The Freddy Adu Of Your Country

[Mpache]

3 minutes ago, Michael said:

I always thought of Kruse as a bit of a speed merchant, not much else to his game.

Nah, not even Robbie Kruse is a player that does everything right in the build up and either makes a pass back or traces back. His technique is also awful.

[Michael]

2 minutes ago, Inti Brian said:

Nah, not even Robbie Kruse is a player that does everything right in the build up and either makes a pass back or traces back. His technique is also awful.

Yes, that's what I suggested, there's never been much more to his game than his speed. His speed has always been his greatest asset as a footballer.

[Mpache]

Just now, Michael said:

Yes, that's what I said, there's never been much more to his game than his speed. His speed has always been his greatest asset as a footballer.

I guess I contradicted myself then hahaha  

[Mpache]

3 minutes ago, CityTheBest said:

Jack Wilshere looked like he was going to be England's Xavi when he was a teen.

Walcott also looked class as a a teenager and went to the 2006 WC as a 17 year old. He's 31 now though.

 

No fucking way!!!

I didn't say Walcott because I was sure he was over 34 or 35. He's 31!!!?

[Michael]

As I am living in Ukraine, perhaps the Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy, now 33, should be named here. Barcelona bought him in 2009 for €25 million from Shakhtar Donetsk, which at the time made him one of the most expensive defenders in the world. Guardiola saw him as the ideal defender, however, Chygrynskiy struggled when he joined the Catalan club, despite Barcelona winning the La Liga title while he was there. He was sold back to Shakhtar Donetsk only a year later for €15 million, €10 million less than Barca paid for him only a year earlier.

However, he never reached the hights he had reached at Shakhtar before he joined Barcelona. He went on to play for Dnipro and for the last 4 seasons he has played for AEK Athens in Greece, which is a far cry from what was expected of him when he was younger.

[Spike]

27 minutes ago, CityTheBest said:

Jack Wilshere looked like he was going to be England's Xavi when he was a teen.

Walcott also looked class as a a teenager and went to the 2006 WC as a 17 year old. He's 31 now though.

 

Wilshere built his career from one game.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, CityTheBest said:

Jack Wilshere looked like he was going to be England's Xavi when he was a teen.

Walcott also looked class as a a teenager and went to the 2006 WC as a 17 year old. He's 31 now though.

 

To be honest taking Walcott to the world cup was a strange decision but I though he was going to be better than he was. Wiltshire has just been so injury prone. I think he could have been world class if not for that.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Spike said:

Wilshere built his career from one game.

Wouldn't say that is true. He seemed like he had great potential. Are you sure you are not thinking of Walcott there though against Croatia?

[Storts+]

22 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

I think so, though @Storts will know for definite. 

@Stan

Yeah, very true.

He wouldn't train all week - just be in the gym/pool. He would then join the team for the final session and run through of tactics - and then be the best player on the pitch the next day. His knee would balloon up completely after.

He was sensational, Rolls Royce of a defender. Not a chance he'd have stayed at Spurs his whole career if he was healthy. Best I've seen

[Stan]

25 minutes ago, Storts said:

@Stan

Yeah, very true.

He wouldn't train all week - just be in the gym/pool. He would then join the team for the final session and run through of tactics - and then be the best player on the pitch the next day. His knee would balloon up completely after.

He was sensational, Rolls Royce of a defender. Not a chance he'd have stayed at Spurs his whole career if he was healthy. Best I've seen

That's pretty incredible when you think about the rigours, physicality and fast pace of the modern game. To pretty much just rock up on match day and absolutely ace it. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

On 11/06/2020 at 17:19, Michael said:

As I am living in Ukraine, perhaps the Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy, now 33, should be named here. Barcelona bought him in 2009 for €25 million from Shakhtar Donetsk, which at the time made him one of the most expensive defenders in the world. Guardiola saw him as the ideal defender, however, Chygrynskiy struggled when he joined the Catalan club, despite Barcelona winning the La Liga title while he was there. He was sold back to Shakhtar Donetsk only a year later for €15 million, €10 million less than Barca paid for him only a year earlier.

However, he never reached the hights he had reached at Shakhtar before he joined Barcelona. He went on to play for Dnipro and for the last 4 seasons he has played for AEK Athens in Greece, which is a far cry from what was expected of him when he was younger.

I think that's a pretty good example. I remember he was incredibly highly rated and linked all across Europe before Barca bought him. And shortly after that... we barely heard anything about him and he obviously didn't grow into the player that was expected of him. Still a better career than Freddy Adu, mind 

With the ex-Arsenal lads Wilshire and Walcott... I thought Walcott would be nailed on to be a world class player when he first broke into the Arsenal side. I don't think you'd compare him to Adu either though... I think he ended up being a fairly good player despite not living up to those early expectations of him. He's certainly had a better career than a lot of other players tbh. Wilshire I've always thought was pretty massively overrated, tbh, but again not a bad player. Also pretty shit for him that he was always getting bad injuries - maybe I was just missing his good matches and he was inconsistent because of all the injuries.

Still nobody really comes close to as disappointing as Adu imo. Which tbh begs the question, is media hype great for these kids at all? Or does it just put unnecessary pressure that can sometimes get to a young kid and when it gets in their head might throw them away from the heights they were expected to reach. Because when Adu first broke out in US football, I remember it because it somehow made SkySports or something one day and they were interviewing this 16 year old American kid. And at the time, he was probably the only American player (playing in America) that I'd heard about. Saying he was incredible at the age of 16, that Inter were looking into signing him, and that he was destined to go on to become a great and make football huge in the US.

Did the weight of the worldwide press get to Adu's head? Was he just physically stronger than kids when he was 16 and once he grew up his technical ability never grew to match his physical potential? Was he ever as good as we were told in the first place?

I honestly don't know because I never watched him play... I've only just seen his wiki page and thought "wow this is not the career you'd expect from possibly the most hyped teenager." And maybe it's better to just not put these young players under such pressure. I think that's something Liverpool fans have been guilty of after having the likes of Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, Carragher, etc... come through the academy a lot of players get tipped with the "he's the next _________" title. But it seems to be the kids that don't get these lofty expectations put on them as they're broken into the first team that actually seem to do well when they break into the first team. Mellor and Suso were very very hyped up, I don't remember as much hype for Trent or Curtis Jones (and even with Jones, it's very early days in his career).

[Michael]

38 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think that's a pretty good example. I remember he was incredibly highly rated and linked all across Europe before Barca bought him. And shortly after that... we barely heard anything about him and he obviously didn't grow into the player that was expected of him. Still a better career than Freddy Adu, mind 

With the ex-Arsenal lads Wilshire and Walcott... I thought Walcott would be nailed on to be a world class player when he first broke into the Arsenal side. I don't think you'd compare him to Adu either though... I think he ended up being a fairly good player despite not living up to those early expectations of him. He's certainly had a better career than a lot of other players tbh. Wilshire I've always thought was pretty massively overrated, tbh, but again not a bad player. Also pretty shit for him that he was always getting bad injuries - maybe I was just missing his good matches and he was inconsistent because of all the injuries.

Still nobody really comes close to as disappointing as Adu imo. Which tbh begs the question, is media hype great for these kids at all? Or does it just put unnecessary pressure that can sometimes get to a young kid and when it gets in their head might throw them away from the heights they were expected to reach. Because when Adu first broke out in US football, I remember it because it somehow made SkySports or something one day and they were interviewing this 16 year old American kid. And at the time, he was probably the only American player (playing in America) that I'd heard about. Saying he was incredible at the age of 16, that Inter were looking into signing him, and that he was destined to go on to become a great and make football huge in the US.

Did the weight of the worldwide press get to Adu's head? Was he just physically stronger than kids when he was 16 and once he grew up his technical ability never grew to match his physical potential? Was he ever as good as we were told in the first place?

I honestly don't know because I never watched him play... I've only just seen his wiki page and thought "wow this is not the career you'd expect from possibly the most hyped teenager." And maybe it's better to just not put these young players under such pressure. I think that's something Liverpool fans have been guilty of after having the likes of Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, Carragher, etc... come through the academy a lot of players get tipped with the "he's the next _________" title. But it seems to be the kids that don't get these lofty expectations put on them as they're broken into the first team that actually seem to do well when they break into the first team. Mellor and Suso were very very hyped up, I don't remember as much hype for Trent or Curtis Jones (and even with Jones, it's very early days in his career).

Yeah, Chygrynskiy never lived up to the hype. He ended being an average defender, not bad, but nothing like the world class defender he was touted to be before Barcelona signed him. I think that him being a key player of the Shakhtar Donetsk side that won the UEFA Cup the season before, helped to raise his profile as well.

Walcott kind of did very well early on in his career for Arsenal,  I mean 48 caps for England is not a bad feat, but yeah, he never ended up being world class. I think Wilshire was a real disappointment. Sure his injuries have helped to curtail his career, but he has never been close to being a great player over the last 8 years or so.

As for Adu, well yeah, he had become a nobody after the first few years of hype. I definitely think that pressure and hype can help to destroy the careers of such young footballers. Some players can take the pressure, whilst others can't. But I also think that any American player that shows something a bit special at an early age, is always going to be overhyped. You won't find a similar player with promise getting the same hype in countries such as Zambia, Thailand or Bolivia for example. I actually had a friend who saw Adu play about 5 years ago when Adu was playing in Finland and apparently he was pretty hopeless. Sad plight for a player who was on most of the world tabloids, being hailed as a future super star in the mid 2000's.

 

[Spike]

I think Walcott was a talented player that could have been a reliable goal scorer if not for constant injuries. Around 2011/13 he good just he never really player consistently due to injuries.

[Dr. Gonzo]

6 minutes ago, Michael said:

As for Adu, well yeah, he had become a nobody after the first few years of hype. I definitely think that pressure and hype can help to destroy the careers of such young footballers. Some players can take the pressure, whilst others can't. But I also think that any American player that shows something a bit special at an early age, is always going to be overhyped. You won't find a similar player with promise getting the same hype in countries such as Zambia, Thailand or Bolivia for example.

Idk if you've seen the graphic ESPN once put out of Pulisic, who's a good young player with potential, but they were basically comparing him to Messi and Ronaldo at the same age (whenever that graphic came out) and at the time I thought "well, that's a bit fucked to be comparing a kid to two of the best players ever" - because that's going to set up loads of people with the expectation that it's a given he'll be at least as good as two absolute legends. Some people I worked with were the ones who showed me the graphic, and they're people that don't really care about football unless it's the world cup. But they got hyped from that graphic that a young American player was being compared to two of the names they were familiar with as two of the best players around.

I didn't really have the heart to tell them "these are incredibly unrealistic expectations you're putting on this kid."

[Cicero]

At this rate, Pulisic will be considered a failure of expectations  until he sorts out his muscular imbalances. 

[Michael]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Idk if you've seen the graphic ESPN once put out of Pulisic, who's a good young player with potential, but they were basically comparing him to Messi and Ronaldo at the same age (whenever that graphic came out) and at the time I thought "well, that's a bit fucked to be comparing a kid to two of the best players ever" - because that's going to set up loads of people with the expectation that it's a given he'll be at least as good as two absolute legends. Some people I worked with were the ones who showed me the graphic, and they're people that don't really care about football unless it's the world cup. But they got hyped from that graphic that a young American player was being compared to two of the names they were familiar with as two of the best players around.

I didn't really have the heart to tell them "these are incredibly unrealistic expectations you're putting on this kid."

No I haven't, but I can't say that I am surprised. Any talented young American player is going to be overhyped and branded to fcuk. Still Pulisic is still a quality player, but nowhere near Messi or Ronaldo level.

[Beelzebub]

What happened to Odigard? 

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, Azeem said:

What happened to Odigard? 

Still on Real Madrid's books but on loan to Real Sociedad.

[Spike]

4 minutes ago, Azeem said:

What happened to Odigard? 

Nothing, that player doesn't exist. Odegaard on the other hand i playing for Real Sociedad, and he is still only 21

[Dr. Gonzo]

He's having a pretty decent season at Real Sociedad, or at least... the last I'd heard of him he was at least in a period of good form for them.

[Beelzebub]

3 minutes ago, Spike said:

Nothing, that player doesn't exist. Ødegaard on the other hand i playing for Real Sociedad, and he is still only 21

 

[Spike]

Just now, Azeem said:

 

Doesn't exist in English. I wouldn't type Imran Khan in Urdu, would I?

[Beelzebub]

3 minutes ago, Spike said:

Doesn't exist in English. I wouldn't type Imran Khan in Urdu, would I?

[Michael]

8 minutes ago, Spike said:

Nothing, that player doesn't exist. Odegaard on the other hand i playing for Real Sociedad, and he is still only 21

Odegaard, Haaland, Sander Berge and Kristoffer Ajer are all 22 or younger. The future of the Norwegian national team does indeed look very promising.

[Mpache]

16 minutes ago, Azeem said:

What happened to Odigard? 

Halilovic is more of a flop.