Topic: Wonderkid flops - where are they now?

[BigMarcs]

Luc Castignos

absolutely lit up that u17 Euro's move to Inter hasn't quite worked out, still time for him though

Just moved to FC Twente, hopefully he gets regular first team football there.

[filthy1980]

Just moved to FC Twente, hopefully he gets regular first team football there.

cheers for the update, he's got all the physical attributes maybe its just maturity in his head that needs sorting out

[andymanlfc]

Gabriel Paletta? Not sure if he was classed as a wonderkid but was definitely a flop.

[BigMarcs]

Gabriel Paletta? Not sure if he was classed as a wonderkid but was definitely a flop.

Hes currently at Parma in the Serie A and is a regular starter.

I think people tend to forget what flops are. Adu, Cherno Samba fit the bill, but players like Paletta have made a decent enough career for themselves.

[Suspect Package.]

David Vaughan
Keirrison
Aliadiere
Bentley
Michael Johnson (City)

[Barneylfc∗]

Aliadiere

What the fuck ever happened to him?

[binge]

Whatever happened to Russell Beardsmore? one of the original fergie fledglings. The commentator Brian Moore fuckin loved him.

[Phil M]

Quaresma - you know the story.

He has a European cup winners medal with Inter, an FA Cup with Chelsea, two Serie A titles and 4 Portugese.
Amazing.

Edit: I am not of the opinion he is an amazing player, my expression of amazement is relating to the fact he has won such titles given he has hugely flattered
to deceive wherever he's gone since he left Portugal. 

[Em5y]

Billy Kenny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Kenny_(footballer_born_1973)

[Oscarmac]

Tony daly, played for villa I think.

[B0151?]

He has a European cup winners medal with Inter, an FA Cup with Chelsea, two Serie A titles and 4 Portugese.
Amazing.

he definitely flopped for chelsea and inter mate. there are some shite players with a lot of medals - doesn't really mean much - he wasn't really involved in any of those other than the portugese.

[andymanlfc]

Quaresma - you know the story.

Uh-oh - http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/media-watch/turkishfootball-com-Beşiktaş-open-door-for-reds

Former Beşiktaş official Hulusi Ozdurmaz added to speculation regarding Liverpool's interest in Ricardo Quaresma today.

Speaking to Kartalbakisi TV, Ozdurmaz said, "If Liverpool make a formal bid for the figure being quoted the board will accept the offer.

"Liverpool don't have a player of Quaresma's quality in his preferred position, the important thing however, is getting the best out of him.

"I don't see Quaresma staying here much longer."

Quaresma has been dropped from pre-season training by Beşiktaş manager Samet Aybaba.

The 28-year-old Portuguese international will train apart from his teammates and has been transfer listed by the Istanbul club.

Quaresma has been unwilling to accept the Black Eagles demands for a wage cut, lowering his €3.75 million salary to €2 million per-season.

Recently appointed manager Brendan Rodgers has been interesting in bringing in more technical players to the Premiership outfit.

Quaresma joined Beşiktaş from Inter Milan for €7.3 million in 2010. The Portuguese winger has 27 assists and 18 goals in 73 appearances for the Istanbul club.

[Phil M]

he definitely flopped for chelsea and inter mate. there are some shite players with a lot of medals - doesn't really mean much - he wasn't really involved in any of those other than the portugese.

Er, I was expressing my amazement that he has such a medal list given how erratic his career has been.

[RideTheWalrus]

He has a European cup winners medal with Inter, an FA Cup with Chelsea, two Serie A titles and 4 Portugese.
Amazing.

Really has dropped since then though. He was once upon a time more promising than Ronaldo. Work ethic was just not there though.

[Phil M]

Really has dropped since then though.

See post above.

[RideTheWalrus]

See post above.

  My bad

[Barneylfc∗]

there are some shite players with a lot of medals

Pegguy likes this 

[skipper757]

Really has dropped since then though. He was once upon a time more promising than Ronaldo. Work ethic was just not there though.

There was some interview with Quaresma where he talked about Rafa Benitez discussing with him a transfer to Liverpool.  That was the same summer as the Torres deal I think.  But Rafa wanted him to do more defensive work and more teamwork.  He refused.

He's pretty much grown up with Ronaldo and the pair are both incredibly talented.  When he saw Ronaldo starting to have success at Man United, Quaresma could've easily decided that he wasn't going to be left behind and forgotten about.  What better place than Liverpool to rival Ronaldo's accomplishments?  Especially playing alongside Torres, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano, etc. 

But he didn't want to work hard.  What. A. Waste.

Of course, this was the same player who scored a great goal at Stamford Bridge and then proceeded to loss possession through meaningless flicks and back heels on the halfway line when his teammates were desperate to hold on to the ball to avoid the Chelsea onslaught.

[rafathegaffa83]

Whatever happened to Sherman Cardenas, the 16 year old Colombian ?

Still playing for clubs in Colombia

David Vaughan
Keirrison
Aliadiere
Bentley
Michael Johnson (City)

Michael Johnson is a big one. I wouldn't class David Vaughan as one. He's shown himself to be a competent footballer. He did well with Blackpool and started getting more playing time once Bruce was sacked at Sunderland. Aliadiere is one. Another one of those players who had several months without a club, despite early hype.

Tony daly, played for villa I think.

Always felt Stephen Froggatt was the bigger flop. Really highly touted youngster and  I remember when we were being linked him with constantly under Souness. Nicky Summerbee pretty much finished his career with a rash tackle and he was done by age 28. Daley was just all pace, but he got a few England caps.

Stuart Slater was probably one of the bigger flops of the pre-PL era. Celtic paid £1.5m for him around 1992, when that was a fair chunk of change and sold him to Ipswich for half that the following year. It probably didn't help that he suffered an Achilles injury the season prior, back when an Achilles problem was a career destroying injury. He was in non-league football by age 30. Biggest of the early 90s wonderkid flops though is Gianluigi Lentini. Milan paid £13m for him from Torino in 1992. He ended up in a major crash which damaged his eye socket and only ended up playing 60 or so games for them and was sold back to Torino for £2m five years later. Spent most of his thirties trawling around the Italian lower leagues.

[On Axis]

Sebastien Deisler is one who had loads of talent, but injuries got the better of him and he had to retire as a result.

[iamrobk]

I watch Freddy Adu play for my MLS team every week.  He's all right... by MLS standards.  The odd thing is that he clearly has the skill because sometimes he does some crazy moves, but he's not consistent enough.  If he could play at his best (that I've seen for 5-10 minutes at a time) for 90 minutes, he could be a good player on a good European team.

[Mr Mingebag Squid]

Sebastien Deisler is one who had loads of talent, but injuries got the better of him and he had to retire as a result.

Wasn't he declared mental at some point?

[RedHopper]

snip

erm, that's a rather insensitive way to describe depression. You might want to edit that one.

There was yet another Northern Ireland/ man utd"new george Best"  called phil mulryne, who was a great buy if you were managing a smaller club in championship manager back around the time they switched to year numbers. He's now a priest.

[Vidocq]

Zidane's son

[B0151?]

Er, I was expressing my amazement that he has such a medal list given how erratic his career has been.

my apologies then mate, you're right on that. wonder if he considers his career disappointing, has played for some of the biggest clubs with those successes and a shitload of cash probably

Zidane's son

enzo? he's only 17 mate, still at real madrid as well.

[paulrazor]

i was in a taxi in Liverpool last year (i know i know) and some fella claimed he was a mate of Billy Kenny

he said that the guy is about 25 stone now and he basically covered a lot of shit back in the day when he billy would OD

speaking of fat isnt Michael Johnson at city meant to be a blimp now. future england captain, and linked with us?

[paulrazor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den%C3%ADlson_de_Oliveira_Ara%C3%BAjo

what about this guy

most expensive player in the world at one point

from 25-26 on he was pretty much past it

[Phil M]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den%C3%ADlson_de_Oliveira_Ara%C3%BAjo

what about this guy

most expensive player in the world at one point

from 25-26 on he was pretty much past it

61 caps for Brazil and a world cup winners medal ain't too shabby.

[Phil M]

my apologies then mate, you're right on that.

No worries.

[paulrazor]

61 caps for Brazil and a world cup winners medal ain't too shabby.

probably been picky

not sure this guy was a wonderkid but what about kristian nemeth

[Nut/ella]

Oh Nemeth- the hopes i had on him!

[Vidocq]

my apologies then mate, you're right on that. wonder if he considers his career disappointing, has played for some of the biggest clubs with those successes and a shitload of cash probably

enzo? he's only 17 mate, still at real madrid as well.

really? I thought he's older than that

[AM76]

Remember Paul Anderson was very highly thought of, yet he moved on without any impact at all at the club

[Dirk18Kuyt]

Robinho, then Adriano. The striker, not the one at Barca. (I Think) What even happened to him? Alongside Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Baptiste etc they were meant to be the ebst players for the best country in the world at that point, what happened?!

[Crouch Potato]

But on a more serious note.

Paul Anderson

Remember him being compared to Michael Owen about 5 years ago, which is weird as Paul is a winger

I remember the clamour for him to get a place in our first team was nearly as bad as the people begging for Raheem Sterling to get run outs now.

[jammy dodger]

Haukur Gudnason ran my CM3 team.

[monkeyharris]

Tony daly, played for villa I think.

Gary shaw a better shout for a Villa wonderkid that it went wrong for. Young player of the year. Done in by injuries so can't be classed as aflop I guess but remember people having huge hopes for him

[fingermouse]

Ally Dick - Scotland's answer to the granny shagger!!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/our-wayne-rooney-just-remember-ally-dick-1.833664

[arnaldo]

Remember Paul Anderson was very highly thought of, yet he moved on without any impact at all at the club

I remember his goal in the final of the youth cup and thinking we had a massive talent on our hands

[B0151?]

Robinho, then Adriano. The striker, not the one at Barca. (I Think) What even happened to him? Alongside Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Baptiste etc they were meant to be the ebst players for the best country in the world at that point, what happened?!

"On March 12, 2012, Adriano was released by Corinthians, after his irregular appearances and lack of interest"
Only 30 now.

Seems like an interesting one Adriano. He's always been scoring goals,  so it's hard to say he flopped but he definitely could have been more. His work-rate has always been questionable, won the 'Bidone D'Oro' (worst player in the Serie A) 3 seasons. So it's probably just a case of he let it go to his head, more interested in other things.
Check the figures and his honors yourself. Good international record as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriano_Leite_Ribeiro#Honors
Really great striker on his day, just probably could have been more with a better attitude. Still had a good career though.
 - Interesting blog on him by Tim Vickery if you're interested http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2011/03/adriano_struggling_to_find_sui.html
Might shed some light on why some of the wonderkids mentioned here end up flopping.
____________

With Robinho, he's still with Milan now like, 90 caps for Brazil, probably did get overhyped a bit, think people expect him to be more prolific than he is, maybe Europe is a bit too physical for him and he goes missing occasionally because of that. With Ibra gone though, it's going to be a big season for him and Pato - it needs to be. I remember he had a good first season for City, probably got sick of Manchester.