Villa player assessments you got humiliatingly wrong ...

[Adbo9]

23 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I'm just looking through old squads to remind myself.

I vastly over-rated/had higher expectations for;

Amavi, Vlaar, Allback, Routledge, Maloney, Carruthers, Ireland, Okore, Hogan, McCormack, Gil.

Haha Ron Vlaar........... possibly the most over rated player ive ever seen in my 35 years of going Villa....... Polystyrene Ron was absolutely god awful

[ThunderPower_14]

I bought a Nathan Delfouneso shirt and I was convinced he was going to become a great striker for us when he was banging in goals for England underage sides.

He was about as good a lesson as any player ever that underage ability does not necessarily translate into first team ability.

[bielesibub]

I was quite happy when Ross Barkley came to us on loan. 

As a kid I remember being all excited about Didier Six, was he a player who looked the bogs dollocks on his debut but did nothing else? or did he get injured? 

[DJBOB]

45 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I'm just looking through old squads to remind myself.

I vastly over-rated/had higher expectations for;

Amavi, Vlaar, Allback, Routledge, Maloney, Carruthers, Ireland, Okore, Hogan, McCormack, Gil.

Carruthers!

I thought he was the real deal. Think he was the age group above Grealish and when I first saw him and thought he was so good for the youth squad.

[Keyblade]

8 hours ago, Steero113 said:

Watched Barry Bannan beat two players with a deft feint and spray a nonchalant 60 yard ball to the wingers feet away at Craven Cottage. 

I was convinced he was the second coming of Xavi. 

 

You've just unlocked a memory there. There was a period there where I thought that whole crop of academy players were going to be like our own class of 94. Clark, Bannan, Hogg, Weimanm, Albrighton. I remember a midfield of Hogg -Bannan dominating United at VP that season. Future looked bright. Oh how naive we were.

[djdabush]

Thought Berson was going to be a revelation. Remember thinking that Bolasie would absolutely run riot in the championship.

On the other hand I thought that Snodgrass was bang average and was massively underwhelming.

[TomC]

Underrating a player: Like many around here, I wrote off McGinn a year ago. Big mistake.

Overrating a player: This is going way back, but when we signed Mark Draper (for what I think was a club-record fee at the time), I had high hopes that he would be the creative midfield engine who would lead us to glory. While he was a decent player and was by no means a complete flop, I set my expectations far too high.

 

[Xela]

I thought Lescott was an astute signing. 

 

[Xela]

2 hours ago, DJBOB said:

Carruthers!

I thought he was the real deal. Think he was the age group above Grealish and when I first saw him and thought he was so good for the youth squad.

The only real Caruthers was Martin  

[Xela]

I was hopeful Ethan Moore could lead us to European glory  

[MWARLEY2]

Paul McGrath. Thought he would be a true professional but couldnt even be arsed to train.....

[VillaChris]

8 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

I thought Johnathan Kodjia was premier league quality!  

In 2017 he'd have done o.k as lower end prem striker I think. Not a great team player but could always get goals out of nothing. If Bruce had still been at Hull he'd have probably tried to sign him. Maybe Pulis aswell.

After the two bad injuries yeah he was done even at championship level.

[VillaChris]

Can remember 20 years ago Rob Edwards coming through and nearly scoring a wonder goal v Chelsea in the league (ran from halfway line and chipped from edge of box that hit the bar). Thought after that he'd be the new Delaney in pretty solid at RB but pretty sure we sold him a few months later to Wolves and he also got injuries.

Funny when he comes back to VP next month as a manager and probably about 70% of the matchday crowd will probably have no idea he played for us unless they read about it in the press beforehand.

[Vive_La_Villa]

I thought Gerrard would do well 

[Only2McInallys]

I thought Djemba Djemba was going to be our Roy Keane (only joking)

I thought spending 7 million on 31 year old ex alcoholic,drug addict Merson  was a mistake

I thought signing legendary drinker McGrath with dodgy knees was a mistake

I did think Douglas Luiz was overrated and we should sell him for 20 million

I thought Mcginn was finished

What it makes me realise when people talk about what team had a good transfer window is total bollocks.You cannot judge a player until they have played at least one whole season or in some cases more to judge it a success or failure

 

[FLVillan]

7 hours ago, bielesibub said:

I was quite happy when Ross Barkley came to us on loan. 

As a kid I remember being all excited about Didier Six, was he a player who looked the bogs dollocks on his debut but did nothing else? or did he get injured? 

You were right the first time about Six.  On his debut he was outstanding. Then he just went downhill from there.  The English league in them days was no place for a fancy-footed Frenchman who didn't like to get tackled..... 

[one_ian_taylor]

15 hours ago, Steero113 said:

Watched Barry Bannan beat two players with a deft feint and spray a nonchalant 60 yard ball to the wingers feet away at Craven Cottage. 

I was convinced he was the second coming of Xavi. 

 

That was a brilliant goal, so full of promise - both Bannan and Albrighton 

[one_ian_taylor]

Seeing Jacob Ramsey make  his debut, I thought he looked a bit hesitant,  too weak,  nice technically but destined for lower championship.

Coutinho is one I've  flip flopped on several  times - from "he's past it, shouldn't  be signing  him on loan" to "how wrong I was,  maybe he's  still got it", to "why is he keeping  Buendia out of the team" to "maybe he's  a pretty handy  squad player " to "good to have  his wages off the books "

And I thought  Sasa Curcic was going to be brilliant for us, exactly  the creative spark and, er, unpredictability we needed. 

 

[FLVillan]

I thought one of these two was a very useful signing and one was a complete waste of money.  I was correct.  Except I got it backwards...

 

[Zatman]

18 hours ago, rjw63 said:

As mentioned above it was Southampton.

Darius Vassell got the first and our old "friend" Uriah Rennie was the ref.

Team:

Thomas Sørensen

Mark Delaney

Martin Laursen

 Olof Mellberg

 JLloyd Samuel

 Gareth Barry

 Lee Hendrie

 Thomas Hitzlsperger

 Gavin McCann

 Carlton Cole

Darius Vassell

Laursen debut as well