It might sound a bit churlish to suggest that someone who has 11 international caps has "never reached the level I expected" but I firmly believed that Joe Gomez wouldn't just be a fixture in the Liverpool team but also in the England side especially when England are crying out for quality centre backs. That said, he's still only 26 and injuries have played their part so there is more than enough time for him to do that. I sincerely hope that he does.
Scott Parker, even though he's the best midfielder I've seen play for Charlton.
Definitely. He was world class when he left us. Genuinely incredible player and should have won so much more in his career
Another player I thought was going t be decent was Jermaine Darlington but he ended up having a basic career really. I saw him once and thought he was going to be amazing. Same could be said of Martin Christensen tbf
Scott Parker, even though he's the best midfielder I've seen play for Charlton.
By a country mile…Charlton were flying that season and if they’d kept it going Parker would have walked into the England team going to that summers Euros. IMO, he would have made a huge difference to the national team in that tournament. Going to Chelsea that January to sit on the bench when he was already having a huge impact in the PL was a waste of his time as a player.
A lot of players get a bad injury, and that affects how far they can go in the game - Joe Gomez is a prime example of that.
Another one was Mickey Bennett. A fantastic, fast, winger, who was skilful and energetic. Sadly injuries impacted on his development and he had to quit playing the game.
Derek Hales was another who could have probably done better than he did, despite being a legend at The Valley. I met a former Derby player who was there when he was signed for an English record transfer fee, and he said that Killer ate a massive full English breakfast each day in his hotel, and come training, which was a bit more intense that he was used to, his body could not cope. He would regularly throw up his brekkie in full view of the other players. That in turn made his a target as the other players (and management) would take bets on how long it would be before they say Derek's breakfast each day, and didn't bond him to his team-mates. By the time he got to West Ham, injuries were proving problematic.
We all expected Chris Solly to go on to bigger and better things, but he never played for another English league club other than Charlton. Dodgy knees...
We had an exciting crop of strikers coming through the academy a few years ago - Umerah and Hanlan especially. I hoped (maybe more than expected) that one of them would make it at the top level.
Kevin James. Used to watch quite a bit of the U18's back when he was in the team. That side had the likes of Parker, Konchesky and Charlie McDonald in it and he always seemed to be one of our better players. He had bags of pace and thought he'd be the natural replacement for Shaun Newton on the right. Barely did anything in his career, even in non-league.
That really fast full back with a complicated surname. Saw him play for the first time and thought, that kid is going to be immense! Now I can't even remember his name.
That really fast full back with a complicated surname. Saw him play for the first time and thought, that kid is going to be immense! Now I can't even remember his name.
Tariq Holmes-Dennis? - He fell foul to the Charlton full-back curse, with injuries f**king him... If that's who you mean
That really fast full back with a complicated surname. Saw him play for the first time and thought, that kid is going to be immense! Now I can't even remember his name.
Tariq Holmes-Dennis? - He fell foul to the Charlton full-back curse, with injuries f**king him... If that's who you mean
I remember everyone here was raving about him, and dismissive of Morgan Fox, but it's the latter who went on to have the decent career.
That really fast full back with a complicated surname. Saw him play for the first time and thought, that kid is going to be immense! Now I can't even remember his name.
Tariq Holmes-Dennis? - He fell foul to the Charlton full-back curse, with injuries f**king him... If that's who you mean
No, although you're right that it could be him! French kid I think. I'll try Googling. Edit - Moutaouakil.
That really fast full back with a complicated surname. Saw him play for the first time and thought, that kid is going to be immense! Now I can't even remember his name.
Tariq Holmes-Dennis? - He fell foul to the Charlton full-back curse, with injuries f**king him... If that's who you mean
I remember everyone here was raving about him, and dismissive of Morgan Fox, but it's the latter who went on to have the decent career.
The moment he left Barry Bannan on his arse... - I've never known a Footballer hate a team for that sort of reason as a result
From the Prem era academy prospects I thought Neil McCafferty, Jamal Campbell-Ryce and Myles Weston would do better than they did. McCafferty was reserve captain and made the bench at 16 but barely played at Football League level, Campbell-Ryce had one brief hot spell at Barnsley in the Championship but struggled other than that and Weston floated around L1 and L2. Josh Wright was also a huge disappointment but I blame Pardew quite a lot for that.
Outside of the academy though one of the biggest ones was Yassin Moutaouakil. Started off feeling like exactly the kind of signing a recently relegated team dreams of making. Young, fast, talented modern full back who can have a cracking season in the Championship and then won't look out of place for a second in the Premier League once you go up. Perfect replacement for Luke Young. Then he played 2 games, got hurt and was an absolute disaster in every appearance after that and his career never recovered. He went on to be not very good in L1, L2 and the Conference. Incredibly bad for a player who we apparently got ahead of Lazio and some Premier League clubs. He was meant to go on to be a France international
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Another player I thought was going t be decent was Jermaine Darlington but he ended up having a basic career really. I saw him once and thought he was going to be amazing. Same could be said of Martin Christensen tbf
I still can't understand how he never became the next Ronaldo
I guess some youngsters don't adapt to the Men's game, like they do in Youth games, but thought he'd do better than he has done.
Was constantly appearing on the Scoresheet for the U18s
Went on loan to Billericay, who got relegated, but he still scored nine goals in 18-games, and then... Nothing
Another one was Mickey Bennett. A fantastic, fast, winger, who was skilful and energetic. Sadly injuries impacted on his development and he had to quit playing the game.
Derek Hales was another who could have probably done better than he did, despite being a legend at The Valley. I met a former Derby player who was there when he was signed for an English record transfer fee, and he said that Killer ate a massive full English breakfast each day in his hotel, and come training, which was a bit more intense that he was used to, his body could not cope. He would regularly throw up his brekkie in full view of the other players. That in turn made his a target as the other players (and management) would take bets on how long it would be before they say Derek's breakfast each day, and didn't bond him to his team-mates. By the time he got to West Ham, injuries were proving problematic.
We all expected Chris Solly to go on to bigger and better things, but he never played for another English league club other than Charlton. Dodgy knees...
Thought they were both really good signings but neither lived up to my expectations.
Thought Paul Sturgess was another in the Scott Minto mould.