A question on Georgi Kinkladze

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Agree about his dribbling ability. I like to think he'd have had a few more assists in a better team and imagine the space we'd have worked for him, playing in this team.

It's a fun one to debate, but on ability I still think he wouldn't have been out of place in this squad.

I loved him in the 90s. He truly shone out as we’d not had anyone anywhere near his technical ability in years.

Maybe he would have been coachable and learnt to pass to his teammates when the time was right and our managers were too poor back then.

He’d fit in better now, but I’m not convinced he had the attitude to be a winner.

As you say, interesting debate, but I think he was a maverick, like Taraabt that had unbelievable skill, but lacked the stuff between the ears to be an elite player.

 

[bumbleblue]

He was a shining glittering dribbling diamond in a sea of utter shite.(& I loved him) But…I don’t think he would get anywhere near a Pep team (or any of Mancini, Pellegrini or even Keggy Keegans promoted one.)

 

[Pubteam Lomas]

Love @bumbleblue description. Sums it up nicely.
As Del Boy would say 'One of my favouritist players ever!!!!!!!!!'

Don Howe (for younger BMs he was a top, top coach) said Kinkladze was fairly unique because he was so one footed but could go both ways which made him a nightmare to face.

His dribbling skills were unbelievable but he was very selfish; sort of understandable when he was surrounded by Lomas, Ged Brannan etc, etc...

But the fact he struggled at Ajax tells you everything.
So much natural talent but not sure he could be coached or really wanted to be anything more than a playground footballer.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Loved him but not a chance of him getting a regular place.
Now if you were asking about Ali Benarbia... that would be an absolute, all day, every day.

I remember Benarbia getting in The Times' PL team of the year... when we were still in the Championship (or Division 1 as I think it was back then). That's how good he was; a genuinely sublime footballer.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

I’d think of SWP who was also a shining light in a poor team. He went to Chelsea and did nothing there.

 

[warpig]

I’d think of SWP who was also a shining light in a poor team. He went to Chelsea and did nothing there.

He had his natural game coached out of him by Mourinho. he came back a shadow of his former self.

 

[prestwich stu]

Loved him when he was here but he wouldn't get near todays team or any great team.
Why was he played out of position at Ajax, why did he then end up at another shit club in Derby. Why did no top teams want him. The people he's being compared to on here like David Silva would have walked into Barca or Real Madrid and got standing ovations from all Spanish club fans every time we played one. 10 brilliant years here and then a fantastic twilight at Sociedad. Pep might have watched Kinky against Newcastle the same way he watched Joe Hart against his Munich side when he was MOTM but kept kicking it back to them to have another go. He decided that day he wasn't the goalie for him. Kinky's workrate was a joke and he'd have seen all those rests against Newcastle after the mazy runs. I was at Port Vale when he was a disgrace.

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

I’d think of SWP who was also a shining light in a poor team. He went to Chelsea and did nothing there.

He won titles there in a great team, made his contribution and returned like the legend he is.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

He won titles there in a great team, made his contribution and returned like the legend he is.

They let him come back ok and he didn’t do much of note. Hardly a key member of that Chelsea team either.

It was never the right move for him.

 

[Keeper!]

Also spent far too much time in Yesterdays in Alderley Edge and The Valley Lodge at the back of the airport, he was always in those two places with the man that took him off the straight and narrow, Nicolas Summerbee.