I read an interesting article online last week about football players who were tipped to be future world beaters as teenagers but never made it at all and players who eked out a career but never fulfilled their full potential.

The article had these players as the top 6 footballers who never fulfilled their potential one way or the other...

1) Billy Kenny
2) Robbie Fowler
3) Nii Lamptey
4) Keith Gillespie
5) James Will
6) Wayne Harrison

I'd be interested to see who other people come up with and, for our older members, which Pools players of the past could have made it on a bigger stage but didn't.

One play that always comes to mind is Paul Rideout.

Ritchie Humphreys was being raved about in his Premiership days and was described as the next Cryuff by Marco Van Basten.

David Clegg?

Paul Conlon?

On the article's comments page plenty of people mentioned him. Saying that, he did score the winner in an FA Cup final which isn't a bad career accolade.

I'll add...

Marek Citko - in the mid 90's, when England had that spell of seemingly playing Poland every year or so, I always thought this lad would become a world great. Quick feet and a sublime passer of the ball, he was Poland's star. A bad injury in the late 90's basically ruined his career and he retired last year a shadow of his former self.

Denilson - By far and away the best player of Le Tournoi in 1998, excellent footballer. He went to Spain and self-destructed.

Thomas Butler?

Russell Doig?

Stephen Plaskett?

Jade Sinclair?

Theo Walcott?

Steve Watson?

Keith Gillespie?

Ian Bogey?

Adam Boyd??

Another two...

Cherno Samba - played in the same age group as my cousin in the England youth setup and was set to be a future England international, or so said all the hype. Championship Manager 2002/2003 had him as the player to buy if you wanted goals in the Premiership. He was last seen failing to gain a full-time contract at Torquay United.

Robin Friday - The bloke sounds a serious legend. Once, after being told by his boss at Cardiff that if he applied himself and settled down he could play for England, he replied that 'I'm half your age and I've lived twice your life'. He also had a shit in Mark Lawrenson's kit bag after a clash with Lawrenson had led him to be sent off.

Stephen Halliday - seriously looked like being a top player - for a while.

Who's that bloke niall quinn said would be the next niall quinn?

Istead.

Utter Legend, I've read the book about him co written by the ex oasis bass player (don't let it put you off) and its brilliant. The guy was allegedly as good as George Best but was nuts and it put loads of clubs off!!!

Pools even get a mention in the book (mainly that we kick the lad to bits!).

Definately worth a read if you can find it.

Kevin Kyle. Absolute gash.

I want to meet the man and shake his hand.

A bit more on Robin Friday:

http://www.reading-mad.co.uk/news/loadfeat.asp?cid=EDZ2&id=266738

How did you come to that conclusion, going to the Sven School of Football? He's only 18

I'd say Matt Le Tissier myself - usually overweight but had great natural talent, and should have been on the England team for years.

I've since discovered that this meeting is unlikely. Mainly due to his death of a heart attack in 1990.

John Stead
Tony Parry

are you serious, halliday was worse than foley!!! one of the most over rated players ever to wear a blue and white shirt, he wouldn't even make the reserves in todays squad.

Well that's two "next niall quinns" then because the one I'm thinking of is Jon Daly!

I concur.

I remember Halliday on the brink of a move to Sunderland with Peter Reid refusing to pay the £350,000 fee (that I think was decided by tribunal). After that Halliday's form declined, probably along with his aspirations of making it in the big time. He then went to Motherwell for a knock down £50,000.
He scored 26 first team goals for Hartlepool including a hat trick in the last game of the season 94 / 95 v Mansfield.

I don't dislike David Foley but don't think that he would be valued at £350k even taking inflation into account.

Another player who never lived up to his initial promise was Bobby Folland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Daly

Has Francis Jeffers been mentioned yet?

Carlos Marinelli was also meant to be the next Maradonna when he signed for Boro....

There's a whole host of 'new Maradona's' that haven't really lived up to the hype; Diego LaTorre, Ariel Ortega, Andres D'Alessandro, Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola etc.

Alfonso Alves.... the new Dong Gook Lee?

John Brackstone

Sonny Pike had half of worope after his services at one point didn't he?

Julian Joachim
Nicky Barmby

Peter Marinello was built up to be the next big thing after George Best when he moved from Motherwell to Arsenal. There's no doubt he wasn't a bad player, but I think they basically built him up to something he couldn't live up to. I think he's dead now, he fell by the wayside after his brief fifteen minutes of fame.

As an underachiever there can't be a bigger one than Gascoigne. In his prime he was a supremely skilful player, who loved playing the game. Never achieved as a player what he could have, simply because of the fact he's equally as gifted as an idiot as he was a footballer.

Pools player = Kenny Lowe. Very good player, played for Birmingham for a while, and during his spell there played against Liverpool in the Cup, and he completely outclassed every Liverpool player he was up against that day.

Just ordered that Robin Friday book off amazon.

£2.50, can't fall off, sounds a good read too.

I got it out of the library a few years ago....up there with Stan Bowles' book!!!!

Here's part of a story from Stan's book....

One notable incident in his playing days involved the famous FA Cup trophy. Having won the FA Cup competition four days prior, Sunderland were parading the trophy at Roker Park on May 9, 1973 when they met QPR in the old Division 2. The trophy had been placed on a table at the side of the pitch when Bowles tore straight across the park and kicked the ball at it full speed, sending the Cup flying through the air.[1] The crowd predictably went ballistic, however Stan had the last laugh by scoring a brace in the match which ended in a pitch invasion. According to Bowles some of the QPR players had laid bets as to who could hit the trophy first.

I hardly think Robbie Fowler or Keith Gillespie "failed to make it" or "eked out a career". Especially Fowler - he was one of Liverpool's greatest.

As Paul Calf would say "you're talking shite". Halliday was an excellent player, better than Boyd as a youngster.

The bloke who wrote the article said..

Robbie Fowler

He might have been football's answer to Oasis: a rock 'n' roll star who burned dramatically if briefly, and who has been hanging on to the memories at the expense of dignity ever since. Fowler arrived from nowhere in the mid-90s, an irresistible fusion of streetwise swagger and instinctive talent, and a shameless homage to a sixties great (the Beatles/Jimmy Greaves, if we are to continue this already laboured comparison). He scored over 30 goals in each of the three seasons from 1994-97, but would never again reach 20. In 1995-96, in particular, he was truly sensational, terrorising the champions Manchester United (four goals in two league games, including this delicious fusion of roughhouse and arthouse) and scoring a goal of staggering quality against Aston Villa.

Many point to the obviously debilitating effects of a cruciate-ligament knee injury in 1997-98, but other factors also conspired: the emergence of Michael Owen did not help, and he suffered under the joyless regime of Gerard Houllier. Perhaps most significant is that, like Oasis, his success was inextricably linked to a combination of youth and hunger that was in intrinsically finite supply. Arguably Fowler reached the top of the mountain when he scored twice in the famous 4-3 win over Newcastle in April 1996; it was five days before his 21st birthday.

Keith Gillespie

Of all the myriad roadblocks to a promising career, a foreigner rule might just be the most perverse. In 1995, Keith Gillespie was the heir apparent on Manchester United's right wing, well ahead of a limited trier called David Beckham, and had already scored one stunning goal in a top-of-the-table clash against Newcastle. That pricked Kevin Keegan's interest, and he asked for Gillespie in part-exchange when Alex Ferguson tried to buy Andy Cole. Ferguson only agreed because of the foreigner rule, and his desperate need for England-qualified players.

The rule was scrapped a year later, but for Gillespie it was too late: away from the strict tutelage of Ferguson, he was unable to control his vices, particularly gambling. Despite sporadic glimpses of that scintillating talent (most notably when he terrorised Barcelona's Sergi in a glorious Champions League victory in 1997), he was on an inexorably downward trajectory. The same thing, of course, might have happened had he stayed at United. Or he might now be married to a Spice Girl.


I happen to agree with him. Both could have been world beaters, yet both seemed to have lost their spark by the time they reached their late 20's.

Don't talk wet.

Halliday only looked remotely decent cos he was in a totally shite team.

A flakey wet log held together by sweetcorn in a bowl full of diahorrea.

dont talk so fooking wet, halliday was shiite, he used to run round like a headless chicken, he'd beat one man then go back and lose the ball against the same man.

why do you think reidy wouldn't cough up for him.

get a grip will you, boydy made him look like a sunday leage player

A lot of young players are burning out and 'fading away' now, in my opinion, due to playing too young.

Look at Rooney, 16 year old makes his debut v Everton, by the time he's 26 his knees could be knackered.

Gazza hit fame at the 90 world cup, at the age of 23, nowadays he would have probabley went to the 86 world cup at only 17, thrust right in there.

More and more players will probs burn out and retire younger, christ Shearer n Scholes retired from international footy at 29.

The top guys are playing nearly 60 competitive games a 60, without internationals.

I'm not surprised that at 28 Owen is half the player he used to be, couple of bad injuries and your screwed.

Cancel dinner, dear......

Tony Green ex Newcastle United midfielder.

Aye. And look where he ended up. 20 stone heavier and looking after the darts throwers on Bullseye.

Kevin Townson used to play for Rochdale i always thought he would make it big, he as touted as going to bigger clubs but never did. God knows where he is now.

Freddy Adu