Players ruined by a manager/club

[8MileBU]

Having seen Juan Mata come on for Man Utd against Chelsea a few days ago, I found myself thinking for the umpteenth time what a quality player he is but has never quite been utilised to the best of his ability in the “number 10” role.

Despite his successes and through no fault of his own, for me he’s one of those players I feel have been wasted to some extent during his time in England, whose talent and ability have never consistently been used properly to bring out the best in him. 

So P&Bers, which players at your club or any other club do you feel are absolute ‘ballers but have been ruined by not being used correctly?

Edited May 2, 2022 by 8MileBU

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Probably not the only Man Utd player thats been ruined tbf. Antonio Valencia is one that ive seen it claimed that he went from an exciting winger at wigan to a clogging workhorse at man utd. He still won plenty and iirc performed well over years with them, just lost/had some of the flair coached out of him.

Torres and Shevchenko at chelsea maybe?

Edited May 2, 2022 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Richey Edwards]

Celtic and Rangers (R.I.P.) used to sign whatever young up-and-coming Scottish players were at other SPL clubs then proceed to never play them.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Richey Edwards

[senorsoupe]

30 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Probably not the only Man Utd player thats been ruined tbf. Antonio Valencia is one that ive seen it claimed that he went from an exciting winger at wigan to a clogging workhorse at man utd. He still won plenty and iirc performed well over years with them, just lost/had some of the flair coached out of him.

Torres and Shevchenko at chelsea maybe?

Alexis Sanchez was another that was ruined by Man United.  Was one of the best players in the Barclays while at Arsenal and was complete garbage at Man United before being good again at Inter Milan

[VincentGuerin]

Hearts ruined Callum Elliott. He was an excellent young player who could have gone far in the game.

He was messed about by the turmoil at Hearts when he was a young man, and the disastrous decision to send him on loan to Motherwell for the 2006-07 season. A bad move for him and for Motherwell, and a move in which he was given no support whatsoever as a young man basically being left to fend for himself. It's quite sad to hear him talk about it.

He could have been a really good player.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

1 hour ago, Richey Edwards said:

Celtic and Rangers (R.I.P.) used to sign whatever young up-and-coming Scottish players were at other SPL clubs then proceed to never play them.

idk how good he really was/could have been but Alan Gow comes to mind, went from Falkirk to Rangers and pretty much stalled from then on. I think he was at Rangers (Reserves) til he was 23/24 and by that point the damage was done.

Scott Allan to Celtic was odd, pretty much signed purely as a GIRUY to Rangers*, again I think he was closer to mid-20's than a teenage prospect when he went to parkhead too. Might not have ruined him as such but afaik he hasnt really settled at any one club since then.

1 hour ago, VincentGuerin said:

Hearts ruined Callum Elliott. He was an excellent young player who could have gone far in the game.

He was messed about by the turmoil at Hearts when he was a young man, and the disastrous decision to send him on loan to Motherwell for the 2006-07 season. A bad move for him and for Motherwell, and a move in which he was given no support whatsoever as a young man basically being left to fend for himself. It's quite sad to hear him talk about it.

He could have been a really good player.

cant argue as you know more than i'll be able to recollect but iirc he did at least have a decent spell at Livi?

Edited May 2, 2022 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Richey Edwards]

7 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

idk how good he really was/could have been but Alan Gow comes to mind, went from Falkirk to Rangers and pretty much stalled from then on. I think he was at Rangers (Reserves) til he was 23/24 and by that point the damage was done.

Scott Allan to Celtic was odd, pretty much signed purely as a GIRUY to Rangers*, again I think he was closer to mid-20's than a teenage prospect when he went to parkhead too. Might not have ruined him as such but afaik he hasnt really settled at any one club since then.

Even if the players stalled after joining the OF teams, at least the clubs achieved their aim of weakening the opposition.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

Myself by the ICI Juveniles Manager in the late 80’s. Dundee Utd came to watch me for the 3rd time and the expectation had been set they would offer me Schoolboy terms. I fell out with the manager, was dropped from the squad for that game, left ICI at the end of the season and was never heard of again - of course I’m not bitter .

[RandomGuy.]

Oscar always strikes me as one who wasted their career, although I dunno if he technically fits into this thread.

In an alternative timeline he's currently balling for Barcelona and has 100 caps for Brazil. Instead he's spent 5 years doing nothing in China except earning shedloads of money and now finds himself 30 and relatively forgotten. 

[Bairnardo]

His move to Man U pretty much killed off previous mega-baller Juan Sebastian Verons top level career. A crying shame, he was a fucking Rolls Royce at Lazio

[8MileBU]

Joe Cole is another one that springs to mind. Bags of skill but just ended up being another “number 10” ruined by his era of Barclays inability to play folk in that role and lump them out on the wing to little effect instead.

Edited May 3, 2022 by 8MileBU

[VincentGuerin]

6 hours ago, 8MileBU said:

Joe Cole is another one that springs to mind. Bags of skill but just ended up being another “number 10” ruined by his era of Barclays inability to play folk in that role and lump them out on the wing to little effect instead.

Joe Cole would have been amazing in the 60s - 80s. He was a fantastic player, just emerged at a time when he wasn't wanted.

A proper shame.

[ICTChris]

I have a mate who saw Joe Cole play when he was just coming through and swore he was the best player he's ever seen playing in the flesh, except for Messi.  Obviously didn't quite work out like that and it was only the one game, an under 21 international I think.  Cole also played well for England when their squad usually played down interntionally, IIRC.

Every time I see Mata playing for United I have forgotten he's still there.

[Uncle Scan]

Can't argue with his medals total but I thought Ian Ferguson was a better footballing player than he showed at Rangers

[Richey Edwards]

Alan Trouten was brilliant for every club he played for apart from Ayr United. 

I think we played him in the wrong position constantly.

[ATLIS]

On 02/05/2022 at 19:48, Thistle_do_nicely said:

idk how good he really was/could have been but Alan Gow comes to mind, went from Falkirk to Rangers and pretty much stalled from then on. I think he was at Rangers (Reserves) til he was 23/24 and by that point the damage was done.

Scott Allan to Celtic was odd, pretty much signed purely as a GIRUY to Rangers*, again I think he was closer to mid-20's than a teenage prospect when he went to parkhead too. Might not have ruined him as such but afaik he hasnt really settled at any one club since then.

cant argue as you know more than i'll be able to recollect but iirc he did at least have a decent spell at Livi?

Callum Elliot did have a good season while on loan 11 in 13 apparently. A few years after he signed a PCA with us and then a few months afterwards done a 180 on it and signed for Raith.

Must've been a bit of a bittersweet thing for him but seems like we dodged a bit of a bullet:

[RandomGuy.]

6 hours ago, ATLIS said:

Callum Elliot did have a good season while on loan 11 in 13 apparently. A few years after he signed a PCA with us and then a few months afterwards done a 180 on it and signed for Raith.

Must've been a bit of a bittersweet thing for him but seems like we dodged a bit of a bullet:

There's a few players dotted about with these sort of "sliding doors" moments, where you think their career could've far better if it had gone through.

We had Rocco Quinn on loan in 07/08 from Celtic. Superb for us and was keen to join, but Celtic demanded 6 figures so it never happened.

We signed Chris Millar, who ended up making hundreds of appearances for us, has a Scottish Cup medal, and played in multiple European games.

Rocco Quinn was released by Celtic 6 months after his move to us fell through and spent his career dotting around middling Scottish sides achieving little before retiring at 30.

You wonder how their respective careers would've gone if he'd joined us when he had the chance.

[velo army]

On 03/05/2022 at 08:16, VincentGuerin said:

Joe Cole would have been amazing in the 60s - 80s. He was a fantastic player, just emerged at a time when he wasn't wanted.

A proper shame.

Aye could be a good nominee for the "wrong era" thread. When he was at West Ham he was a flair player doing tricks all over the shop. Wonderful player with a good career, but aye, in another era he'd have been magical.

 

[VincentGuerin]

9 hours ago, ATLIS said:

Callum Elliot did have a good season while on loan 11 in 13 apparently. A few years after he signed a PCA with us and then a few months afterwards done a 180 on it and signed for Raith.

Must've been a bit of a bittersweet thing for him but seems like we dodged a bit of a bullet:

When he came into the side under Burley and then Rix he looked a magnificent prospect.

Struggled for goals, but his movement and game awareness were excellent and he looked a couple of years' of development away from a really big move. Had to fill out a bit and add more goals, but he looked a tremendous player.

Hearts completely fucked him about and the move to Motherwell destroyed his confidence.

[TheScarf]

Dunno, I think Joe Cole had a pretty good career.  I'd say being a major part of a team winning 3 Pl titles is decent. There's 1000s of PL players who never came close to what he achieved in his career.