Robinho and Baptista for me too. I know Baptista definitely shouldn’t be in this strikers conversation but still knew its an easy like from you if I sadly reflect on him never fulfilling his outrageous potential.
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Not ridiculous imho - he had everything but lost his way mentally and I’m sure a better coaching and development situation would have benefitted him (ie staying at AFC).
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Honestly I think if he was utilised as a number 10 properly or in the midfield he would have had a much better career. He was always wasted as a striker and injuries also ruined him. Baptista was real good when he was on form. 
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Robinho is easily the case of most unfulfilled potential for me in my time watching football. He had everything, and he even translated it into real production at times, but he was a party boy. Definitely someone who should be very high on this list (or another list, with proper discipline and work ethic he could’ve been one of the first wide forward goal scoring phenomenons IMO), and bigger talent of he and Pato markedly for me.
Yeah that’s not ridiculous at all I think everyone agree Anelka was a massive, massive talent but being Le Sulk let him down.
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I was so overly gassed when we got him from Madrid, even if only on loan. I was devastated about missing out on Robinho and Baptista to Madrid the season prior. Robinho was more bearable to miss out on, because he was already such a well known talent that I expected someone like Madrid to be interested anyway, and as if we’d ever beat them to the signing of a prodigious Brazilian talent. I was more gutted about missing out on Baptista, as from the start I thought he would be a next level beast for us in the Prem as an attacking midfielder, and that Madrid would never build their attack around him in the kind of way I think we would have. I’m still somewhat convinced he’d have achieved greatness if we had signed him then. But we got him a year later, on loan, and by then Fabregas was the boy wonder and deservedly the future of our midfield in an attacking sense. Baptista ended up getting inconsistent game time as either a striker or on the left, and that was that 
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Yep that’s exactly how it went down. I think I remember reading as well that Fabregas emergence basically meant that Baptista was going to have to compete with Henry, RVP and Adebayor for the striking position and he’s never winning that one.
It’s a shame, I think his career turns out so different if his Real Madrid move worked out or the Arsenal one did. He had a late career resurgence at Malaga and then got fuckrd by injuries again.
Baptista is a weird one. I rated him but I don’t think he had the creativity to be a top attacking midfielder. Nowadays he’d be trained as an inverted left inside forward from day one and probably have more success.
So, I kind of agree with what you say about him lacking the creativity, but you have to understand my thoughts at the time are linked to what we (the English tbf) considered an attacking midfielder to be. When I desperately wanted to sign him, 2005, as an English kid all I’d ever know was four, four fucking two. Even with our fancy, modern foreign manager, we still pretty much only played 4-4-2, apart from a few games very early in his tenure when Arsène used a 3-5-2.
So I envisaged him being a great attacking midfielder in terms of being the more attack minded player in the central two in a four man midfield, back in the days when it was more about being dynamic and all action, and things were a bit more physical.
It was probably Cesc’s introduction that started to change how I perceived the role as a teenager.
I think Vieri eventually fulfilled his potential. La Liga and Serie A topscorer. Something like 100 Serie A goals in 150 games for Inter. That would be 6 or 7 good to great seasons.
Toni was just a late bloomer imo and had not as much talent as others. But still once or twice Serie A topscorer, leading the line for Bayern one or two seasons. Think he did really well for himself.
@SRCJJ @Stroller Pato and Anelka are really good shouts. Expected a lot from Pato when he eventually reached Europe/Milan.
Talking about second strikers like Saviola, Robinho and Baptista, Cassano needs to be mentioned too. Balotelli also had the physical tools on which he should have built a much better career than he eventually did.
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Klose had a mention so far?
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Talking about these two and unfulfilled potential…if Reyes didn’t have his breakdown. One of these guys, or both, doesn’t become starting players for Arsenal.
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Yeah, I wasn’t saying Vieri was a case of unfulfilled potential, but rather that he was a good shout for someone I had forgotten for consideration.
Yeah, I mentioned him in the first post, but I think his underwhelming record for club makes it kinda impossible for anyone to make a good case for him.
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Absolutely spot on.
Reyes was a scoring machine before that rent boy born from a jackal did what he did at Old Trafford.
After that, there’s a common misconception that Reyes “turned shit”. He actually made Pires’ position his own after that game and he would have been an invaluable player for us in those barren years if he hadn’t become understandably home sick.
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Absolutely. After that loss against barca in 2006 I thought we had a promising young team and how Reyes was one of the most important players for the future and he would be one of those who would carry us (along with fabregas etc). Yeah, sadly he was homesick, and later he didn’t impose himself in Real… He was good there but they were changing managers all the time those years, changing players all the time… it was too hard to settle there. I think he got disappointed and he was never the same physically after that… he always had great work rate when he was with us, and with Real too, but after that he changed, became kinda lazy on the pitch… He was still very valuable for Atletico but not nearly as good as he should’ve been.
A shame… RIP.
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It’s kind of sickening how United got away with this as an actual tactic and Arsenal got rebuttle from pundits and other English media that they were the ones that needed to toughen up. I’m sure that Arsenal wasn’t the most fair team either in 96 - 04. But still. Those cunts admitted publicly that kicking the shit out of Arsenal was something they consciously did.
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To go off on a slight tangent (the premise of this thread is really good and I want to try and keep it that way), I feel that the scheduling of our game against those Scummy cheating bastards at the Swamp didn’t help.
For one, we were away from home. At home, I’ve no doubt we would’ve beaten them at that point in the season. Secondly, we hadn’t played Chelsea home or away before that. Again, I’m almost certain we’d have put an imbalanced Chelsea side to the sword in autumn 2004 (given that they only lost once that season, imagine the knock on effect that would have had…) That would have had its own impact on final league standings.
Finally, you cannot legislate for Mike f’ckin Riley. The one mitigating factor in all this is a spineless, downright shit referee who deserves all the condemnation in the world after that. In a season where Mourinho shamelessly called open season on Anders Frisk after Chelsea’s game at the Nou Camp, I’m surprised Arsenal and Wenger were so relatively level headed about that pencil thin cunt Riley.
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Saviola was a Championship Manager legend and part of a very good Argentina youth team but I don’t think he was the best of that youth team. With Aimar and Riquelme being the stand outs. Saviola was technically good with good close control but lacked athleticism and strength. And if you lack he went from 20 in 34 in Argentina to 17 in 36 in Serie A. Which isn’t a bad step up. He just didn’t build on that
Most rated Anelka above Henry in the youth ranks. Although looking at both from a young age I think Henry always looked better technically.
But Anelka was a massive dickhead. Going on strike here and complaining about Bergkamp and Overmars passing to each other.
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I assume this has already been heavily challenged and I’m going to read through now but I’d just like to add my own personal fuck off to the mix here.
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There’s no denying Kane at his peak was more prolific, albeit in a more attacking system than the system Peak Wright played in. But Wright will go down as a club legend decoriated with a PL winners medal, a European Cup Winner’s Cup Medal, 2 FA Cups and 1 League Cup. While Kane will move to United and retire having won no trophies.
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