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[Football] Wasted Talent.
- Thread starter lawros left foot
- Start date
Spot on.
Can I also get you to agree on my other controversial opinion that Zinedine Zidane was over rated?!
Robin Friday...You cant trump that !
https://www.joe.ie/sport/feature-robin-friday-the-ultimate-football-maverick-511537
Its a great read...few bits copied below.
The hardy showman who truly didn’t give a f**k.
In 1990, Robin Friday died in his apartment from a heart attack, suspected to be caused by a heroin overdose.
He was just 38. In 2004, both Reading and Cardiff City decreed Friday as their all-time cult hero – he only played 21 times for Cardiff. In his two full seasons at Reading he was awarded back-to-back player of the season awards, as well as finishing top scorer each year.
This is the same man who was sent for a short spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure for impersonating a police officer in order to confiscate drugs for his own personal use. And the same centre forward who showed up for one training session, naked, holding a swan he had just borrowed from the local lake.
There were mavericks like George Best and Paul Gascoigne, and then there was Robin Friday. He was the punk rockstar of football.
His life reads like a story that would be deemed as too far-fetched in a particularly creative Hollywood blockbuster. Which is funny, because that is exactly what is in production at the moment.
Henry-Alex Rubin is set to direct the Robin Friday biopic. Russel Brand had been rumoured to play the titular character, but Friday will now be portrayed by Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin.
The movie will be based on the biography The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw which was co-written by ex-Oasis bassist Paul McGuigan and one of the movie’s producers, the renowned music journalist Paolo Hewitt. After reading about the man, understanding the fascination does not take long.
There is a reason that Super Furry Animals dedicated their 1996 single The Man Don't Give a **** to Friday.
Friday’s ability was immense from a young age, even joining the Chelsea youth team. However, the precocious talent had other hobbies as a teenager, namely in the areas of illegal substances, the female of the species and petty crime.
The latter activity actually landed the long-haired renegade a year-long stint in a borstal. Already, Friday’s football career appeared as though it would be ephemeral. Upon his release, the youngster had to start all over on the football field. He, of course, still found other means to piss off the establishment.
At the tender age of 17, Friday married – tying the knot with a black girl. One has to remember that this was 1970’s Britain and mixed-race partnerships were seriously taboo.
https://www.joe.ie/sport/feature-robin-friday-the-ultimate-football-maverick-511537
Its a great read...few bits copied below.
The hardy showman who truly didn’t give a f**k.
In 1990, Robin Friday died in his apartment from a heart attack, suspected to be caused by a heroin overdose.
He was just 38. In 2004, both Reading and Cardiff City decreed Friday as their all-time cult hero – he only played 21 times for Cardiff. In his two full seasons at Reading he was awarded back-to-back player of the season awards, as well as finishing top scorer each year.
This is the same man who was sent for a short spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure for impersonating a police officer in order to confiscate drugs for his own personal use. And the same centre forward who showed up for one training session, naked, holding a swan he had just borrowed from the local lake.
There were mavericks like George Best and Paul Gascoigne, and then there was Robin Friday. He was the punk rockstar of football.
His life reads like a story that would be deemed as too far-fetched in a particularly creative Hollywood blockbuster. Which is funny, because that is exactly what is in production at the moment.
Henry-Alex Rubin is set to direct the Robin Friday biopic. Russel Brand had been rumoured to play the titular character, but Friday will now be portrayed by Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin.
The movie will be based on the biography The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw which was co-written by ex-Oasis bassist Paul McGuigan and one of the movie’s producers, the renowned music journalist Paolo Hewitt. After reading about the man, understanding the fascination does not take long.
There is a reason that Super Furry Animals dedicated their 1996 single The Man Don't Give a **** to Friday.
Friday’s ability was immense from a young age, even joining the Chelsea youth team. However, the precocious talent had other hobbies as a teenager, namely in the areas of illegal substances, the female of the species and petty crime.
The latter activity actually landed the long-haired renegade a year-long stint in a borstal. Already, Friday’s football career appeared as though it would be ephemeral. Upon his release, the youngster had to start all over on the football field. He, of course, still found other means to piss off the establishment.
At the tender age of 17, Friday married – tying the knot with a black girl. One has to remember that this was 1970’s Britain and mixed-race partnerships were seriously taboo.
I was only joking about this the other day with some Arsenal fans who were talking about that game Wiltshere had against Barcalona.
For those who where there that day against Ipswich I think everyone in the ground thought we had witnessed a superstar in the making. However I go back to Jackie boy at Arsenal, sadly for him could never reach the levels through injury or attitude that many thought he would reach.
I'm not sure he did waste his talent, in fact by staying at Southampton I think he made the most of it. I had to watch his career closely living here and he was a remarkable player but I don't think he could have done what he did for Southampton at a bigger club, he wouldn't have been afforded the freedom he had there and he just wouldn't have been able to fit into a structured side alongside other talented individuals. He needed freedom - he was at his best when Alan Ball just said to the other players to just give him the ball and let him do what he wanted.
If he had gone to Spurs or Chelsea who he always seemed to be linked to, I think it would have been a matter of time before he was a bit part player, he wasn't disciplined enough to be a small cog in a bigger machine.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Did Rooney ever improve after The Euros in 2004?
kevtherev
Well-known member
Codner could have been a player, if he could be arsed.
Who was the former Cardiff player we were linked with under Poyet, bit of a bad boy and it seemed we were going to give him a chance but nothing come of it. Edit Leon Jeanne.
Not so much a wasted Talent, but injury ruined the career of Dean Ashton who really could have gone on to big things for club and country.
Not so much a wasted Talent, but injury ruined the career of Dean Ashton who really could have gone on to big things for club and country.
Arthritic Toe
Well-known member
Kind of the antithesis to this thread Nicklas Bendtner. He thought he was the best in the world, but no one else did - and it turned out that everyone else was right.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
OK I'll bite:
Gareth Barry
Craig Johnston
Owen Hargreaves
Jamie Carragher
Adama Traore
Craig Mackail-Smith
James Milner
Jordan Henderson
Quite a lot of Liverpool in there
As for big fish in a small pond, I'm not sure that Zaha is really a big fish, and allegedly, unlike Le Tiss, he wants to leave his club but can't
And the daddy of them all, Kevin Keegan.
He reportedly rebuffed Chelsea a few times.
I think he was a very special, generational talent. You may well be right that he wouldn’t have made it elsewhere, but unfortunately.. we’ll never know.
Strange choice: I'd have said Keegan was the exact opposite of a wasted talent: a player who didn't have the greatest natural talent in the world but made the absolute most of what he had
For anyone too young to remember Matt Le Tissier, do yourself a favour and watch this. Ask yourself how this guy didn’t play more than 8 times for England.
https://youtu.be/lRwhiNf0YIY
https://youtu.be/lRwhiNf0YIY
Cowfold Seagull
Fan of the 17 bus
Agreed.
For some reason l always equate Jamie Vardy to be the new Kevin Keegan, two players who had to do it the hard way, Vardy from non league of course, and Keegan from lowly Scunthorpe.
Two players who made it to the very pinnacle from modest beginnings.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Yes, that's exactly what I meant, which is why I posted it in reply to the earlier post about players with limited talent who made the most of it.
BRIGHT ON Q
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 9,248
Paul moulden , broke every goalscoring record as a youngster and went in to the City team at a young age and started well. I think it was injuries that scuppered his career unfortunately.
Lower West Stander
Well-known member
I think Beckham is a good shout.
Ferguson said he could've been a Utd legend like Giggs and Scholes but wasted the latter half of his career playing pattercake football in the States. He did ok at Real Madrid but can't help thinking his media obsessions and shocker of a wife impacted on his career somewhat.
Otherwise, how about Rod Thomas?
disgruntled h blocker
Active member
Quite simply, although he had sublime talent and good feet, he did not have the stamina or workrate for him to be "reliable enough" for the England team. He was often seen as overweight and in later playing years he was too fond of being in the Jumpin' Jaks in Southampton, hanging around the food kiosk.