Morning all! Bit bored at work, so I thought I'd start a debate. Which players do you think have been massively overated by us, and have played game after game/ spells in the side when other perhaps should?
It's a bit of a struggle to think of too many that are truly overrated (especially longer ago) that were playing when we had better options as we haven't been blessed with strength in depth of late. I will offer these names though: David Norris (a lot of huff & puff and was loved by some fans for that) Connor Wickham (a lot of media hype but based on potential rather than his current ability) Jamie Peters (Loved by the fans but wasn't never really that good - why he didn't play much) Shane O'connor (again liked by the fans but wasn't that great) Finidi George (Underwhelming) Jimmy Bullard (Loved by the fans but 2nd time round was disastrous) Josh Carson (Fans like him but he has never been overly consistent enough to prove himself) Probably a few more but these are the only ones that currently spring to mind
Think Civelli needs to be added to the list. May or may not have solved the left midfield problem, but evidently never showed enough to successive managers after his injury to get his place back, although most of us on here would have put a fit Civelli straight in.
I'd have to agree about Wickham - but fortunately or us Bruce saw something in him to be mugged off of £8m. Going back a bit further, and this may be a bit controversial, but i've never really rated Darren Bent...i know his record is pretty good (albeit a lot of penalties) but i just feel he's definitely not as good as all his transfers are worth (if that makes sense). I find him quite lazy, he's not a game-changer, and he doesn't contribute much as to any assists.
Some perhaps not so highly regarded now but they were at some point but these are players I never rated or thought were as good as the hype: Norris Delaney Edwards - regarded as having a good season last year, I didn't see it, lucky to be in the first team IMO Danny Haynes - good for what he was (super sub) but was never going to be a first team regular for a team in the top 2 divisions Luke Hyam - I rate him and think he's a very good player but some people think he's GOD Jimmy Juan - He was ok but never saw why there was so much hype about him N'Daw - Decent defensively but could never understand how people missed how many times he gave the ball away ALB - poor GK J McEveley - reminded me of a slightly better Damien Delaney Sixto - Again thought he was a decent player but could never understand the hype
I think this is why he's been transferred so many times, if you watch him his overall game isn't great and actually he's not a great finisher(when he's got time) and I used to think that when he was at Ipswich the amount of times I used to think please take him off he's been rubbish today but then he pops up with a winner. I don't think I appreciated how good he was for us until he left. His pace and power meant defenders were always on edge, the amount of times I used to see defenders hoof it into touch because he was breathing down their necks. He just has that knack and positional sense to be in the right place at the right time. He can be prone to miss sitters but unlike alot of strikers he never let it bother his confidence, he just got on with the game and knew another chance would come his way, that is a very rare quality in a striker, I think for example Chopra is technically a better player than Bent and a much better finisher but he looses confidence in himself. And I think his record speaks for itself, is there a better goal/game ratio in the PL over so many years, I don't think so?? And he's done that in smaller teams!!
When he was here he was incredibly frustrating... unbelievable to get frustrated with a 20+ goals a season striker (what we'd give to have that now) but watching him play he missed so many gilt edged chances that he should have doubled his tally and ultimately sent us up as runaway leaders.. the guy only seemed to score 1 in every 10 one on one he had and I'd have trusted drissa Diallo more in those positions ... But he has ultimately improved no end since.. and his goal rates at Charlton, Spuds and Sunderland show that he is clearly good enough in the Premier league, it's just we could have done with a bit more of the glimpses of that when he was with us
Just goes to show how football can divide opinions! Sixto Peralta was simply awesome for us The most underwhleming and overated players over the past 10 or so years? About 90% of the players that we brought in after Joe Royle left basically! Alan Lee, Velice Shumolokowski, Ivan Campo, Gareth MaCauley, David Norris, Damien Delaney, Jimmy Bullard, Lee Martin, JET, Chopra, Marton Fulop, Tamas Priskin, Sylvan Legwinski, Liam Trotter, Mark Kennedy...And there are loads more that I have probably forgotten (the therapy must be working).
Alun Lee....you could almost see the cogs slowly turning during his thought process, and another chance goes begging cos he was still thinking about it.!
Can i put a name out there that might cause controversy......................................................Oh yeah sorry i forgot i wasn't on the norwich board. Anyway, I thought David Stockdale was overated.
Mind you Guru any keeper behind our defence at the time would have been made to look pretty hopeless! How on earth could we have overlooked Leadboots!
Lee was a very limited player but he was superb for us in the first few seasons, I can't think of anyone better to lead the line in a struggling team, he saved Royles last season!! I felt he became less effective in Jims team when we started playing more passing football and he actually had a better team around him, it seemed to me he was better in a worse team. Funnily enough I think Sam Parkin would have been very good in one of those Magilton teams instead of Lee because of the game we were playing but Parkin wasn't good when he played upfront in a team with little service whereas Lee thrived in that situation, hence why Lee basically replaced him when he came in!!
Danny Haynes - All pace and no skill although he had this lovely habit of always scoring against the Budgies!
I can't believe there are 16 responses on this board and not one has mentioned Titus Bramble (Sir Bobby's retirement gift to the club when he paid £6m for him)
