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Most overrated players we signed that never became good


WhiskeyJar
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Phil Babb. 

 

Had a good world Cup in 94 and turned out to be absolutely shite and honestly one of the worst defenders I've ever seen pull on the red shirt. They only thing of note he ever did was smash his bolllocks against the post against Chelsea.

 

Made Lovren look like Maldini. 

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5 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

Phil Babb. 

 

Had a good world Cup in 94 and turned out to be absolutely shite and honestly one of the worst defenders I've ever seen pull on the red shirt. They only thing of note he ever did was smash his bolllocks against the post against Chelsea.

 

Made Lovren look like Maldini. 

Smashed bollocks rep.

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8 minutes ago, Duff Man said:

Not sure he had much hype around him when he joined us. He was highly rated as a youngster at Arsenal, but by the time he came here most people just considered him an average Premiership winger available on the cheap.

 

And desperately wanted Dani Alves instead of the little prick.

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4 hours ago, Section_31 said:

Morientes. To be fair Ballague called it before he even landed, basically said he's a lazy bastard who's scared of getting hit with the ball.

Smarter people than me had said for years that Morientes was ideal for the Premier League.
My impression, after seeing him for us, was that the ‘Ideal for the Premier League’ aspects of his game - hard-working and good in the air - was stuff that guys who already played in England could do better. But he’d been excellent for Real, and no slouch for Spain and Monaco. So I spent most of his time here waiting for him to come good. Without success. 

IMO his downfall was joining us mid-season, rather than as part of the Michael Owen deal. If he’d arrived over the summer, and been part of the side who made their way to Istanbul, it could have been a different story. But whilst we hadn’t played Owen in the qualifying rounds in order to stop him getting cup-tied, Real had no such qualms and also wouldn’t sell him to us until January.  Poor sod. 

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1 minute ago, Ron B said:

Smarter people than me had said for years that Morientes was ideal for the Premier League.
My impression, after seeing him for us, was that the ‘Ideal for the Premier League’ aspects of his game - hard-working and good in the air - was stuff that guys who already played in England could do better. But he’d been excellent for Real, and no slouch for Spain and Monaco. So I spent most of his time here waiting for him to come good. Without success. 

IMO his downfall was joining us mid-season, rather than as part of the Michael Owen deal. If he’d arrived over the summer, and been part of the side who made their way to Istanbul, it could have been a different story. But whilst we hadn’t played Owen in the qualifying rounds in order to stop him getting cup-tied, Real had no such qualms and also wouldn’t sell him to us until January.  Poor sod. 

At the time, I thought Morientes was a great signing for us. He seemed to be on top of his game at Monaco. Maybe that league gave a false impression? Still cannot forget him missing that open goal in that World Club Championship game.

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"Liverpool have purchased a special player in Sebastian Coates. A lot of young players are as talented and some are even as physically imposing, but few can boast the experience and credentials that the Uruguayan can at such a young age. When you combine that experience, talent and physicality with the "winning attitude" so evident in Luis Suarez, Liverpool have bought themselves one of the hottest defensive prospects in world football"

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/828509-sebastian-coates-why-the-uruguayan-will-be-a-star-for-liverpool

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Djibril Cisse was supposed to be the new Michael Owen. LFC magazine has a cover with him on with the tagline "beyond pace, beyond power". I believed the hype including really good reports from French acquaintances. 

 

He was a nice guy Djibril but no. None of it was true. Remember watching him at Anfield and remember thinking he wasn't even that fast. 

 

Nice guy all the same. 

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32 minutes ago, joe_fishfish said:

Fourteen million quid on him as well, was loads of money in 2005 that.

There was huge anticipation around him - I remember it well. He was supposed to tear our league up. 

 

Its not that he was a bad player exactly. He was an OK forward and very unlucky with his dreadful injury. Its just that we were supposed to get the equivalent of Kylian Mbappe and what we got was a poor man's Origi. 

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Oh Cisse! He did have pace. He did have power. He could score from anywhere. And he was utterly bereft of brains.

I recall with complete clarity seeing him in a major cup final when we needed him to waste time - “JUST BURST PAST THE DEFENDERS TOWARDS THE CORNER FLAG!” - but instead he tried using skill which he didn’t have to jink his way through a crowded area, and promptly surrendered possession. So we were under pressure again. Brilliant. 

Well, maybe I don’t remember it with complete clarity as I can’t actually recall which cup final it was. It might have been Istanbul. Can’t blame him for sticking his penalty away, to be fair. 
We spent years chasing him. Ged was convinced he was the answer. But there was absolutely nothing during his entire time with us that didn’t make me think “Why couldn’t we have found a way to pull out of the deal and hand that massive wad of cash to Rafa instead?”

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Good piece on my nomination(s). They seem like good lads esp Sinama Pongolle but despite the raw talent, they just didn’t cut it here.

 

We reportedly trumped United and Arsenal in winning their signature which at the time was a fair effort.

 

Or perhaps those clubs knew something we didn’t.
 

https://scroll.in/field/853546/from-2001-u-17-world-cup-to-liverpool-the-story-of-florent-sinama-pongolle-and-anthony-le-tallec

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6 hours ago, Jay H said:

Good piece on my nomination(s). They seem like good lads esp Sinama Pongolle but despite the raw talent, they just didn’t cut it here.

 

We reportedly trumped United and Arsenal in winning their signature which at the time was a fair effort.

 

Or perhaps those clubs knew something we didn’t.
 

https://scroll.in/field/853546/from-2001-u-17-world-cup-to-liverpool-the-story-of-florent-sinama-pongolle-and-anthony-le-tallec

There was more hype around Le Tallec - "Le Talent" some people around here called him as I recall. However it was actually Sinama Pongolle or "stinky" as I heard him described who actually showed far more on the pitch. Sinama Pongolle was actually a handful and surprisingly physical for a small player. Neither were great but if either could have gone on to do more it was probably him. 

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3 hours ago, JagSquared said:

Not quite overrated but remember some folk saying we’d got a pretty good player in Nunez as part of the Owen transfer. Think it was more a coping mechanism.

 

was smicer overrated? He was supposed to be our Robert pires.

He was overrated. I can't remember him doing anything for us until the Cl final.  

Will always be a legend for that though. 

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