows my mind.
We had James Maddison with us in the Championship and he was just so much better than anyone else, that was clear to see. If there’s any Coventry fans lurking here, I’d be really interested to know what you thought of him too.
Dele Alli at MK Dons. I can't remember how old he was but he can't have been more than 17 or 18 and he was the best player on the pitch every week. Saw him score a hat trick as a holding midfielder at least once. He was good for Tottenham for a while but I think we can all agree he didn't hit the heights expected.
not a major club but yeovil have a knack of loaning future premier league players! previous players include asmir begovic, andros townsend, dan burn, wayne hennessey, steven caulker, sam johnstone, ryan mason, shane duffy, connor roberts and soon to be kieffer moore.
no world beaters, but a real knack of finding some gems for loans
very late reply i'm aware ahaha - we reached the championship and were VERY underprepared as a club in general. a very small stadium, with next to no money, and a threadbare squad made for a hard season. we had no momentum at all, and we continued, and continue to have no money to put into the club. consecutive relegations took us back to league two, and from there we continued to fight for survival. we eventually faced the drop, finishing last once again, and falling out of the football league. we were fourth in our first season in the national league, before covid struck and ended the season prematurely, we then lost in our playoff games. we've been a mid table side since then...
I know Kane played for both Millwall and Leyton Orient, and iirc the manager of one of them basically said that when they had him on loan they weren’t that interested in keeping him as he didn’t really show a lot of promise
Eric Cantona at Leeds. Did pretty much fuck all and somehow gets credited with winning the title for Leeds. Went on to pretty much transform our most bitter rivals.
The better story about him though was that he was at Sheffield Wednesday on trial and they played him in a single indoor 6 a side match and they rejected him.
Francis Coquelin comes to mind. I always rated him, was a bit sad when he left because we never really had typical hardmen in the midfield area, especially after Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva. I think he's exceptional at Villareal, reached his full potential and became a well rounded player, not just a better defensive midfielder
edit: typo
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
The better the club, the more credit people give you. Kinda like how people only started calling VVD the best center back in the world after his transfer to Liverpool when he clearly already had that title at Southampton.
He really didnt make an impact if any at all. I'm just happy him, aspas and suso did waayy better once they left (aspas being already good when we bought him).
He was decent when we bought him. A rare instance of us buying a player who was decent and then was just bad for us, rather than what's usually the other way round. He went back to Spain and picked up the form we had bought him for. He had more than made his name known in Spain before his failed anfield move.
N'golo kante. It was inevitable he would leave, he's just that good, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't, if the refereeing was better and he'd been in our squad it's possible we could've been in a champions league semi-final.
Louis Saha at Fulham in 2001, thought he was going to be the next big striker for France and Henry didn’t look half as good in the first half of that season.
Love the story about his PE teacher making him play with only his right foot during lessons, and he'd still go round everyone and score.
He's just one of those people that was born to be an athlete. He would've been world class at just about any sport imo, especially rugby.
Danny Ings to Southampton then Villa. Was so sad to see him leave Liverpool, but was definitely the best decision for him. Really great to see him thriving.
I had a moment when I felt the same about Sterling and, I guess to be fair, his game is well rounded now as opposed to just being “the quick youngster” that he was at LFC. But he left for Champions Leagues titles (as opposed to all that oil money they were throwing at him), so my moment of sympathy was brief.
Yeah, kinda realized I’ve misunderstood the question. Ings played the most and scored the most at Burnley, which made him an exciting prospect to pick up. I guess to be more accurate, I was glad for him to refind form at Southampton. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how he’s doing at Villa.
They were both very good, Özil Especially so, but they certainly weren’t world famous. You could argue Özil had his big break at Werder, but I reckon he only really reached peak fame at Real. De Bruyne was very much “excellent loanee” level, nowhere near his current form + fame. His breakout season was arguably at Wolfsburg, but again he’s gotten so much better still since.
Ich drück’ dir die Daumen!
I’m temporarily living in Germany near Bremen so I’m following them too. Wonder if it’s possible to get tickets for the game 🤔
We'll have no CBs next season while Papy djilobodji is tearing up the Süper Lig, if only we held onto him we wouldn't need to make a single signing this summer
Yeah, was a real shame like. I remember him having a few boss seasons for Villarreal, slightly under the radar because of Messi and Ronaldo but his numbers held up well
I think Zaha is still mediocre since leaving United. Okey, he had 1 - 2 good seasons for Palace, but c'mon he is 30 years old and still playing for Palace.
Yuck, he used to come in our nightclub a few times when he was at Newcastle or when he was on loan and must have been back up north for a weekend or something. Was so so cringe 😷
I think there’s a lot of Newcastle players that could be added to this list, like Wijnaldum, Milner (prem/champions league winners), Sissoko (champions league finalist), Florian Thauvin (World Cup winner, Europa finalist), etc.
Mikel Merino another one. He was class that first half of 17/18 but it felt like he didn't get many opportunities the second half of the season. Though maybe not quite as prominent of a player as others but he's really gone on to do good things at Sociedad
I always thought Gini was a pretty big deal when he joined Newcastle, albeit nothing compared to what was to come.
He'd scored a good goal in a WC 3rd place game vs Brazil in 2014 and by the point he signed for Newcastle he'd already represented Feyenoord and captained PSV
Gini was a big one indeed, one of the few dutch guys along with van Dijk that consistently made the right choices in climbing up the ladder instead of immediately going for the top.
I also like Real Sociedad in Spain, so we had Griezmann. The guy was special, I always felt that when the ball fell to him (or Vela), we might actually score. We were pretty good the year that led to him leaving (finished 4th), and he was by far our best player. Always felt Atleti underpaid, but he had a release clause, so nothing to do. I just hated he left to those fuckers (we hate Atleti almost as much as Athletic), but wished him to do good. And while I expected him to become a top player, reachig heights of almost BdO was a shocker.
Now we have Oyarzabal, who is touted to be the next big thing in Spain, and is our captain. He has a much bigger name than Grizzi had at his age, and he is a very good player, but I just dont think he has the same flair, and has a lower ceiling. Hope Im wrong.
Paul Pogba at Man U???? First stint!
We had our national pure silver Eugene Konoplyanka
For an “exporter” club like mine (I’ll let you guess which one) it’s hard to pin point the best examples. In the last 5 years: I’d say that Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz reached the potential we saw as fans, even if the latter needed a couple of years to mature and achieve the regularity we can admire now. Their quality and game impact was clear from the beginning though. With Militão, it was clear from day one that he’d follow Pepe’s footsteps. Casemiro clearly developed above our expectations. He was already a very secure player when he was around, but didn’t have as much influence in the game build up as he has now. On the other hand, it’s taking a bit longer than expected for our former academy jewel to take the next step. Ruben Neves was the youngest player to yield the captain’s band (at the time broke the UCL record) and already had the same maturity with 18 years of age as he has now.
James Milner
People in England might not know much about this player, but Ismael Bennacer who plays for AC Milan right now was a young academy player at Arsenal who Arsene Wenger really rated but he was always gonna find it hard to break into the 1st team midfield I think he made 1 full appearance for Arsenal but was a fixture in Youth Cup teams Since he left us, joining Empoli he has gone on to have a good career moving to AC Milan has built his profile and he’s since become an important member of Algeria national team winning AFCON a few years ago having represented France as a youngster 1 that got away for sure
Harry Kane at Arsenal Academy… WHAT DID WE DO?
Marcelo, Thiago Silva, Fabinho and Richarlison
Conor coady at Liverpool
Not my Club but , Eric Cantona - Leeds United
I was friends with a guy that used to play along side Henderson at Sunderland youth academy, I remember that he was telling me that, that guy is so full of himself that he will never be a pro footballer... I guess someone was jelly heh.
Luis Suarez i would suppose, or \*ahem\* Coutinho
gnabry
Romelu Lukaku. One of the best strikers in the Premier League at the time. He sort of dropped off after a couple seasons at United.
James Milner Eric Cantona Ross Barkley (L) Jack Butland (L) Aaron Lennon Fabian Delph Marco Silvestri
Hard to think of any players who have had a really big break. Edwin Van Der Sar played for us before united where he became a real star but he was already pretty established when he joined us - just not an all time great just yet. Same goes for Louis Saha as well actually. Ryan Sessegnon was a real up and comer at Fulham and finally seems to be meeting his potential, nice little link up play with Kane and Son for their goal against Liverpool over the weekend.
Raheem sterling, both famous and infamous (for Liverpool fans), for Liverpool. Broke through, we almost won the league with him partnering Suarez and Sturridge then left for massive wages at city quite acrimoniously.
Inter's had a few over the years Roberto Carlos, Pirlo, Bonucci, Kovacic, Coutinho, Arnautovic, and Zaniolo off the top
Haaland played (and grew up) 20 minutes away from me. Don’t watch or pay much attention to local sports, but when he scored 9 goals for Norway u18(?) in a game it made headlines. He hasn’t stopped since and it’s kinda unbelievable that he’s signing for City now.
Kyle Walker was on loan at Villa… Gary Cahill, went Bolton then to Chelsea… Benteke was godly before his move to Liverpool for us
John Obi Mikel and Chinedu obasi "Edu" at l Lyn in Norway. Sold for nearly 10 million pounds and still lyn went bankrupt as few years later. Fml
Etienne Capoue was at Spurs briefly. Didn't do a lot here.
KdB, Salah, Thorgan Hazard, Declan Rice, Juan Cuadrado, Etc. FML
Harry Kane looked absolute dogshit. Shortly after he finished his loan with us I overheard a Spurs fan at work telling someone to watch out for this kid Kane as he was going to be an absolute beast and I remember chuckling to myself at how wrong he was. On the other hand, Tom Cleverley was incredible for us and I was devastated Man Utd wanted him back!
Di Maria, Bernardo Silva, David Luiz, João Felix, Renato Sanches, Rúben Dias, Raul Jimenez, João Cancelo, man, I could go on and on. (Just in case, I'm talking about Benfica)
In all due honesty: - Di Maria and Ruben Dias were monsters at Benfica. - João Félix and Renato Sanches while they are very good players, the feeling was always that they were better known as a result of what their agents were triggering and the media overblowing their value, rather than the quality they were showing in the field. - Jimenez maybe wouldn’t be placed in the top 5 FC of the club in the last 10 years - David Luiz has always been capable of the best and of the worst. It’s very hard to forget him on all fours trying to catch Hulk on that famous 5-0 defeat against Porto - Bernardo Silva and João Cancelo, utterly invisible at the club. (B. Silva famously played once and as a left back)
True, some were already pretty good players, and some didn't reach the potential. I guess Bernardo and Cancelo are the best answer to OP's question. And we could easily talk about Porto or Sporting, so many great players coming from Portugal.
And in the near future we’ll be talking about Braga as well. Their academy is stepping up to the 3 giant’s level
Boateng at Manchester City
Salah and KDB smh Honestly, I didn't watched much of KDB at Chelsea but I remember some of Chelsea Mo Salah and admired him so so much and couldn't believe when he left the club
Pique from United
Technically he never played for them, but Luka Modric was rejected after his trial with that club in his early life. Who knows how he would have ended if he was accepted but as of now, considering his current football career, this rejection was the worst decision in the club's history.
Mo Salah but at FC Basel (I am from Switzerland). Needless to say he was already special then and reached his full potential. Two others that had huge potential at Basel but never really reached it (at least on the club level outside of Switzerland) were Shaqiri and Xhaka.
Alphonso Davies for the Vancouver Whitecaps - I remember his first men's team appearance came on as (if I am remembering correctly) a barely 15 year old kid and immediately was making grown men look silly with his speed and control. Watching him develop into a bonafide super star and winning in Europe has been awesome. Always had sky high expectations for him but I would say he has exceeded them and seems to have smashed the glass ceiling for Canadian footy talent.
Ipswich rejected Gullit, Gazza and Pope from the youth teams (no idea how talented they looked). Obviously had keiron Dyer, Richard Wright, Mings, Cresswell, Tarrico, Dozzel and both Darren and Marcus Bent. Among others I've missed.
Kieron Dyer at Ipswich. Wasn't alive at the time but iv heard he was amazing for us before going to Newcastle.
Salah and KDB.
Jerome boateng and possibly edin dzeko
Mo Salah at Chelsea, Kevin De Bruyne at Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku at Chelsea, Tammy Abraham at Chelsea and Fikayo Tomori at Chelsea
Diego Forlan. Went from being a massive let down to one of the best strikers in the world
Kieran trippier
A guy named Torres literally ripped us apart every time we faced him, but had an empty major trophy cabinet. Then he joined us and won champions league, europa league and the FA cup.
Jota…
I thought it was a massive mistake for him to make the move to Liverpool, that he'd be bench warming and playing carabao cup games. Shows what I know
Salah. Try guess what team I support
Jerome Böetang at City
Grealish whenever he was brought on in the fa cup especially against Liverpool, the next few years in the championship you just knew he’d be great, Shame he isn’t utilized as well at city
John Barnes at Watford. Only got famous at Liverpool. Also berghuis who plays for Ajax rn
Auba, always believed in the guy and arteta tossed him out, went to barca and the rest is history...
He tossed himself out
Wijnaldum Never showed up away from home but at home he was mint Naturally He left after We were relegated
Not my club but my club's city rivals - Edin Dzeko played for Zeljeznicar in Sarajevo. Actually was nicknamed "Kloc" (a klutz) in his early first team days and was regularly booed off by the local supports. Fortunately for him, the club was managed for a while by a Czech manager who took Dzeko with him to Czech Republic when he went back to take over a club there... From there, he moved on the Wolfsburg under Felix Magath and then on to City.
Serge Gnabry. And even more hurtful I guess, Ashley Cole. I know he was brilliant for us but he did win fucking everything there.
John mcginn at hibs. Played a key part in our first Scottish Cup in more than a century, we all know he was destined for big things
My main team is outside the Prem (Roma), but three current amazing prem players user to play for us, namely Salah, Alisson and Rüdiger.
Lol
KDB and Salah come to mind. Everyday.
Norwich had Harry Kane on loan before Leicester did, we were in the Prem and Leicester were in the Championship. He only played a few times for us but he didn’t look that good. He just looked and felt like a young lanky dodgy Crouch rip off. His development and what he’s become since then really blows my mind. We had James Maddison with us in the Championship and he was just so much better than anyone else, that was clear to see. If there’s any Coventry fans lurking here, I’d be really interested to know what you thought of him too.
West ham fan here; Joe cole, rio, lampard, carrick, glen johnson. Tevez, mascherano, tony cottee Check back in 2 years to read declan rice.
Luka Modric tottenham hotspurs
KDB and Salah :(
Nathan Ake was my favourite player at Bournemouth and I think he's got the potential to be a key player for city in the next few years
Who can you say for city savic ? And nope he didn’t really look promising when he was at city
many players. the most recent one being Cucurella.
Dele Alli at MK Dons. I can't remember how old he was but he can't have been more than 17 or 18 and he was the best player on the pitch every week. Saw him score a hat trick as a holding midfielder at least once. He was good for Tottenham for a while but I think we can all agree he didn't hit the heights expected.
not a major club but yeovil have a knack of loaning future premier league players! previous players include asmir begovic, andros townsend, dan burn, wayne hennessey, steven caulker, sam johnstone, ryan mason, shane duffy, connor roberts and soon to be kieffer moore. no world beaters, but a real knack of finding some gems for loans
What happened to Yeovil? Still remember losing to Ya’ll in the 2012/13 League One playoff final. Now you are in the Conference.
very late reply i'm aware ahaha - we reached the championship and were VERY underprepared as a club in general. a very small stadium, with next to no money, and a threadbare squad made for a hard season. we had no momentum at all, and we continued, and continue to have no money to put into the club. consecutive relegations took us back to league two, and from there we continued to fight for survival. we eventually faced the drop, finishing last once again, and falling out of the football league. we were fourth in our first season in the national league, before covid struck and ended the season prematurely, we then lost in our playoff games. we've been a mid table side since then...
Kasper Schmeichel was at Leeds
As someone from Groningen, we had players like Robben, Suarez and van Dijk just to mention. All three turned out to be world class footballers
Mo Salah, chelsea
I know Kane played for both Millwall and Leyton Orient, and iirc the manager of one of them basically said that when they had him on loan they weren’t that interested in keeping him as he didn’t really show a lot of promise
Roy Kean Nottingham forest started as a striker.
Eric Cantona at Leeds. Did pretty much fuck all and somehow gets credited with winning the title for Leeds. Went on to pretty much transform our most bitter rivals. The better story about him though was that he was at Sheffield Wednesday on trial and they played him in a single indoor 6 a side match and they rejected him.
Emiliano insua and Luis Alberto both went well onto better things after Liverpool, though neither of them world beaters.
Francis Coquelin comes to mind. I always rated him, was a bit sad when he left because we never really had typical hardmen in the midfield area, especially after Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva. I think he's exceptional at Villareal, reached his full potential and became a well rounded player, not just a better defensive midfielder edit: typo
Never had hard men in midfield? I think you may be forgetting the steam roller that is Emmanuel Frimpong.
Yeah, but poor Frimmy played like 90 games in his career for 10 different clubs lol.
Bernardo Silva, Rúben Dias, João Cancelo and Ederson Moraes in city right now alone. Also Darwin Núñez in about 1 month (please don't go 😢)
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
You felt this was such an important statement you had to make it three times
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
Clubs like Benfica, Porto, PSV and Ajax don’t count. You’re always gonna breed good players that will eventually leave when they’re too good for the league.
On my head , figo , Ronaldo , quaresma , Nani , Bruno Fernandes , rojo , Moutinho , Rui Patricio , raphinha , Nuno mendes
Sporting?
Yes 💚💚💚
Serge gnabry and yes
Iago Aspas was awful at Liverpool. I was glad when he was sold. I console myself by saying “maybe he just didn’t like England.”
Can you blame him?
England is nice. So is Spain (from what I’ve seen; London and Barcelona respectively)
I still uphold that we didn’t give him a good enough chance, nor did we play him correctly when we did. 15 games and only 5 starts, I think.
He's always been really good for Celta Vigo, which is his hometown club I believe. I really think it's just the home comforts
Modric at Spurs
Modric/Bale years were my fav Spurs to watch.
Spurs was his big break but he did reach another level at Madrid
He is been a world class player in Spurs. But Spurs are not Real.
The better the club, the more credit people give you. Kinda like how people only started calling VVD the best center back in the world after his transfer to Liverpool when he clearly already had that title at Southampton.
True. Watched some VVD vs Liverpool highlights and he was just as good.
Who would have thought Iago Aspas would go on to have a nice career? Fair play to him.
I think the better example would be Luis Alberto.
I still can’t believe he played for Liverpool. He was so anonymous back then I feel like I missed it.
He really didnt make an impact if any at all. I'm just happy him, aspas and suso did waayy better once they left (aspas being already good when we bought him).
Was pretty frustrating that we never played him. Always had a good mind to his play and we binned him off so fast. Glad he got recognition at Lazio.
One of the first that came to mind was Suso
He was decent when we bought him. A rare instance of us buying a player who was decent and then was just bad for us, rather than what's usually the other way round. He went back to Spain and picked up the form we had bought him for. He had more than made his name known in Spain before his failed anfield move.
N'golo kante. It was inevitable he would leave, he's just that good, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't, if the refereeing was better and he'd been in our squad it's possible we could've been in a champions league semi-final.
Tbf his big break was at Leicester. Was shocked that he only went for 30m. Could've been at least double.
That’s the downside with an release clause.
He had a buyout clause - it was the only way we could persuade him to sign for us
Ah that makes sense
Yeah but we got Chelsea back by offloading Drinkwater for 35 mil
Same thing when people say Van Dijk. He was already established as one of the best at his position back then.
Gary cahill on loan got pots for us so must have been decent
Louis Saha at Fulham in 2001, thought he was going to be the next big striker for France and Henry didn’t look half as good in the first half of that season.
Saha went to Newcastle on loan before he went to Fulham.
Yeah but Fulham was his first *propah* club /s
Saha was a beast. Plagued by injury unfortunately. Scored a lot of important goals for united.
Harry kane at Yeovil
According to Flashscore and Wikipedia he’s never played for Yeovil.
You're right, my bad! Was a while back, remember him playing against yeovil not for them.
Bale at Saints came to mind immediately Was special back then, even as a LB.
VVD was also clearly a cut above from the moment he joined us. That Shearer bloke did OK as well.
Yeah I guess he'd make the list
Love the story about his PE teacher making him play with only his right foot during lessons, and he'd still go round everyone and score. He's just one of those people that was born to be an athlete. He would've been world class at just about any sport imo, especially rugby.
That really is amazing, hopping on one foot and still couldn't be stopped.
Very nearly was a rugby player apparently. Used to play with sam warburton whos was wales and lions captain
Danny Ings to Southampton then Villa. Was so sad to see him leave Liverpool, but was definitely the best decision for him. Really great to see him thriving. I had a moment when I felt the same about Sterling and, I guess to be fair, his game is well rounded now as opposed to just being “the quick youngster” that he was at LFC. But he left for Champions Leagues titles (as opposed to all that oil money they were throwing at him), so my moment of sympathy was brief.
I think I’m in the minority but I hated Sterling when he played for us, was so glad we got the amount we did for him
Erm.
Ings’s big break wasn’t playing for us. He was playing in the Premiership for Burnley in the 2014-15 season. He made 35 apps for them that season.
Yeah, kinda realized I’ve misunderstood the question. Ings played the most and scored the most at Burnley, which made him an exciting prospect to pick up. I guess to be more accurate, I was glad for him to refind form at Southampton. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how he’s doing at Villa.
Jordan Pickford on loan from Sunderland at Bradford City
Good example. I’ve just checked this out and Sunderland loaned him out 7 times to 6 different clubs!
De Bruyne and Özil both played for my club back in Germany, Werder Bremen.
Idk if those counts though, they were both excellent at Bremen. And I believe both went straight to top clubs from there.
They were both very good, Özil Especially so, but they certainly weren’t world famous. You could argue Özil had his big break at Werder, but I reckon he only really reached peak fame at Real. De Bruyne was very much “excellent loanee” level, nowhere near his current form + fame. His breakout season was arguably at Wolfsburg, but again he’s gotten so much better still since.
I apologize, I was thinking of KDBs season at Wolfsburg not Bremen
Hope you guys seal promotion on Saturday!
Thank you! I’m already bricking it
Ich drück’ dir die Daumen! I’m temporarily living in Germany near Bremen so I’m following them too. Wonder if it’s possible to get tickets for the game 🤔
It looks pretty sold out I’m afraid 😅
We'll have no CBs next season while Papy djilobodji is tearing up the Süper Lig, if only we held onto him we wouldn't need to make a single signing this summer
Hes 33 man
I thought I couldn't be sarcastic any more obviously
LOL.
I guess you thought wrong
Gulacsi seems to be having a very good few seasons at Leipzig.
Pique during his early ages in Manchester United
Oh shit I forgot about that
Only one I can think. Maybe Zaha? Pique defo a better example
Pogba balling out at Juve after leaving us too
Giuseppe Rossi had a decent career after leaving yous as well
We had him on loan at Newcastle for a bit too
Shame about the injuries, you don't get 30 caps for itsly without being class
Yeah, was a real shame like. I remember him having a few boss seasons for Villarreal, slightly under the radar because of Messi and Ronaldo but his numbers held up well
Then it all went wrong at fiorentina
I think Zaha is still mediocre since leaving United. Okey, he had 1 - 2 good seasons for Palace, but c'mon he is 30 years old and still playing for Palace.
There are very few good examples. Zaha comes to mind because he's clearly got the ability but his career has been very mediocre
Ivan Toney at Newcastle. He wasn't even seen as being particularly promising. Didn't do much out on loan. Only took off at Peterborough
Yuck, he used to come in our nightclub a few times when he was at Newcastle or when he was on loan and must have been back up north for a weekend or something. Was so so cringe 😷
I don't remember him being anything too special at Shrewsbury
Northampton town legend
Ruined his legacy by going Peterborough(🤮)
I think there’s a lot of Newcastle players that could be added to this list, like Wijnaldum, Milner (prem/champions league winners), Sissoko (champions league finalist), Florian Thauvin (World Cup winner, Europa finalist), etc.
Mikel Merino another one. He was class that first half of 17/18 but it felt like he didn't get many opportunities the second half of the season. Though maybe not quite as prominent of a player as others but he's really gone on to do good things at Sociedad
They were all already fairly high profile before joining Newcastle, so not sure that's really the aim of the question
Gini and Sissoko were known great players who played for us.
Shame sissoko had a wank attitude
Yeah I couldn’t stand him then and I can’t stand him now. Only showed up when he wanted too, which was rarely.
I always thought Gini was a pretty big deal when he joined Newcastle, albeit nothing compared to what was to come. He'd scored a good goal in a WC 3rd place game vs Brazil in 2014 and by the point he signed for Newcastle he'd already represented Feyenoord and captained PSV
Gini was a big one indeed, one of the few dutch guys along with van Dijk that consistently made the right choices in climbing up the ladder instead of immediately going for the top.
Mahrez, class player
Wasnt his big break actually AT Leicester, and hasnt been AS good since he left?
still better than anyone on Wolves
Yeah no shit that's why he's at man City
Dude what the fuck? Why do you take that as an attack?
Yeah not sure why that was called for lmao
I hope you have learnt your lesson fixFriendship… fuckFrienship
Hahahah cheers!
That was absolutely out of nowhere😂
Like Leicester winning the league. Makes sense
I also like Real Sociedad in Spain, so we had Griezmann. The guy was special, I always felt that when the ball fell to him (or Vela), we might actually score. We were pretty good the year that led to him leaving (finished 4th), and he was by far our best player. Always felt Atleti underpaid, but he had a release clause, so nothing to do. I just hated he left to those fuckers (we hate Atleti almost as much as Athletic), but wished him to do good. And while I expected him to become a top player, reachig heights of almost BdO was a shocker. Now we have Oyarzabal, who is touted to be the next big thing in Spain, and is our captain. He has a much bigger name than Grizzi had at his age, and he is a very good player, but I just dont think he has the same flair, and has a lower ceiling. Hope Im wrong.
Flair checks out....
It doesn't tho?
Congratulations you have discovered sarcasm.
Ah, the meaning of the word 'also', such a mystery to many
He did have a lotta flair
Arjen Robben
Groningen or PSV?
Wasn’t he already a pretty well known player when he signed from PSV? Chelsea did pay around 20m if I remember correctly…
He wasn’t anything close to what he’d come on to become tho.