The One That Got Away

No not Katie Perry's rather catchy number, but players that your club failed to recognise the talent / potential of ... a classic would be Peter Beardsley released by Manchester United in his younger days ...

Despite our world renowned yoof policy (@Peej to confirm) we've had more than a few .. and 2 in particular who are currently 'ripping up trees'

Firstly, Calvin Bassey, now at Ajax but who left us a couple of years ago for Rangers (offered new contract but was not given first team opportunities - so he went) ... we got a paltry youth development fee for him whereas Rangers were able to sell him on for £22million 2 years later ... the biggest irony is that we've spent the last 2 years looking for a left footed central defender ... exactly where he is now playing for Ajax.

The second was a young lad that we released at 16 ... Ivan Toney!!

Your best / worst? ...

 

Ivan Toney is the one I'd pick for Newcastle too.

Sent him out on loan and he did a ****ing good job, really shown potential and we never even bothered looking at his games I'd imagine. A ****ing classic example of the Ashley era.

Lazy fat scum.

 

God knows, Ben White?

 

Gerard Pique

Think we were blessed with CB’s at the time like.

And for different reasons - Ravel Morrison. If he wasn’t a roadman he’d have been some player.

 

Peter Crouch...though we got him back

Graham Souness

 

Apparently we also gave him a trial ... but were not interested.

 

We had the bastard for 8 years and sacked him off at 16

 

Tyrone Mings as well, though think that might’ve been when we went into admin and ditched all the youth

 

At the time did you think we'd ****ed up by selling him to the Posh?

On the very few occasions I saw him play for us he looked like a skinny 18yr old way out of his depth.

His goalscoring record on loan at various clubs was 1 in 3.5. Not bad but in the lower leagues it wasn't great.

Maybe he wanted to move on because he was nowhere near our first team.

He's a different player now, he's physically much stronger and bigger than when he was with us.

Players move on like he did all the time at football clubs.

Just one of those things.

 

I was always more pissed off that we sold Mitro tbh.

But we had a ****ing abysmal track record with youth under Ashley.

 

Can't disagree with both of your points.

I liked Mitro, he was an absolute ****in headcase

 

Right now it's Bobby Clark

 

Funnily enough, both Peter Beardsley and Steve Bruce at the beginning of their careers, couldn't find a club that would take them on, that was until my lot (Gills) gave them both a trial under then manager, still remembered by me Gerry Summers.

Steve Bruce ended up sigining for the club, and Beardsley wasn't required, as per an article I found on it below, Beardsley ended up signing for fourth division Cambridge. As history would have it, Steve Bruce eventually ended up at United as we all know, and didn't Beardsley eventually end up at some club called Newcastle.

Well known names that started from nothing... https://www.dai-sport.com/14424-2/

 

It's not always as easy as it seems when we speak of the one that got away, because a lot of players come with initial risk when they first start out, and it's only after a succession of moves that they actually make the grade.

Bruce was never going to get recognised at my lot, and it's still hard to believe now, that he was in the same team as Tony Cascarino who we bought for a set of tracksuits from Crockenhill, playing third tier footie! Thankfully for Bruce, Norwich City took an interest, I believe tier two at the time, and from there history was made.

Take Maguire, no one would have given him a second look at Sheff Utd initially, but it's only his onward career that attracted attention, I think without looking it up, he also has two brothers with playing careers at lower league clubs. Sometimes you just need a good bit of fortune to be on your side, and it helps if the buyers have more money than sense.

 

I wish we had taken deli Ali
I know not exactly what you were asking but thought that lad had loads of potential

 

We had the chance to buy him for £10m, but bought Dennis instead for a couple of million, but at least we got £20m from Forrest so she could keep Pedro and Sarr

 

Newcastle, Newcastle

Who the fu ck are Newcastle

 

We let quite a few good CBs go over the years because of the players we had as first choice,
Fergie was never one to hold players back and would always allow them to go on and make a career elsewhere when the time came.

 

Diego Maradona

 

Please take the thread seriously Spurly ...

... and Sol Campbell would have been a much better response ...