ex players - what could have been (1 Viewer)

Domo · Sep 6, 2024

international break ponderings.

if lets say the likes of Bigirimana, bayliss, shipley, G.Thomas, stevenson etc had stayed at the club, been coached and developed and carried on through the journey, would they have ended up in a better position in their careers, and become a first team player like Eccles?

StrettoBoy · Sep 6, 2024

The obvious answer is that we will never know but I think it is conceited of us to think that our coaching would be greatly superior to anything they may have got elsewhere. Having said that, we have got a decent record in developing players although perhaps rather less so with those in our own development squad.

rob9872 · Sep 6, 2024

Domo said:
international break ponderings.

if lets say the likes of Bigirimana, bayliss, shipley, G.Thomas, stevenson etc had stayed at the club, been coached and developed and carried on through the journey, would they have ended up in a better position in their careers, and become a first team player like Eccles?

I think tbf most of those reached their ceiling.if you're talented enough you'll get your opportunity.

The only one I think genuinely could've been anything was Bright. Never known a player get me out of my seat so often in a short space of time, unbelievable talent and such a waste. If he'd had the attitude and professionalism of Eccles he'd have been Premier League standard, but he wasted every chance and rightly bombed out.

Tomh111 · Sep 6, 2024

I think Baylis is the only one for me that probably wasted it - I always thought he looked a proper talent, I even at one point thought he looked more rounded than Madisson.

He went and rotted for a couple of years at a crucial point in his development at Preston, he will have a solid lower league career but I always think he could be been a Championship player at least.

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Alkhen · Sep 6, 2024

Didn't Bigirimana find out he had a long term illness whilst at Newcastle or something.

Torquay Sky Blue · Sep 6, 2024

Alkhen said:
Didn't Bigirimana find out he had a long term illness whilst at Newcastle or something.

His move to Newcastle was the doing of him. Came back here a rich man but in football terms he'd gone backwards

blunted · Sep 6, 2024

Biggie caught something horrible in Africa and screwed his chances. Bright has just been stupid. Bayliss may have got better if he stayed. The rest are where they are for a reason.

fatso · Sep 6, 2024

Mark Mcnulty had a fantastic spell here under MR, he jumped ship at the first opportunity to that fantastic club Reading, and that was basically the end of his career (at any reasonable level at least)

Now I get the argument that he grabbed the chance of Premier league wages, and you can understand that, fair play for taking the money, but ..... what might of been if he'd stayed another year under MR who understood him, got the best out of him, gave him confidence and played to his strengths.

Another successful season here and his value "could" of rocketed, he "could" of got a move to a proper Premier league team and made even more money, and who knows what may of happened to his career.

As it is, he's now at the mighty Shamrock Rovers of all places, and not even guaranteed a start!

TomRad85 · Sep 6, 2024

fatso said:
Mark Mcnulty had a fantastic spell here under MR, he jumped ship at the first opportunity to that fantastic club Reading, and that was basically the end of his career (at any reasonable level at least)

Now I get the argument that he grabbed the chance of Premier league wages, and you can understand that, fair play for taking the money, but ..... what might of been if he'd stayed another year under MR who understood him, got the best out of him, gave him confidence and played to his strengths.

Another successful season here and his value "could" of rocketed, he "could" of got a move to a proper Premier league team and made even more money, and who knows what may of happened to his career.

As it is, he's now at the mighty Shamrock Rovers of all places, and not even guaranteed a start!

Reading were a Championship team

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HadjiChippo · Sep 6, 2024

Bigi could’ve been an absolute star had things went differently for him, great athletically and technically. Fell victim to bigger clubs collecting players, and then discarding the ones that didn’t have immediate success, hampering their progression in the process.

if he’d came through these days, a team like Brighton would buy him, develop him and sell to Chelsea for 10x the amount.

KenilworthSkyBlue · Sep 6, 2024

fatso said:
Mark Mcnulty had a fantastic spell here under MR, he jumped ship at the first opportunity to that fantastic club Reading, and that was basically the end of his career (at any reasonable level at least)

Now I get the argument that he grabbed the chance of Premier league wages, and you can understand that, fair play for taking the money, but ..... what might of been if he'd stayed another year under MR who understood him, got the best out of him, gave him confidence and played to his strengths.

Another successful season here and his value "could" of rocketed, he "could" of got a move to a proper Premier league team and made even more money, and who knows what may of happened to his career.

As it is, he's now at the mighty Shamrock Rovers of all places, and not even guaranteed a start!

There isn't a universe where McNulty would have ever played in the PL. League Two was almost certainly his level.

Decent finisher and had a knack of finding good pockets of space but athletically he was genuinely appalling - which was largely why he was totally exposed in the Championship.

Given the fee the club received his sale was actually an incredible piece of business.

KenilworthSkyBlue · Sep 6, 2024

HadjiChippo said:
Bigi could’ve been an absolute star had things went differently for him, great athletically and technically. Fell victim to bigger clubs collecting players, and then discarding the ones that didn’t have immediate success, hampering their progression in the process.

if he’d came through these days, a team like Brighton would buy him, develop him and sell to Chelsea for 10x the amount.

He was massively overhyped and his move to Newcastle was pretty much engineered on the club's inability to bring in any replacements for those that departed that summer.

If he'd stayed he might've had a more established career (illness aside), but I very much doubt he would've played consistently above L1 level.

Tommo1993 · Sep 6, 2024

Enobakhare had such massive potential and I’m massively disappointed he chose to piss it up the wall. Easily a PL standard player if he had his head screwed on.

The Bigirmana overrating still absolutely baffles me.

Torquay Sky Blue · Sep 6, 2024

Tommo1993 said:
Enobakhare had such massive potential and I’m massively disappointed he chose to piss it up the wall. Easily a PL standard player if he had his head screwed on.

The Bigirmana overrating still absolutely baffles me.

Bigi had a great touch and looked very much the part when he first came through but totally flattered to deceive.
I think the story about Carsley having to find him some boots after he pleaded with him for a trial helped the hype.

KenilworthSkyBlue · Sep 6, 2024

Torquay Sky Blue said:
Bigi had a great touch and looked very much the part when he first came through but totally flattered to deceive.
I think the story about Carsley having to find him some boots after he pleaded with him for a trial helped the hype.

He looked very busy on the ball but pretty much did zero with it and in reality was dreadful for a significant chunk of that season.

A promising pre-season resulted in fans building up a picture of something that wasn't there - probably catalysed by that summer being one of the worst windows in modern history.

Blind-Faith · Sep 6, 2024

Connor Thomas, Charlie McCann , Sambou a few other names I’d throw in aswell

baldy · Sep 6, 2024

fatso said:
Mark Mcnulty had a fantastic spell here under MR, he jumped ship at the first opportunity to that fantastic club Reading, and that was basically the end of his career (at any reasonable level at least)

Now I get the argument that he grabbed the chance of Premier league wages, and you can understand that, fair play for taking the money, but ..... what might of been if he'd stayed another year under MR who understood him, got the best out of him, gave him confidence and played to his strengths.

Another successful season here and his value "could" of rocketed, he "could" of got a move to a proper Premier league team and made even more money, and who knows what may of happened to his career.

As it is, he's now at the mighty Shamrock Rovers of all places, and not even guaranteed a start!

Dunno what irks me more - your use of 'of' instead of 'have' or the fact you reckon McNulty could've ever played in the Prem

Sky Blue Wozza · Sep 6, 2024

Tomh111 said:
I think Baylis is the only one for me that probably wasted it - I always thought he looked a proper talent, I even at one point thought he looked more rounded than Madisson.

He went and rotted for a couple of years at a crucial point in his development at Preston, he will have a solid lower league career but I always think he could be been a Championship player at least.

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Agree with this fully.

Bayliss just oozed class in the PO semi-fnal at Notts County and I was convinced we had a star on our hands. Seemed to have so much time on the ball.

fatso · Sep 6, 2024

baldy said:
Dunno what irks me more - your use of 'of' instead of 'have' or the fact you reckon McNulty could've ever played in the Prem

You need to get out more.

Tommo1993 · Sep 6, 2024

fatso said:
You need to get out more.

That’s the closest thing he’s contributed to footballing matters in ever.

Liquid Gold · Sep 6, 2024

Recent years it's definitely Bayliss for me.

He just looked so much quality. Shame the move didn't work out for him, Preston was the wrong club but we told him he wasn't wanted here and he funded the promotion squad.

I think George Thomas is a sign that moving sometimes works.He always looked L2 for me but he managed to get 3 years on PL wages and 3 years on Championship wages. set himself up nicely to then settle playing lower league football.

Terry Gibson's perm · Sep 6, 2024

As BF said above Sambou from all the bits we heard he was going to be good cleared off to Everton and has done little. Was another something like Tope Obadeyi who played with Sturbridge?

baldy · Sep 6, 2024

fatso said:
You need to get out more.

I could of told you that myself

Cally Fedora · Sep 6, 2024

What about the flip side of this? Players we had that were bang or below average that we managed to offload? I’ll start with Andy Pearce and Jay Tabb.

COVKIDSNEVERQUIT · Sep 6, 2024

Blind-Faith said:
Connor Thomas, Charlie McCann , Sambou a few other names I’d throw in aswell

All 3 going to Premier League Club's and Not One of them Went onto to play Regularly First Team Football.

As the Saying Goes, The Grass is Not Always Greener.

They Should have Stayed at Cov, play Regularly, which would have improved their Careers

clint van damme · Sep 6, 2024

Blind-Faith said:
Connor Thomas, Charlie McCann , Sambou a few other names I’d throw in aswell

This Vogue remix is a bit shit

mmttww · Sep 6, 2024

Blind-Faith said:
Connor Thomas

He looked really decent alongside Fleck.

Anyone know what happened with him?

Did Fleck make him look better than he was?

baldy · Sep 6, 2024

COVKIDSNEVERQUIT said:
All 3 going to Premier League Club's and Not One of them Went onto to play Regularly First Team Football.

As the Saying Goes, The Grass is Not Always Greener.

They Should have Stayed at Cov, play Regularly, which would have improved their Carriers.

Yes their carriers took a bit of a knowsdive afterwards

Tommo1993 · Sep 7, 2024

clint van damme said:
This Vogue remix is a bit shit

Conor Thomas, Charlie McCann, Sambou, Bunce, and Scotty Dann.
Willo Flood and Richard Shaw. I didn’t win the half time draw.

Ffs Clint. I could do this all day.

clint van damme · Sep 7, 2024

Superb!

blunted · Sep 7, 2024

KenilworthSkyBlue said:
There isn't a universe where McNulty would have ever played in the PL. League Two was almost certainly his level.

Decent finisher and had a knack of finding good pockets of space but athletically he was genuinely appalling - which was largely why he was totally exposed in the Championship.

Given the fee the club received his sale was actually an incredible piece of business.

He was a piss head. I know several people who bumped into him in pubs off his face.

Dimi_Konstantflapalot · Sep 7, 2024

mmttww said:
He looked really decent alongside Fleck.

Anyone know what happened with him?

Did Fleck make him look better than he was?

He has made a solid career at L2 level. Currently at Crewe. I think that season alongside Fleck was his best of his career, Fleck almost certainly helped bring CT’s level up a notch that season

Marty · Sep 7, 2024

Not sure what others seen in Bigi, Bayliss and Stevenson. I remember there being talk of them all going on to become big stars, but I never seen anything to suggest that. Maddison looked a star from day one, for balance, I thought Gyokeres was a massive waste of money, shows what I know.

clint van damme · Sep 7, 2024

Marty said:
Not sure what others seen in Bigi, Bayliss and Stevenson. I remember there being talk of them all going on to become big stars, but I never seen anything to suggest that. Maddison looked a star from day one, for balance, I thought Gyokeres was a massive waste of money, shows what I know.

Disagree about Bayliss. Though he had something.
Didn't go to the cup game against Stoke and listened on 5live, Chris Waddle was raving about him.
Think he should have done better than ending up at Shrewsbury, no disrespect to them.

Adge · Sep 7, 2024

Cally Fedora said:
What about the flip side of this? Players we had that were bang or below average that we managed to offload? I’ll start with Andy Pearce and Jay Tabb.

Jeez! Andy Pearce-the best/worst own goal I’ve ever seen against QPR I think. Nothing more than a hod carrier. Bit of a cult hero though at Sheff Wed by all accounts.

ex players - what could have been (1 Viewer)

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