Players you wished had stayed longer

[chaddblue]

Jerome Boateng

Not sure his heart was ever in it. But him and Vinny could have formed a great partnership at the back

 

[Sky Blue]

Ian Bishop. Killed me seeing him play so well for West Ham and not us.

Way past his best when he came back but helped us to promotion a couple of times.

Colin Hendry another. What the fuck Reid was thinking of I'll never know. Read his book and he admits it was a mistake selling him.

 

[the talisman]

Kanté

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Andy Hinchcliffe was criminal letting him go and a couple of seasons after that we wasted big money on Terry Phelan.

David White, we got Rocastle in return but it was a sticking plaster that kept us up and not long term thinking. I suppose everything was at that time with where we were going. It wasn’t a good move to Leeds for White neither.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I wonder what Pep could have done with Bert Trautmann. Fifteen years we had Bert. I'd love to have seen him playing alongside Eddie! It's pretty clear that had Pep had the opportunity of coaching Baresi or Santamaria he could have turned either into Dave Ewing, so could he have turned Bert into a twinkle-toed Teuton?

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Many others have mentioned Barnes and Owen. But what needs to be added, I think, is this. They were the new guard when they first emerged. They came in very much as the youngsters (along with Ged Keegan), surrounded by a number of considerably older heads — Channon, Kidd, Tueart, Watson, Corrigan, etc.The veterans. They learnt at that school. Keegan was perhaps never quite good enough to make it, but Barnes and Owen should have spearheaded the transition to the early eighties, as ‘elder statesmen’ in their turn, to a different City team. Instead of a transition, what Allison did was instigate a rupture, pure and simple. Then, having done the damage, he fucked off (or rather, was fucked off by Swales). Football teams don't work like that. There has to be transition. It really is tragic. City had built enough over the late sixties and right through the seventies to be a powerhouse in the following decade.
Of course, Swales did as much damage as Allison himself. Much more, in fact.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Tevez. The first genuinely world class player I ever saw play live in a blue shirt. Fucking ridiculous ability. Won games on his jack on a regular basis.

Also hated Ferguson. So he had all the qualifications. Quite a bellend in his own way, it has to be said. But he was absolutely the right man in the right place at the right time. Just what we needed at that point. I wonder how a Pep-Carlito relationship would have turned out. Either he would have turned him into a Ballon d'Or level footballer, or it would have been a crockery-throwing divorce within weeks.

 

[avoidconfusion]

Tevez, De Jong

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Boateng seemed a terrific signing. A versatile defender comfortable throughout the back four. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

A classic example of buying a young player who has potential to be world class in his preferred position - then not giving them a run and dropping them in and out as a utility player. I remember him playing a league cup game as a CB and he looked class and said to my mate we should just play him there now every game. He was on the bench in the next league game.

 

[BrianW]

Edin Dzeko.
Trevor Francis.