City’s wasted talent

[bennyboy]

Would get in today’s side that lad, totally mesmerising

Not sure he would.

 

[bluealf]

Ryan Wilson, looked a talent then went off somewhere as a youth footballer and barely heard of since.

A real believer in keeping it in the family, which is nice to see in this day and age.

 

[MikeF]

The Kinkladze goal against Southampton has just flashed up on my Instagram account but however good it was (which it was) where the hell was their no.8 running to haha you have to watch it again purely for that!

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

Michael Johnson tops the list for me.

 

[aguero93:20]

No gloves???!

 

[Invisible_Goat]

Sturridge would've been twice the player he was, had he stayed at City. Firstly, he would've had more game time at a young age and the fans and the club would've been far more patient with him, because he came through the academy. He could've been our blue eyed boy. Chelsea had way too much fire power upfront at the time he left us, but when he came of age, he found himself in a team in transition. I firmly believe he would've excelled in the Mancini era, and won his place in the side. Moving clubs cost him his development.

 

[JGL07]

Waggy was a top player. Sold over Christmas to keep protests to a minimum. Think we needed the money. My Wolves mate says he was brilliant for them.

Selling Wagstaffe was a major blow. I recall seeing comments from the directors to the effect that things can't go on and we need to stat selling players.

Think what the 1968 team would have been like with David Wagstaffe in for Tony Coleman? Wagstaffe stayed for 12 years with Wolves making over 400 appearances.

What is worse for me is that back then I was always dragged off to Shropshire by my parents each Christmas to stay with grandparents. I usually got a supporters bus from Oakengates to watch Wolves on Boxing Day if they were at home. Imagine my joy when Wagstaffe was introduced pre-match as their new signing from Manchester City!

Back then there was no teletex, no sports channels, and very little football news on the radio apart from Saturday afternoons. As you say, the timing by City was probably deliberate to avoid too many protests.

Strangely, soon after, City rediscovered ambition and changed their transfer policy a few months later. They brought in Johnny Crossan from Sunderland. After the end of the season, Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison came in and brought Mike Summerbee, Tony Book, George Heslop, and Colin Bell to the club.

 

[Big Swifty]

Michael Johnson tops the list for me.

Spot on. The lad was class, and had the physique, the vision, the passing, the shot. Could have hit the top. He had something of Duncan Edwards about him.

What a waste

 

[levets]

Kinkladze the biggest wasted talent we’ve had by a mile.

He was the greatest talent we had during the 90s

 

[ninjamonkey]

A lot of these "wasted talents" should come under the more aptly named "name somebody hyped beyond their talent" there's only a few tht are genuine wasted talents which is usually down to injuries, attitude, poor transfers or off the pitch issues