Players who never quite made it

[Oldgregg86]

Francis Jeffers, Stan collymore, kieron Dyer and lets not forget David bentley. Whilst top draw for us he certainly had more to offer . I'd throw Joe Cole and Jack Wilshire into that bracket also. Adnan juanazaj looked like he would be a world beater. He never materialised into a player.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Oldgregg86

[roversfan99]

Ruben Rochina, a player who had the Rovers fans eating out of his hands at times but gave flatters to deceive a new meaning.

[MarkBRFC71]

On 10/06/2018 at 03:52, Norbert Rassragr said:

Freddy Adu was the most over hyped player in recent history. US fans used to toss themselves dry over him, as he played first team games when he was 14 or something. He then went to Benfica and/or Ajax and promptly disappeared. Last I heard he was dropped from an MLS team.

When I was at university, I used to go on a US football message board called big soccer.com and the yanks were certain he was going to be the next Cruyff, Maradona etc.

Freddy just ended a Chris Brown-esque 3 year goal drought ..... now playing one level down from the MLS in Las Vegas.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44380883

[Oldgregg86]

Anyone remember the hype surrounding cherno samba . He scored 132 goals in 32 games in youth league prompting millwall to sign him. Liverpool and united had bids of 2 million turned down when he was still in school. Capped at every level for England to u20s but has an abysmal record in first team football. Faded to nothing. 

Jermaine pennant was bought for 2 million by arsenal at 14 from notts county. A record at the time. Another who got to much too soon 

Edited June 12, 2018 by Oldgregg86

[speeeeeeedie]

Sonny Pike was another child prodigy who amounted to nothing; Hero to zero.

 

[Oldgregg86]

5 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Sonny Pike was another child prodigy who amounted to nothing; Hero to zero.

 

I remember watching something about him. He was being touted as the next maradona and George best. At 17 he was suicidal due to his dad making money from him with McDonald's adverts and stuff and he fell out of love with the game. Alot of dad's I know would do well to read his story

[Vinjay]

34 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I remember watching something about him. He was being touted as the next maradona and George best. At 17 he was suicidal due to his dad making money from him with McDonald's adverts and stuff and he fell out of love with the game. Alot of dad's I know would do well to read his story

Some are too forceful, some too greedy and others are discouraging (perhaps out of jealousy in extreme cases) but there's also plenty who just shut up and support their kids.  In this instance "happy clapping" is the best strategy. Maybe a bit of "tough love" so to speak now and again but only in moderation and when it's really needed. Bit harsh maybe but maybe that kid needed to be a little more forceful at the time about his Father's influence and tell him to back off a bit. Teenagers aren't exactly incapable of standing up to their parents though perhaps it would have made no difference whatsoever with his Father. On the other hand his Uncle was ex professional footballer Mark Falco and perhaps there was a lack of support there as well but can't say for sure. He speaks of his alienation towards football now compared to how he felt as a kid. I know how that feels. 

Read comments about vile parents telling their kids to break his legs (which were insured for 1 million apparently) no wonder people become jaded. Ironically enough he knew David Bentley who later became disillusioned himself (even before he left Rovers the first time) with being treated like a corporate puppet. I'm surprised more players don't retire at a younger age.for reasons unrelated to injury, etc. There's more cases like Collymore (though first half of his career at least was pretty good people only seem to remember the later period) than Cantona though.

EDIT-Falco's Daughter said on twitter Pike isn't her Dad's nephew. 

Edited June 12, 2018 by Vinjay17

[Commondore]

6 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I remember seeing Emile Heskey as a very young player at Leicester. He was awesome, pace and power in a young body. He was running through and over good centre halves. I thought I was looking at the next Shearer. The older he got the worse he got.

Agreed. Sunk due to a combination of losing some of that pace, and coaches falling in love with his abilities as an extreme target man rather than a runner or finisher. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

I remember Four Four Two bigging up Sonny when he moved to Ajax. It was probably around the time they had that magic team of Litmanen, Kluivert, the De Boer twins etc. The same magazine had an article in another issue showing 50 odd young footballers who will be huge. In with the likes of Rio Ferdinand was our very own Marlon Broomes. All I remember of him was being sent off at Stamford Bridge for fighting with Vialli at a match I got free tickets too from my sister. She worked at the Autoglass call centre, and they were the shirt sponsors. It felt weird being in the posh seats.

[Dreyski]

That Ajax team was the reason they became my foreign team. Won the Champions league the same season we won the Premier League.

Oh, Marlon Broomes. He was with us for ages (I think pre-title to post-relegation) but never got a good run in the team. Obviously he wouldn't have troubled our title-winning players, but he wasn't even given much game time when he was sent out on loan (as per wiki). 253 games in 18 years.

Jimmy Corbett never even got going. Highly regarded when he signed from Gillingham for just over £500,000, he spent much of the next 5 years injured before leaving without a single first team game under his belt. Heard a rumour after his retirement that he was working on the pharmacy counter in a Boots somewhere.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the-michael-owen-factor-six-young-premiership-stars-poised-to-make-the-big-breakthrough-this-season-1170603.html

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dreyski

[Norbert Rassragr]

I think I remember reading here Corbett is a qualified pharmacist. Keith Barker has been doing pretty well for Warwickshire at cricket (saw him a couple of Sundays ago) and Ben Burgess is a teacher.

[JacknOry]

13 hours ago, MarkBRFC71 said:

Freddy just ended a Chris Brown-esque 3 year goal drought ..... now playing one level down from the MLS in Las Vegas.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44380883

Also convicted of gang rape in Italy and faces a 9-year stretch.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Simon Ireland was another who just fell by the wayside.

[Oldgregg86]

I remember James Thomas the welsh lad scoring after what seemed like seconds against Bolton on what I think would of been his league debut. He scored a few in the league cup prior to the game and got his chance . He got called up to the Wales squad and then vanished

[tomphil]

Wasn't there a lad called Chris Holland or something who had the Gazza tag as well ?

[K-Hod]

10 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Wasn't there a lad called Chris Holland or something who had the Gazza tag as well ?

I think my old man used to teach him. He was at Newcastle and ended up having ammonia sprayed in his face on a night out....

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

I think my old man used to teach him. He was at Newcastle and ended up having ammonia sprayed in his face on a night out....

He was never the same player after that appalling incident. I saw him as a 10 year old and knew he had real potential but for the chance of fulfilling that potential to be taken from him in such a was tragic.

[Mike E]

13 hours ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

I think I remember reading here Corbett is a qualified pharmacist. Keith Barker has been doing pretty well for Warwickshire at cricket (saw him a couple of Sundays ago) and Ben Burgess is a teacher.

I had the pleasure of doing some of my Primary teacher training under Lenny Johnrose.

[roversoutsider]

Robbie Cotton!

Is he even in the game now? Remember people on here hyping him up to be the next Steven Gerrard!

[perthblue02]

20 minutes ago, roversoutsider said:

Robbie Cotton!

Is he even in the game now? Remember people on here hyping him up to be the next Steven Gerrard!

Moved from Sheffield FC to Goole Town in 2015, no idea if he is still there

[bazza]

On 08/06/2018 at 14:06, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Franz Carr looked like becoming a world beating winger in his early days, he just never got any better as he got older.

 

On 08/06/2018 at 14:36, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I don't know. He was offered terms at Rovers as a lad before he'd ever played for the first team, but he chose to go elsewhere.

 

On 08/06/2018 at 14:39, oldjamfan1 said:

Cloughie did indeed pay us £100,000 for him before he had even turned 18. That was a lot of cash to Rovers at the time.

I was speaking to Franz Carr about 6 months ago.He told me a few things.

He was Preston born and bred. However, his childhood football team was Nottingham Forest. He went for trial at North End. They didn't want him and he was taken on by Rovers. As soon as Forest came in for him it was a "no brainer".

Sean Dyche used to clean his boots at Forest. "It's because Dyche learned his trade at Forest that Burnley are doing so well now", Franz said.

[Mattyblue]

On 13/06/2018 at 15:52, roversoutsider said:

Robbie Cotton!

Is he even in the game now? Remember people on here hyping him up to be the next Steven Gerrard!

Wasn’t that Kean?

[JacknOry]

Me!

Once tipped myself to become the next Shearer but women, booze, and undersized goals made from jumpers and with imaginary crossbars (that was in, that was in!) meant that my goalscoring record was a pitiful one in six pints.  

Edited June 14, 2018 by JacknOry

[dingles staying down 4ever]

On 12/06/2018 at 14:59, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I remember seeing Emile Heskey as a very young player at Leicester. He was awesome, pace and power in a young body. He was running through and over good centre halves. I thought I was looking at the next Shearer. The older he got the worse he got.

I remember COlin Hendry having a torrid time against him when Heskey got into the first team at Leicester. Then O'Neill became Leicester's maanger and taiught him to fall down everytime he was touched and the rest is history.

[McClarky]

I wouldn’t class Heskey as someone who never quite made it.  For a player of fairly l8mited ability he had a fantastic career. Played in the top flight year after year and won 62 England caps.