Who can you admit to getting it wrong about?

I read Callidad said not long ago that he was wrong about Fabiano and he now actually does rate him after calling him a donkey for so many years.

Similarly i used to always laugh at Callidad for trying to put Iniesta up there with the best players in the world, but now i rate Iniesta very highly and he's clearly a lot better than i initially assumed.

Who have you been wrong about? Or who do you think is looking like changing your mind in the future.

I was beginning to think Darren Bent was beginning to look a different player to the limited one i thought he was but after seeing him for England im not so sure.

Cambiasso was my biggest change of mind in recent times.... I thought he was a mug at Real, didn't want him at Inter even for free... but he has since changed my mind completely.

Lampard & Vucinic are some others who I didn't rate as much in the beginning.

I thought Samassi Abou was going to be world class
ditto Elhadji Diouf
I was spectacularly wrong about the end of Jermaine Pennant's Liverpool contract
I was wrong when I reported that Rafu and Fafu were injury prone and would barely feature this season as a result
I never rated Paul Scholes in his early Man Utd days
I think there's another time I was wrong but I can't put my finger on it.

I've become a Richard Dunne fan this season, for some reason, after generally mocking him for the past couple of years.

Luke Moore: thought he was going to be very good.

Never used to rate Seedorf, but appreciate him more now.

I'm sure there's many many more.

Hmmm...well, I'm not entirely convinced that Luis Fabiano isn't a donkey but we'll see.

Well, I used to have a good laugh over Fernando Torres and I thought he would be an absolute flop in the EPL but he's actually come good. He even can score against Madrid now, apparently.

I remember being livid when I found out we were signing a second 20m euro Diarra, turns out Lass is a very good footballer.

I also didn't rate Iniesta at first. Thought he was just a paler, balder, shorter, not-nearly-as-good version of Xavi when he first came up. He's alright though.

Thought Soldado was going to be a lot better than Negredo.

Also thought Capel was going to be awesome by now.

Players who I will still claim to be correct on: Banega, Giovani dos Santos, Martin Caceres, Royston Drenthe.

Boy was I wrong about Gago. Really thought he had the talent to be the new Redondo.

I got Torres wrong aswell allthough the view many who watched the spanish league had of him was correct but it just didn't apply to him in England.

Used to think Banega was good but now I see that he is great.

Super Higuain wrote:Boy was I wrong about Gago. Really thought he had the talent to be the new Redondo.

I got Torres wrong aswell allthough the view many who watched the spanish league had of him was correct but it just didn't apply to him in England.

Used to think Banega was good but now I see that he is great.

Over the past 5 years

Better than I thought: Agbonlahor, Kuyt, Torres, Alex Song, Chiellini, Ozil, Julio Cesar

Worse than I thought: Routledge, Michael Carrick (regressed since he's moved to Man Utd), Solomon Kalou (really should've kicked on by now). Quaresma, Gago, Ben Foster.

In recent memory....Quaresma, when he first signed for us i thought that we made a great deal and that we do have now a replacement fo Figo...but what a flop he turn out to be.
El Hadji Diouf is another, great expectations after the world cup 2002, but really a shit from a footballer.

Higuain, Keita, Pedro, Mata, Adebayor... and loads more (better than I thought)

Hleb, Mati fernandez, Gago, Banega, Cleber Santana, Joaquin etc much worse than I thought

Quaresma is right up there.

Joaquin, Mark Gonzalez and Maniche.

Thought they were destined to be class. Yeaaaah NO.

Will mention more at a later point.

Valdes has turned out reasonably better than I expected him to be. Still think he's unreliable and should be nowhere near the Spanish team, but at least he's become decent in the last few seasons.

Gago has definitely been a major disappointment. After Schuster's first season I thought he was destined to become one of the best DMs in the world, but for over a year he's been a huge embarassment. I still have nightmares of his horror shows against Liverpool and Barcelona

Never thought Lassana Diarra would play so well for Real, was picking him as another disastrous Real transfer.
Didn't have a chance to see Leighton Baines playing for Wigan, so I was very skeptical seeing him early for Everton, thinking he won't be good enough.
I didn't watch Kenwyne Jones playing for Southampton, but I was heavily indoctrinated by polish press claiming that Rasiak is better and Jones is shit . At least I always thought Carlton Cole will become to be an useful player...
Joaquin is a serious disappoitment for me, Giovanni dos Santos definitely too, as well as Nano (?) when he debuted for Barcelona under Luis Van Gaal.
After seeing him playing for Brasil a few years ago I was sure Cicinho will become a top RB And since I've always liked pace merchants Tijani Babangida not doing anything after Ajax has to be a disappointment too.
And looking back Kaka is definitely a player I didn't rate enough when he came to Milan

Looking at polish players Kamil Kosowski has to be the biggest disappointment over last 10 years - currently being 32 he is playing for Nicosia in Champions League, but he should do much, much better. He had it all for a wide midfielder - pace, ability to strike and cross with either foot, creativity, stamina. But he was too dumb to realize it and didn't even bother to learn languages when he was playing abroad

I didnt rate iniesta :-/

Cicinho is a good choice

OH

The BEAST more like BAMBI, Baptista.

I thought he was the real deal at Sevilla and was desperate for Liverpool to sign him at the time, really believed he'd be a success at Arsenal tbh.

Oh oooh Ben Afra as well.



Suprised how awesome Garcia and Yossi have turned out to be for us. Always a fan of the latter even back to his Santander days, but he's still suprised me how he really has stepped up his entire game.

I never rated Benyanoon, no pace, no strength, can't cross or shoot and yet somehow he's been excellent for us.

Kezman. When he signed for us, I looked at his goalscoring record for PSV in the CL and the Dutch league and thought he'd be amazing. Took him nearly 2 months to score his first goal which was a penalty against Newcastle. He was still shit after that.

Better than I thought - Torres (voted him as 'The Most Likely to Flop' in some poll ), Arshavin, Vermaelen, Ibra (at Barca so far), Drogba, Hargreaves, Benayoun, Aguero, Forlan .

Worse - Morientes (at Liverpool), Baptista (post Sevilla), Shevchenko (thought he was in decline but didn't think he'd be as poor as he turned out at Chelsea), Tevez, Crespo (at Chelsea), Veron, Hunterlaar.

Ricardo Oliveira - I thought he was going to play well for Milan, didn't

stinger wrote:Never thought Lassana Diarra would play so well for Real, was picking him as another disastrous Real transfer.
Didn't have a chance to see Leighton Baines playing for Wigan, so I was very skeptical seeing him early for Everton, thinking he won't be good enough.
I didn't watch Kenwyne Jones playing for Southampton, but I was heavily indoctrinated by polish press claiming that Rasiak is better and Jones is shit . At least I always thought Carlton Cole will become to be an useful player...
Joaquin is a serious disappoitment for me, Giovanni dos Santos definitely too, as well as Nano (?) when he debuted for Barcelona under Luis Van Gaal.
After seeing him playing for Brasil a few years ago I was sure Cicinho will become a top RB And since I've always liked pace merchants Tijani Babangida not doing anything after Ajax has to be a disappointment too.
And looking back Kaka is definitely a player I didn't rate enough when he came to Milan

Looking at polish players Kamil Kosowski has to be the biggest disappointment over last 10 years - currently being 32 he is playing for Nicosia in Champions League, but he should do much, much better. He had it all for a wide midfielder - pace, ability to strike and cross with either foot, creativity, stamina. But he was too dumb to realize it and didn't even bother to learn languages when he was playing abroad

HA! And the brother was even worse even though the cules tried to hype him as being brilliant.

Robbie Keane at Liverpool.

Better than I thought: Kuyt (when he went from Utrecht to Feyenoord), Rooney, Klose (even though later he's turned to shite again), Von Bommel, Nigel de Jong, Babel

Worse than I thought: Kewell, De Guzman, Biseswar, Ballack, Afonso Alves, Koc, Aissati

Never any good : Sankoh

Better than I thought

Vidic, Yaya Toure, Drogba, Terry, Glenn Johnson, Anelka

Worse than I thought

Cannavaro, Drenthe, Babel, Podolski, Klose, Pigclimber, Ballack, Pirlo, Nasri

Pirlo?

Robinho. Enough Said

to be fair, he didn't turn out to be the next Baggio, but still a strange inclusion, as is Cannavaro who had a very good career.

I thought quite a few LBs would turn out great, but they didn't: Vanoli, Pasqual, Pasquale, Coco - all ended up being average at best. Others: Quaresma, Cavenaghi, D'Alessandro, Bonera, Bovo, Pelizzoli, Baros, Vampeta, Peralta probably loads of others that i can't think of atm.

Players who turned out better than i thought: Iaquinta, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ayala, Diego Milito, Fletcher....

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:to be fair, he didn't turn out to be the next Baggio, but still a strange inclusion, as is Cannavaro who had a very good career.

I thought quite a few LBs would turn out great, but they didn't: Vanoli, Pasqual, Pasquale, Coco - all ended up being average at best. Others: Quaresma, Cavenaghi, D'Alessandro, Bonera, Bovo, Pelizzoli, Baros, Vampeta, Peralta probably loads of others that i can't think of atm.

Players who turned out better than i thought: Iaquinta, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ayala, Diego Milito, Fletcher....

Big Vince



None for me

made countless wrong judgements

underestimated: Torres, Ronaldo (pt), Song, Bergkamp (early days at Ajax),....

overestimated: Alfonso Alves & loads of others.

Best judgement: RVP, always had faith in him until I was about the only one left. Lucikly Wenger signed him when he was close to down & out. In general my judgement on local players is best, because in that case I know more about them (will-power, focus, etc)

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:to be fair, he didn't turn out to be the next Baggio, but still a strange inclusion, as is Cannavaro who had a very good career.

I thought quite a few LBs would turn out great, but they didn't: Vanoli, Pasqual, Pasquale, Coco - all ended up being average at best. Others: Quaresma, Cavenaghi, D'Alessandro, Bonera, Bovo, Pelizzoli, Baros, Vampeta, Peralta probably loads of others that i can't think of atm.

Players who turned out better than i thought: Iaquinta, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ayala, Diego Milito, Fletcher....

Big Vince



None for me

Torres is a pretty big one for you Pierre

I also thought Tevez, Coloccini and Burdisso would turn out better