There’s a lot of players who come to the prem with insane hype and fail, but im curious about the inverse of this.
Didn’t like Jordan Henderson’s chances, hadn’t really bought into the hype at Sunderland and we were in a terrible state at the time, felt like he’d be gone within a season or so, basically like Charlie Adam was and Stewart Downing should have been, both of whom I predicted the same level of failure for. Tbf he nearly was gone early on, Brodge tried to sell him to Fulham to get Clint Dempsey, but I’d have never called him being a PL & CL winning captain for us.
Also thought Wijnaldum had potential flop written all over him after going a whole season without an away goal for Newcastle and four of his goals for them coming in one game rather boosting his total. Had no idea he’d turn into the type of midfielder he played as for us as opposed to the attacking midfielder he was for them.
Milner too, was never really a fan even when he was playing well for City, can’t really put my finger on why, and was pretty sure he’d be another one who’d come in from a club who were doing better than us and leave having accomplished very little as we didn’t really feel like we were going anywhere. How wrong I was there.
So basically the midfield that won us the CL & PL, minus Fabinho.
Mo salah
Peter Crouch stands out for me.
Harry Maguire is somewhat succeeding in this season
Oh, that’s easy. Gnabry. His spell at West Brom didn’t inspire confidence, and I was sure he’ll go back to Germany and, at best, play out his best days in Bundesliga’s bottom half.
Jamie Vardy - I just thought he was limited technically but what he lacked in technique he made up for with searing pace and a great attitude to never give a defender a minutes rest which worked in that Leicester team who were frightening on the counter attack
The fact my club were heavily interested and were knocked back by him meant I had to respect his quality and loyalty to the club that made him what he is
I hold my hands up and admit I was so wrong about him and it’s made me a lot more hesitant in judging players before u see them progress in the league
I thought Haaland being top scorer would’ve been disrespectful to the establishment
David Luiz to Arsenal. Thought his tank was empty and hated the signing at the time. He had his share of mistakes but overall was solid and became one of my favorite players in the squad during his time at Arsenal
Antony…
Succeeded in domestic abuse.
Demba Ba. He was all dodgy knee and not good enough in the lead up to Newcastle signing him. Then we signed him and yeah…
Trossard I thought was overhyped but he’s been great for Arsenal
Still early but I’m suprised how well jwp is playing for west ham. Nobody can say anything about his free kicks etc as they are class, but other than that hes always seemed a bit mediocre, but hes looked very good this season.
After Timo Werner, i was really not that hopeful on Haaland.
Ramsdale!
Thiago Silva