Since it's the international break, I don't think we have too much City related stuff to talk about other than the Huddlestone red card appeal, so I thought maybe something like this can get some discussion going. Marshall Ricketts Bruce Brown Kilbane Garcia Evans McKenna Hughes Quinn Fryatt
Garcia was the first name I thought of. He received quite a bit of **** but he was absolutely outstanding in that promotion season, putting in some of the best crosses and scoring some of the best long range shots I've seen from us, and he stepped-up admirably to the Premier League.
Our most underrated player in the last 20 years was Junior Lewis. He turned that League 1 season around in a very inconspicuous but highly effective way.
I really liked him, as you say he was great in the promotion season, a bit like a workhorse version of Koren, and a decent asset for us in the Premier League. I can't remember if it was mostly down to injury problems, but I would have liked to have seen him involved more under Pearson and Barmby, he seemed to fade away.
Garcia is also an excellent shout from the subsequent Championship/PL era. As is Fraizer Campbell, due to some weird post-revisionist bullshit about a goal celebration.
I really liked folan He's had horrific injuries throughout his career, he runs funny and is frustrating But he was brilliant in the lead up to the play off final, scored some important goals and that goal against fulham will be forever edged in the memory
Always said Garcia was underrated and never understood the stick he got at times. Damien Delaney seemed to get slated a lot at the time but established himself at a higher level later on.
This is an interesting topic. The thing with City fans is the perception of players changes so much, particularly after they leave. Ricketts, Brown, Garcia, McKenna and Quinn were all highly rated when here, yet after they left people pretended they'd never liked them. Fryatt was very highly rated so I think it's generous to call him under-rated. Kilbane was bang average for us I thought, but maybe that is me under-rating him. I'd say Cairney was under-rated in that he showed exactly the kind of skill he's shown ever since leaving us, but no one ever seemed prepared to give him a chance, be it fans or managers. People always wanted to find a minor reason not to like him.
Not sure I agree with Kilbane, he was pretty poor for us I thought. It might seem a strange one but as people have mentioned Koren, he was possibly underrated. I think most thought he was good at the time but looking back at some of the goals I think you'd struggle to find a better out of the box shooter than him in our history. Obviously Geo got a couple at Arsenal and Spurs which were high profile but Koren scored regularly from outside the box. Just watch the YouTube video of his goals for us, very impressive. Ricketts is a good shout, did very well for us and under appreciated.
My memory might be playing tricks on me, but I'm sure I remember Fryatt getting some stick in his first season and a half here. Or maybe I'm just remembering the people who sit behind me and slag off all of them for everything. Particularly if they dare to not pass forwards.
I used to get really frustrated with Fryatt cos he was a right wasteful ****er sometimes. Hardly anyone agreed with me though, he was definitely highly rated from early on.
He did sometimes dilly-dally a bit much. But then sometimes his dilly-dallying resulted in him twisting a defender or two inside out and scoring a great goal.
B Guzan C. Townsend N. Doyle S. Bradley L. Cooper C. Evans S. Quinn T. Cairney J. Devitt R. Vine M. Waghorn