England players who have failed to push on

[wpdavid]

Out of a passing discussion in one of the euros threads; English players who were highly rated in their teens and/or early twenties, but have signally failed to develop.

A few obvious candidates:

Barkley
Sterling
Walcott
Oxlade-Chamberlain
Phil Jones
Wilshere
Gibbs
Hart maybe?

There must be loads of others.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Francis Jeffers - signed for Arsenal and became injury prone - a theme worthy of a whole thread to itself.

 

[Furball]

Rooney the huge elephant in the room here. Amazing that his best major tourney will be when he broke onto the scene at 18.

Some of the others are still early 20s and can come good.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Rooney the huge elephant in the room here. Amazing that his best major tourney will be when he broke onto the scene at 18.

Michael Owen too

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Rooney the huge elephant in the room here. Amazing that his best major tourney will be when he broke onto the scene at 18.

Some of the others are still early 20s and can come good.

Rooney is a weird one, leading scorer ever and currently level with Beckham as leading outfield caps winner yet you think he never really fulfilled the promise as as a teenager he looked like he could have reached the levels that Messi and Ronaldo have but ended up well short of that.

 

[Uppercut]

Rooney the huge elephant in the room here. Amazing that his best major tourney will be when he broke onto the scene at 18.

Some of the others are still early 20s and can come good.

Yeah Sterling and Barkley don't belong on the list. When a very young player gets beyond a certain level people start judging them by unrealistic standards for their age, when older players below that level are still considered "promising" or "exciting". Lukaku syndrome.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I wouldn't include Rooney. I don't think there's too much unfulfilled potential. He was just never as good as some people thought (or maybe hoped he would be).

 

[GIMH]

Michael Owen doesn't belong anywhere near this discussion.

 

[sledger]

Yeah agreed. Owen was amongst the best in Europe, or even the world up to around 2002/3.

 

[Furball]

Yeah agreed. Owen was amongst the best in Europe, or even the world up to around 2002/3.

He does a wee bit because he didn't sustain that level of performance. 2002/03 only takes Owen up to the age of 23, although having hamstrings made of glass didn't help him.

 

[GIMH]

It was only the injuries that stopped him from there, but the level he reached 97-03/04 is enough to keep him well away from any 'not pushing on' tag

But for the hamstring and a couple of bad career choices he could have gone down as one of the all time English greats of course but I don't think that's quite the topic we're going for, otherwise the list is pretty much all bar about three players from the 90s onwards

If we are looking at international performances only then I'd agree with Furball RE Rooney but I don't think there's any way you can look at his career as a whole and see anything but success.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, for one reason or another Owen didn't really sustain it, but I don't think there's much doubt that he reached the top level.

 

[fredfertang]

Wilfried Zaha?

or is that a bit harsh given he's only 23?

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Owen won all domestic trophies and is the only Englishman to score in four major international tournaments.

 

[GIMH]

Won European Football of the Year too didn't he? Or have I imagined that?

 

[sledger]

Won European Football of the Year too didn't he? Or have I imagined that?

Yeah, he did.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Wilfried Zaha?

or is that a bit harsh given he's only 23?

He was never any good either.

 

[sledger]

I think Gibbs' inclusion is a bit harsh actually. He was never really rated as being anything special. He's just a perfectly serviceable fullback, nothing more, nothing less. From what I remember he was never really expected to be much more than that.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I think Gibbs' inclusion is a bit harsh actually. He was never really rated as being anything special. He's just a perfectly serviceable fullback, nothing more, nothing less. From what I remember he was never really expected to be much more than that.

The whole list is crap. I think wp was in a hurry.

 

[vcs]

Rooney is a weird one, leading scorer ever and currently level with Beckham as leading outfield caps winner yet you think he never really fulfilled the promise as as a teenager he looked like he could have reached the levels that Messi and Ronaldo have but ended up well short of that.

His scoring record flatters him.. been mediocre in tournaments and padded his record in friendlies/vs. shite opposition in qualifiers, with lots of penalties. People still think of his performance in Euro 2004 when they think of his international career.