SUFC zeroes to heroes

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FMBlade1

FMBlade1

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The thread on Vinícius Souza (who still has a bit to go) made me think of other examples of players who started really poorly with us but turned things around:

Jack Robinson
Paul Coutts
Sander Berge
Oli McBurnie
Gary Madine (for different reasons)

Some of those I'm stretching a point on, can anyone think of more/better examples?
 

Wouldn't say Berge or McBurnie were ever zeros to heros.
They were just so inconsistent, on their day total crap but other days top performers.
I still have no real opinion on either whether I rate them of not, both have potential to be top players.

Agree with Robinson.
He always seems to have a bad error in him but no one can question his character and commitment.
Last season was a total disaster and a massive test of character, some players like Ahmedhodzic and Vini Souza tended to give up after we conceded
where Robbo was always desperate to keep the score down and keep going trying his best.

Agree with Coutts
but I think that because he needed other like minded "pass and move" players around him.
In a poor team playing physical long ball type football.....Coutts would struggle
but give him Fleck and Duffy playing along side him and Coutts calm short passing game became a massive asset.

Agree with Madine
but as you say, that's because he showed massive bottle joining us
and to be fair he dealt with the situation in his first interview very confident that his 100% commitment would win over the fans and it did.

I'd probably put Chris Basham in a similar light to Coutts.
In league 1 we tried Basham in midfielder, in central defence and occasional as right back and he was very average in all 3 positions.
It's only when Alan Knil invented the over lapping centre back position with Basham playing all 3 positions inside the same match
that Basham became a top player and at his best was even impressive at Premier league level.
 
JackSUFC said:
Sir Chris Basham?

Once a bang average League One midfielder before terrorising the Premier League in the ‘overlapping centre-back’ role that he was the innovator of.
Click to expand...

Great shout, ashamed that I missed him!

There's a funny thread highlighting this here:

GAZBLADE

Thread 'Chris Basham'

Very ineffective today. Young Reed showed him up a treat! ! I'd never seen the lad play before today but was certainly expecting a lot more especially after all this talk of how well we did to get him to drop down a division to sign for us!!! I'm sure and certainly hope he'll improve! !!
UTB
 
FMBlade1 said:
Great shout, ashamed that I missed him!

There's a funny thread highlighting this here:

GAZBLADE

Thread 'Chris Basham'

Very ineffective today. Young Reed showed him up a treat! ! I'd never seen the lad play before today but was certainly expecting a lot more especially after all this talk of how well we did to get him to drop down a division to sign for us!!! I'm sure and certainly hope he'll improve! !!
UTB
Click to expand...
Funniest thing in that thread is someone thinking we'd see plenty of Wallace once he was fit.
 
Got to add my thruppence worth about Coutts.

As Sheffsteel correctly stated, Initial signs were that Coutts was poor, but once the holy trio of Duffy, Coutts, and Fleck were partnered, well then we had about as good a midfield as I can recall.

The thing about Coutts was that once he hit his stride he orchestrated play in ways that couldn't have been expected. Once promotion had been secured Coutts looked every part a Championship player
and was as good as ever....until that fateful night when assaulted by the Burton player Sordell.

Paul Coutts, a wonderful player whose influence cannot be underestimated.
 

I
FMBlade1 said:
The thread on Vinícius Souza (who still has a bit to go) made me think of other examples of players who started really poorly with us but turned things around:

Jack Robinson
Paul Coutts
Sander Berge
Oli McBurnie
Gary Madine (for different reasons)

Some of those I'm stretching a point on, can anyone think of more/better examples?
Click to expand...
Would add Wilder to this list.

When we lose he’s a zero

When we win… he’s seen as alright.
 
steve26272 said:
Mel Rees


We are expected zero from a £25 grand GK crisis signing

1st match we beat Liverpool 2-0

A total of 8 games, 5 wins & 2draws helping us to stay up

absolute tragedy what followed

Hero on and off the pitch
Click to expand...
We finished 9th that season, but I totally agree with the sentiment.
Bassett was very adept at unearthing quality keepers for fuck all.
 
I wouldn't say that any of those in the OP started "really poorly" with us, they were just, like Souza, just in not great situations when they first came to the club. I can recall the odd idiot having it in for them, but that works for most players
 
Red Hot Currie said:
One for the older Blades maybe, but I seem to remember that Mike Trusson got off to something of an underwhelming start with us... but went on to become a stalwart. I remember being really disappointed when he left. Can't remember where he left us for though....
Click to expand...
Went to Rotherham in a swap deal for Paul Stancliffe if I remember correctly.
 
It's wandering off slightly to people we didn't like/rate when we signed them, so back onto the OP of players who started poorly then came good-as already said;

Basham
Coutts
Booker
JLT (to an extent)

I'd add Lee Sandford. Cumbersome, clumsy left back, out of the side and settled to become steady as anything centre half and captain.
 
Not entirely sure it's a zero to hero situation, especially compared to the others that were mentioned.

But what about Jake Wright, personally I wasn't expecting much when we signed him from Oxford (though I didn't know that much about him at the time), and what a season he had.

Another one would be O'Connell, two bad performances against Southend and Millwall which led to CW benching him, and then he turned it round and became one of our best players in the last 10-20 years.
 

jt64 said:
I wouldn't say that any of those in the OP started "really poorly" with us, they were just, like Souza, just in not great situations when they first came to the club. I can recall the odd idiot having it in for them, but that works for most players
Click to expand...
Although people tend to forget this for some reason, Coutts was really poor from January 2015 to August 2016. And by his own admission he wasn't trying very hard.

Berge was poor initially. Agree re the others. McBurnie was ok in his first season, Madine fine thoughout. Robinson I suppose is arguable but his bad spell didn't come at the start of his Blades career.
 
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