Ribery That is the name that came instantly to my head. He is hands down the worst failure so far in this cup. Before the WC there were talks that Ribery would land in England or Spain for non less than 50 million euros ..... now his managers will be very lucky if they can get 20 million for him Gourcuff was a failure too in a failed team, but not at the same level as Ribery. Di Maria, on the other side, still has a chance to redemption since Argentina is still in the game
I know Argentina fans will disagree but I think he will be a major flop there and will either be loaned out or get no playing time. I still think he's a bit overrated.
Wayne Rooney!!! Understand he is carrying injuries but he has looked nothing like a couple of months ago when nothing could touch him. Maybe an unfair assesment but if he carries this into the new season...... Perhaps the fault of a long season but there are other that have played as much football who are not looking as bad. Other player is Torres. No ECL with Liverpool next season, indifferent season just past, Liverpool must have been hoping he would fire at this WC so they could get more for him, presuming he would leave to play CL next season. He is playing in Villas shadow at the moment. I have always had a lower opinion of Riberry. I would like to see him better tested in Spain, Italy or England before I put him up with other players. Hasnt suprised me he has been quiet this WC.
I have to agree about El Nino, not only has he looked a little out of sorts, but when he does have a chance he is missing them pretty badly. Hopefully he'll stay at Liverpool now that he's lost a little stock.
Cannavaro. Oh wait he was already moving to the Emirates anyway. Then it must be Montolivo. Add Iaquinta and De Rossi too. Ribery, most definitely. Anelka, as well. And Evra.
Too many to mention, but a good place to start would be the England team, especially Rooney. Hopefully he can find his form in the knock out stages. Never rated Heskey anyway. But the French and Italians have been awful too, in particular the Italian defence. Cannavaro was a shadow of the player he was in 2006.
France was doomed regardless so I don't think any players lost their values significantly. French players will still be a hot commodity at all the big clubs in Europe. Italy on the other hand does have a crisis. The players on that national team were already not valued high. Other than Buffon, Pirlo, De Rossi and Chiellini I can't think of any Italian player that should be worth more than 10 million Euros. That surely is the smallest number of any of the big teams (Brazil, Argentina, Germany etc ...). Players like Marchisio, Maggio, Criscito could of been very special for national team but they've never gotten the experience. This is the problem with successful teams (Italy, France). They tend to hold on to the veterans a little bit too long because they've delivered in the past. The next generation suffers because they're not getting the experience. In history almost all great generations in any country are followed be a mediocre rebuilding one.
You know, I have to agree with this. This isn't just about Italy crashing out, virtually all of the players based in the Serie A have been underwhelming to say the least. Here is a list of Serie A players expected to do well but have played poorly: Everybody on Italy Oguchi Onyewu (USA) Samir Handanovic (SLV) Mark Besciano (AUS) Alexandar Lukovic (SRB) Sulley Muntari (GHA) Christian Poulsen (DEN) Takayuki Morimoto (JPN) Samuel Eto'o (CMR) That's far too big of a list for this to be a coincidence. I have long known that the Serie A was the #3 league behind the Premiereship and La Liga. Now, it looks like Bundesliga based players are doing better, as a whole, than Serie A based players.
OK Samir Handanovic was actually very good those 3 games. A little tentative on the Donovan goal but other than that lots of excellent saves. Eto'o did score twice, his team just didn't help. Bresciano also did just fine. And yes if you look hard enough there are Serie A players who are performing. Julio Cesar, Sneijder, Lucio, Felipe Melo, Muslera, Hamsik, Cavani, Kjaer, Juan, Ziegler, Alexis Sanchez, Edgar Alvarez, Isla, Asamoah, Inler ... Not all of them have blown people away, but honestly there have only been a handful of players who have played on a superstar level and many of them come from smaller leagues like Donovan (MLS), Honda (Russia), Suarez (Holland). We could easily make a list of invisible premier league stars too like Fabregas, Rooney, Torres, Lampard etc etc ...
WAYNE ROONEY. People had low expectations for the France and Italy players, so their falls aren't so dramatic. However, Rooney was one of the picks for the Golden Boot, and he will now leave the tournament with as many goals as the strikers for Algeria. Ronaldo has also been very quiet, but he still has a chance to redeem himself if he can lead Portugal past Spain. Messi. Ronaldo. Rooney. This is the trio that most people would've said were the 3 best players in the world. Messi has GREATLY increased the gap between himself and the 2nd best. Rooney and Ronaldo should probably be booted from the 2nd and 3rd slots. My new triumvirate would be: 1st: Messi 2nd: David Villa 3rd: Sneijder
I agree absolutely on Rooney.... The guy has talent, but so far he has been a total failure in WC, how many WC has played, 2, 3? .... and so far, total failure. At least this time he didn't get himself red carded Anyway, Rooney will continue being worshipped as a demigod in England, and sure he is great in the Premier League.... but, sadly, he is not an All-Time-Great at the world level, he is just another english "also played". On Ronaldo I disagree .... he played pretty well against North Korea, carrying his team to victory .... and Portugal is still in the competition, so Ronaldo has still a good shot to make great things
Lodeiro Vela Ochoa The entire French National team except for Lloris Demichelis Yakubu Clark The entire English squad except for Gerrard Onyewu Muntari Cahill Krascic Mathjisen Van der Vaart(barely) Nakamura Webo Entire Italian squad. Eboue kalou Torres Just a few
Di Maria. The more he plays, the less money Benfica can get from Real Madrid. Someone at Benfica woke up and decided to settle for € 25 million (they were initially asking € 40 million) before Mourinho changes his mind.