7 Supposed 'Flops' Who Were ACTUALLY Good

[@jeffreyjeffery4712]

I've always said it, Zlatan was never a flop at Barcelona, he just had personal issues with his manager.

[@sankarsarath2194]

More like Guardiola had issues with him

[@faustinomacarronesasados8766]

He had the second best scoring start in history of barça just behind the Legend Romario (8 goals in 7 matches) Ibra had 7 goals in 7 matches with a goal every 71 minutes, then he continued playing well untill he had some issues with Guardiola and he benched Ibra

[@glencurtis6052]

I don't think anyone ever said he was a flop at Barca

[@jeffreyjeffery4712]

@@glencurtis6052 people do say he is, reason why he's on the video list.

[@jeffreyjeffery4712]

@@sankarsarath2194 more like he had issues with his boss and got ditched as supposed to. There was only one authority and it wasn't Zlatan.

[@Alfie_1]

I don't know why, but I find it insane that Owen was only 24 when he signed for Real Madrid. I know he was so young when he broke through, but the fact that he joined Newcastle at 25 therefore feels weirder.

[@lordpelagius5078]

His last england appearance was at 28 Crazy when you stop and think about it

[@Carson-pv4hr]

And he was done

[@AlexYoung1995]

It's even weirder when you think he's only 6 years older than Cristiano Ronaldo. 89 caps and 40 goals by 28 when you're injured half the time is insane even if you're the only top striker. But he was competing with Sheringham, Ferdinand, Fowler, Shearer, and then Rooney. He was genuinely our answer to R9, he was just made of wet cardboard and had basically played a whole career of games by 24

[@Alfie_1]

@@AlexYoung1995 You're right, being only 6 years older but probably having peaked around 15 years earlier is nuts. He could have gone so far without injuries, and if he was less weird, people may remember that better, every time I see early moments of his career, it's staggering how good he was

[@AlexYoung1995]

@Alfie_1 yep. He was one of 3 PL players that I idolised as a kid. I'm a 95 baby, and my first email address in 2001 was named after him 🤣 Him, Henry, and Gerrard when he scored a brace against UTD in 2001 made me fall in love with football

[@MrSiddhant98]

Spurs fan here and we truly do look back at Lamela as a character player who embodied an era of our team but also see him as someone who would probably stab someone for Spurs, the badge meant a lot to him and it was visible

[@eriknovotny3404]

My favourite Spurs player, I just love And Im still sad that he left. And also I think Its wrong that the badge meant a lot to him... Im pretty sure it still means a lot to him

[@zerofox641]

I miss him rocking up to derbies and just pissing everyone off. Had legs made of peanut brittle but threw himself into those big games like his life depended on it. And his affinity for rabonas was amazing

[@Nut_Kun]

He is also on of my all time favorites. He was never as good as Bale but I dont care. He played for the badge all the time. It gutted me when he was sold.

[@wephilips6651]

I’m a spurs fan and absolutely thought he was a flop. Missed loads of games through injury, was incredibly inconsistent when he did play, I’m sure you could make a 2 min highlights video of his time at spurs making him look world class but we spent a lot of money on a player billed as having huge potential and he was never anything more than a decent squad player. None of his hated on him or wished him ill but he was a flop. People said we silly to let him go because he had a good start to his Sevilla career but look at their season

[@Carson-pv4hr]

He was a technically gifted footballer on his day he was a good player.. he's not a Antony at unt a flicks tricks no end product.. he could actually effect a game and play football I liked lamela

[@PatrickvanStokken]

Video suggestion: 7 players who played in the wrong era

[@domosayain65]

Damn that's a good video idea!

[@BeBe-vh4ry]

Duncan Ferguson. Should've been on a medieval battlefield rather than 90s/00s prem.

[@reintaler6355]

​@@BeBe-vh4ry with Barton and Vinnie Jones

[@maxomat4319]

Maguire. Imagine him defending next to Steve Bruce. Broken legs everywhere.

[@TheGregcellent]

If number 1 isn't Glenn Hoddle, then the list is incorrect

[@Abelka252]

7 players who everyone thought he was good but was an actual flop

[@NineHands]

Enzo Fernández (so far)

[@paramtageja6891]

​@@NineHandsno one thinks Enzo's been good

[@NineHands]

@@paramtageja6891 chelsea fans do sometimes. I see it quite frequently

[@JayTechZM]

​@@NineHandsnope

[@dagotowka9191]

​@NineHands Obviously chelsea fans opinions matter more than other people.. they watch him every week

[@randomhooman3236]

lukaku to man united also wasn't that bad of a transfer he was brought in for 75m euros and sold for around 60-65m euros which isn't that bad given that he had 55 goal contributions in 96 games with a goal contribution less than 2 games and was a part of a few memorable games for man united in recent years like scoring a brace in the comeback of paris, scoring a brace on his debut, he missed like 9 games because of injury in his 2 years at old trafford (in all competitions), scored or assisted in all rounds of fa cup in 2018 (except the final)

[@eyarebisong2152]

I'm a man UTD fan and I don't get why other fellow fans think that Lukaku was a flop. He clearly wasn't.

[@randomhooman3236]

@@eyarebisong2152 true

[@pavlevasilev2968]

and i remember he wanted to leave, it's not like united really wanted to sell him.

[@justhuy7960]

Always said this as a Man United fan, social media made him looks like the worst striker of modern era but the fact is he scores almost 400 goals at the age of 30 is insane, maybe not the level of Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar but he is much better than what people think he is.

[@randomhooman3236]

@@justhuy7960 true

[@nomthejedi]

With Neymar it is also important to note that he significantly boosted the league's profile which no doubt boosted PSG's revenue as well

[@markusschafer9572]

But the champions league is such a big part of that story. PSG payed 400 million euros for two superstars and couldn't win the champions league. They dont care about ligue 1 or revenue probably.

[@nomthejedi]

@@markusschafer9572 Oh absolutely but it was more in reply to his closing statement on Neymar, comparing return on investment with Joao Felix and Coutinho, when in reality the net spend was probably not even that steep when you consider the additional revenue from TV deals that Neymar no doubt caused, evidenced by how difficult Ligue 1 found looking for a broadcaster this season (and also helped boost PSG's image overseas, which was also part of the plan)

[@djsilversun]

Neymar didn't boost the leagues profile at all, the players who did that were Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Lavezzi, Lucas Moura and Veratti when they joined PSG 5 years earlier. If anything the league became less interesting when Neymar joined. PSG with Cavani and Ibrahimovic was genuinely a cool team, PSG with Neymar and Mbappe was an absolute shit show

[@nomthejedi]

@@djsilversun people wanted to watch Neymar, so they watched PSG, so they watched Ligue 1. At least his arrival had a massive impact within France (I would know, I'm French), even if the overseas impact was lesser

[@Ranamon9132]

@@djsilversunbruh you’re crazy if you think the rest of them boosted the league as much as Neymar. I’m sorry but that’s insane. His arrival literally changed the face of football and football transfers. People actually cared about the league because he went over. Ibra, sure a little but not really. Verrati and Lucas Moura was not as well known at all when they joined. Come on now. They were interesting but no one is watching the league cos of them.

[@ragecandy]

Griezmann at Barcelona was played out of position during all his stay and still got like 50 goal involvements in 2 years

[@reimixo]

Thank you .. imo he was used as a scapegoat for their failures..

[@scottkilmer2904]

I feel like James Rodriguez at Bayern gets labeled as a flop a lot when I found him to be pretty exceptional in his first season at a minimum

[@ScheppundFries]

or james at real

[@jordanmince7613]

​@@ScheppundFrieszidane just preferred isco

[@2k8Spoon]

I think kaka, similar to Owen wasn't a flop, just didn't live up to the insane expectations when he arrived, and was also plagued with injuries

[@elsoss180]

Could maybe even make a case for Et'o being in last week's under rated video, he was absolutely fantastic and probably didn't get the credit he deserved, also the 20 million valuation as part of the Zlatan deal is criminal, he was worth at least twice that at the time

[@oh1yeah2]

At the very least... I'd say 60M valuation is not crazy for him even in that pre-crazy inflation era

[@MrKrewie]

that was one of the weirdest and awkward transfers in history

[@bzilla-d4i]

Nobody underates Eto'o, he's the reason Henry ended up in the MLS at 32. Rendered Henry a bench player going on to score double his goals when they played together at Barcelona. The man also won back to back trebles. Have you seen the guys goalscoring record for Barcelona and Inter lol. He even outscored Milito in his final season at Inter with 30+ goals

[@sdm_za]

Alfie thought we would forget about the "7 best center forwards in the 2000s" video

[@Paul-ht5hr]

Nasri is such a good pundit in France now. He always speaking his mind, no bullshit, a huge smile and a friendly guy overall. Coming from a Parisian, that should tell you how good he is. He has a lot of things to tell about his career and this city squad and it's always interesting

[@artie8561]

Nasri was my favourite player when I started watching football. He was always a very witty player although Silva did contribute more. He was very consistent and have occasional flashes. It is all you need next to David Silva.

[@sub_n33urath122]

Zlatan is unique and i don't think there will ever be a second Zlatan maybe a better striker but there won't be a personality like Zlatan ever in this era where you need Massive balls of steel to go against Pep

[@duyanhng8430]

there's been a handful of strikers better than him after and tons better than him before

[@justhuy7960]

@@duyanhng8430 no one has surpassed his ernomous and delusional ego 🤣

[@sub_n33urath122]

@@justhuy7960 there you are wrong his ego isn't delusional he is that only player who can talk of the pitch and prove it on the pitch There won't be a second Zlatan Ibrahimovic... Haaland is close but at his age Zlatan was an awesome dribbler and creator along with striker instincts....

[@Al-ji4gd]

@@justhuy7960 You're a clown.

[@thechameleon2636]

@@duyanhng8430Like what strikers after, and not that many after. He’s for sure top 10 or at least top 15 all time

[@HHHBFResurrected]

The idea that Crespo at Chelsea was a flop is a bit of a football paradox. I dunno if it's just my experience but despite it being an accepted thing, when you talk to people about it (Chelsea & non-Chelsea fans) it's never hard to reach a consensus that he wasn't bad at all. He seems to have hit to perfect combination of high expectations & acceptable (not great) performance, and again acceptable (not great) return on investment contrasting with the players bought around the same time. I think having two separate spells with differing expectations plays into that curious paradigm as well, and it's interesting that you brought up Morata here as I think he had potential to have fallen into the same weird space lol. Lets say Atletico couldn't afford him & he had to come back but as an established no.2 (behind Abraham it would've been), if he'd have returned the same passable numbers but as a rotational option this time, I reckon the perception of him at Chelsea would've looked different today.

[@Tom-lr4os]

Owen's move to Madrid was in a decent size part down to Raul making a point of treating him like shit as a result of Owen having replaced Raul's mate Morientes. I'm pretty sure I saw that he refused to speak to him and shit like that, not to mention the amount of different coaches they had

[@KremBotop]

To this day I'm still baffled by how often Ibra's Barca season is labaled as a flop, given how prolific his scoring remained despite the stacked team. Guess all what is really remembered is the Guardiola falling out which soured the whole thing.

[@TheSuavest]

The Micheal Owen Story is definitely the England Curse nowadays… always have a plethora of attackers under 25 that all look “as good as the Golden Generation” and then in the next World Cup/International tourney usually none of them are to be found with either bang average performances or injuries beyond belief

[@lordfarquaad3600]

Alfie, Can you do a video on the a league? The league recently released over half there staff, spent 30 million on an app they’ve given up on and half the leagues clubs are running on a negative

[@5minutemovies977]

A League as in, Australia?

[@saintroddy]

I've never seen any City fan call Nasri a flop. He wasn't David Silva or KDB, but he was electric on his day and scored some crucial goals en route to City's first two PL titles.

[@maciejbala477]

yeah it is probably not the city fans, but the media in this case.

[@Hadar1991]

To be honest, as a City fan I was terrified of Guardiola at the beginning because he did callously force out players like Samir Nasri and Joe Hart from the squad without giving them a chance. Nasri is now called a flop because he did conflict himself with Guardiola. But Nasri did well and Mancini and Pelligrini. If anybody at City was a flop it was Nolito which was brought in the transfer windows that Nasri was push out.

[@danimaster6647]

@@Hadar1991 To be fair he was right in hindsight about those guys. Joe Hart never found a good club afterwards and spent his further career in mid table teams. He had good days but never really was a top goalie. Nasri was declining physically and looked overweight some time later. At this point he was too old to be fixed. Guardiola even said he had Barcelona level quality which might have been an exaggeration but showed he valued him here

[@Hadar1991]

@@danimaster6647 In hindsight maybe yes, but back ten it kinda looked squad ruining, especially Joe Hart, who save our arses multiple times season before Guardiola came and his replacement was not that great. :P

[@danimaster6647]

@@Hadar1991 Yeah I get your point and I didn't like it at that point. Joe Hart was certainly better than Caballero who for me was an even more average goalie. So I didn't get why he was so opposed to Joe Hart that he didn't give him any more games. However I understood that he would be replaced eventually (with Ederson). I liked Nasri a lot and at some point he was one of the most gifted players around. But I saw him after being loaned to Sevilla and he looked done by that point. I saw him in a game against Leicester and he didn't run, didn't fight and looked like his physique is gone, although still a technical player of course. The same with Yaya at this point where the midfield was completely exposed when he played.

[@YetAnotherGeorgeth]

Neymar was a good player, even at PSG, but they overpaid for him. That and injuries didn’t exactly help!

[@tomshorrock-cu6or]

Pogba to United first three seasons he was immense- actually averaged the highest rating of any prem player in that time- scored in semi final to take us to Wembley and scored in the Europa final and got player of tournament. Was motm in Fa cup semi in 2018 too plus stopped city winning league. In 18/19 he was by far our best player and our top scorer, then the injuries hit. 19/20 in NHS era, him and Bruno were unreal. 20/21 when he was fit he was fantastic also, then after that it was just too injury plagued

[@2k8Spoon]

Pogba was definitely a flop, he had some good games for united don't get me wrong but for the most part he was a liability in midfield. Gave the ball away in stupid areas constantly trying to do tricks, jogging around the pitch and seemed to only really try when he felt like it

[@hitthurdeaux]

Pogba was far too inconsistent, even during his best seasons at United.

[@ManchesterCitySupremacy]

Wasn’t consistent enough

[@alexandrenicolaslonz3007]

@PatrickvanStokken: "7 players who played in the wrong era" ☝️ I want this to become a reality

[@crbrearley]

Nice. I don't envie alfie the research though.

[@TobyElmendorf]

Neymar might be the most underrated player ever by the way some people view him, they didn't watch him week in and week out, he was always immense

[@SanIldeBaby]

100% agreed

[@omnipotentcheese6359]

hes pretty much as talented as any Brazilian outside of Ronaldo. His career comparison with Ronaldinho is v. interesting ive often wondered why Dinho(my 2nd fav player ever after R9) has a universal love for the way he played the game yet Neymar who plays so similar is hated. The conclusion i have is this- its joy -Dinho always was happy on the pitch and expressed it through his play, Neymar whilst doing all of the same things never seemed like he truly enjoyed it on the pitch and i think that is the difference in how they are viewed. By Brazillian standards he kept his top level pretty much to the end which is remarkable, a couple of better team mates and he could of won a world cup and things may of been viewed differently.

[@TobyElmendorf]

@@omnipotentcheese6359 So true, Dinho was a fantastic player and always smiled and joked. Neymar is a fantastic player and people have the impression that he complains, which is somewhat true, but he also gets clattered more than anyone ever.

[@kieronparr3403]

Juan Veron at united. He had some great games (especially European) was underrated in the prem. And we mad our mojey back

[@ManchesterCitySupremacy]

35 million in 2001 was about 150 million today

[@groundhoppinginamerica3211]

Alfie, completely unrelated to the video you just made but a couple years ago you made a video about the Tajikistan league. There national team just made the quarterfinals of the Asian cup. You should do a video on what's gone right for there national team. P.S. Your contents amazing. You and footy adventures inspired me to make my own soccer channel on KZbin. Keep up the great work

[@liftingdk4096]

Matthijs de ligt is a shout. He got critisized for everything after his unlucky start in the preseason for juventus, but if you would ask any juve fan they would say he was their most consistent defender in those years. Even for bayern he has been fantastic, just unlucky with injuries.

[@badmerr6758]

Imo just Zlatan came at the wrong time. I don’t understand why buy him if pep wanted to use Messi in the false 9 position. We could’ve gone for a natural winger like Di Maria or promote from the academy but thankfully we got David Villa who adapted to the role despite being a striker

[@RedCruuve]

thank god someone with a platform is defending Morata’s transfer. I’ve been saying this for years and everyone ignores me. Chelsea even managed to break even when selling him to Atletico despite him being a ‘flop’

[@evilsultan]

Most Barca fans who watched Ibra during first half of that season do not think he was a flop. Guardiola was an awesome manager but his mistake was the romantic idea to play false 9 which worked in the league but not the CL. He under appreciated Eto’o as well who was an extremely effective goal scorer.

[@mismisimognomo101]

Ayyy, we here. Alfie Gang 4 life 🖤 kudos from Chile 🇨🇱 Still waiting for a mention of us Chileans that's not Vidal being a G or Alexis Sánchez being one of the biggest transfer flops ever in the PL 😹 Tbh, jokes aside, your videos keep me sane in some really rough times. The grounded political views and criticism of these fucking sport succubus and witty comments/sarcasm is life fuel and never stops to crack me up 🫂

[@BeBe-vh4ry]

Willy Top is the goat of Chile. If you know then you know.

[@jessymangala78]

What grounded political views?? Just watch the football but when it comes to politics he's just another liberal and they're the one ruining our current society

[@mismisimognomo101]

​@@BeBe-vh4rythat's literally some really obscure Chilean football character to know. Actually got me fucked up, who are you? 😹 Probably some Philadelphia fan or something... Either way, impressive !

[@BeBe-vh4ry]

@@mismisimognomo101 on footy manager 10 I think, topp was playing in the English lower leagues, I signed him for Accrington Stanley and he tore league 2 and league 1 apart, like averaging a goal a game, messi numbers. He was OK in the championship and couldn't score in the prem, but I kept him in the squad and loaned him out to league 1 teams cos I loved him too much to sell. He became a club legend for 2 or 3 other teams this way. I even became chile national manager and (controversially) gave him his national debut 😂. Absolute legend haha.

[@karlbratelt7629]

James at Bayern was pretty good as well, although many people view him as a 'flop'

[@cormacmeleady9616]

Di Maria at United was an interesting one, I was always excited watching him play and we would now kill for him in place of our current wingers. But I think the weight of expectation that comes with the number 7 shirt and comments made by di Maria since leaving United combined with the ongoing hangover from the Ferguson at the time resulted in his spell there being cast in a negative light. His performance against Leicester in September 2014 had me so excited for what he might become

[@stefan5730]

Van Gaal destroyed him like many south American players

[@bzilla-d4i]

R9 at Ac Milan and Rivaldo at AC Milan come to mind too, R9 actually averaged a goal every other game at Milan and was part of the squad which won the 2007 Champions League, though he was cup tied and couldnt play or receive a medal. He would go on from there to score 25 goals to lead Corinthians to a League and Cup double at 34.

[@hitthurdeaux]

*state league

[@bzilla-d4i]

@@hitthurdeaux it may be a state league, but most competitive Brazilian teams compete in the Campeonato Paulista, it's also the oldest established league in Brazil, Adriano bossed Serie A that season though, there are 27 state Championships played in Brazil and the best of those then play in Serie A. Hence why you see Brazilian players play up to 70 games a season.

[@ryanmwestate]

Pogba at man utd deserves an honourable mention. He scored several massive goals for us including a brace in a Manchester derby and a goal in a Europa league final. Got in to the premier league team of the season whilst with us and finished in our top 3 scorers and assisters in the same season (the only player to do this in that season). If not for injuries he would have achieved even more, but there was a constant scapegoating of him and unwarranted attacks about things which had nothing to do with his football performance such as his haircuts and dancing. In reality only Bruno Fernandes and possibly Juan Mata (in terms of midfielders) could be argued to have done better for us in the post fergie era than pogba imo.

[@danimaster6647]

yeah the problem was the transfer fee, otherwise he would have been considered a legend

[@2k8Spoon]

​@@danimaster6647a legend😂 he was a liability of a midfielder. He had some good spells for sure, but even during those he gave the ball away constantly in stupid areas trying to do tricks and jogging back when he loses it. I don't think I ever saw him sprint. He had the talent to be a legend but not the work ethic

[@therav2278]

Not related, but I remember when Modric signed for Real Madrid from Tottenham, he struggled the first season and was even named the worst signing of that transfer window. And then he became a legend of the club.

[@lucaslonchampt613]

Day 11 of asking a "What Went Right for Stade Brestois?" Video This is currently, by far, the best season in club history, one which could result in their first ever qualification for Europe in over 70 years of existence. There's a fascinating story to tell, from going bankrupt and slowly climbing back, to various great names that played there such as Ribéry, Makélélé or José Luis Brown, to the story of the Brest president going up against the Colombian drug cartel. Plus, you can have a lot of Brest related puns. Following a 2-2 draw against Paris, the first time they haven't lost to them since the Qatari takeover, the supporter's bus was pelted by rocks. This is the second time this happened this year. Maybe there's something else worth investigating here.

[@bendodson6955]

Di Maria is labelled a flop because he started out incredible with 3 Goals and 4 assists in his first 6 games, then only managed a single goal against Yeovil after October, and 8 more assists across the whole rest of the season

[@MartijnterHaar]

Pep Guardiola not being able to deal with Zlatan and Louis van Gaal at Man Utd being in this video makes me think of managers who are great if they can shape the team exactly like they want to, like Guardiola, Van Gaal, but above all Dinamo Kyiv's legendary Valeriy Lobanovskyi vs managers who are great at getting the best out of any player group, however big the characters. (No idea who would be the best example of that type.)

[@sub_n33urath122]

Zlatan is unique and i don't think there will ever be a second Zlatan maybe a better striker but there won't be a personality like Zlatan

[@gurururuwarararara8164]

Mourinho definitely fits that bill. Say what you will about him, but that man knows how to handle BIG egos

[@gabsnandes7818]

Mourinho, mf made a bunch of random players and a few world class players a Champions League winning team with Porto

[@stefan5730]

Mourinho and Ancelotti

[@drs-xj3pb]

@@stefan5730 When he was young, Ancelotti got rid of Roberto Baggio because there was no room for a 10 in his system. He learned. Now he would change his system in a heartbeat. He gets my vote.

[@football4tf558]

Yes. I personally think that people who think Neymar flopped never watched the bloke play

[@fadhil2831]

Average football fans on internet man😂😂

[@justhuy7960]

mentality of Shaq who counts trophies instead of the gameplay 🤣

[@jaspermelchior8472]

The quality of football that he produced during his time at PSG is far from deserving the title of flop... I feel as though people just look at his career in its entirety, - having downgraded from Barcelona to PSG - and then conclude that he is a flop simply because of his poor decisions in deciding what path his career should take

[@arjitjere1559]

He was good but failed to lead PSG to cl

[@rfvtgbzhn]

@@jaspermelchior8472 I think he is a flop if you consider how much they paid for him and how few matches he played. Of course this was because of injuries, but that doesn't change the fact.

[@XBR4Da]

Glad you put Neymar in this video. I've defended him a lot over the years, especially after the 2018 world cup where I felt the criticism for him was a bit over the top, although I've given up now with his move to Saudi.

[@Ditchdigger2005]

Conveniently forgetting Tammy and Giroud in the intro there eh Alfie! Although a youth product and a bargain buy (strange to say 17m is a bargain!) would hardly count as flops even if they didn't produce much, but both were our best strikers since Costa. Shame Tuchel seemed to think Havertz was better as a false 9! Probably was the right time for Giroud to move on though.

[@mwasnificent]

No one has ever called Giroud a flop in any of his clubs

[@Ditchdigger2005]

@@mwasnificent Nor did I. Alfie said Morata was the best Chelsea striker since Costa, so maybe Alfie is underrating Giroud because he clearly forgot about him or ignored him to fit the narrative.

[@ugglorimossen]

Nothing you say about Zlatan in Barca is wrong, but it needs a bit of context. He had an amazing start (the best of any new Barca signing until that point) with 6 goals and 2 assists in his first 7 games in La Liga. Then a few weeks later he got injured, came in vs Real and scored 5 minutes after he was subbed in after quite some time after being injured. Its impossible to know all the details, but when he played for Barca, with Xavi and Iniesta, he produced numbers which is comparable to Messi numbers if it weren't for his injuries (or something else?). One thing for sure is that you want Messi to play as well as he can, but Zlatan played better on the pitch than Messi when the two of them were on the pitch. Not at all a flop, but just a casualty to injury at the wrong time with the wrong manager who believed in another player. Unfortunately for him, that player was Messi and the manager was Guardiola, who both have proved, without a doubt, themselves to be quite capable football players and manager.

[@Zazzy280]

Chelsea catching strays this early in the morning is hilarious

[@AblemanSy]

Crespo is still one of my favourite ever strikers. That goal to make it 3 0 against Liverpool is one of the greatest pieces of art that I ever witnessned live. Kaká's pass adds to that of course but it was also a magnificent finsh!

[@JohnDoe-km9vx]

Nice video, really loved Michal Owen's inclusion here.

[@Jesse_E5150]

Seeing Lukaku and Hazard, just makes you look back and see how that Belgian team wasted their golden generation.

[@5minutemovies977]

I think that one parameter that is often overlooked regarding golden generations is the staff. Most notably the head coach. You may have the greatest players ever, if you don't have the right people to handle them and inspire them to success, it won't work.

[@m-vendor]

Netherlands had 4 times golden generarions and never won the WC😢

[@5minutemovies977]

@@m-vendor 1974 was a bit special, wasn't it? And to be frank, they played so dirty in the 2010 finals, they deserved to lose. As I recall, Cruijff himself was feeling ashamed of their display.

[@maciejbala477]

it wasn't really a waste imo. They competed for the biggest trophies, they knocked out Brazil ffs. They were unfortunate to lose to France, it's just cup competitions being cup competitions. Also, considering what they were performing like before Martinez came in, he did a very good job there (for a while, naturally, the last tournament group stage exit was a disaster). I'm convinced that if they beat France, they'd win the WC, and they were clearly one of the best two teams that world cup. But again, I just think it is harsh to judge on results alone. And harsh to expect that they should have won anything. A 3rd place finish is already an achievement for Belgium, they didn't win medals before and were largely crap before that era... Like, sure, they could have accomplished even more, but one should view it as a success, not a failure.

[@5minutemovies977]

@@maciejbala477 Absolutely, there can only be 1 winner in the end, and you get a WC every 4 years. That's what make them so special. There might only be 1 winner, but it doesn't mean that the other teams are losers.

[@punctual501]

Broski really Shat on Chelsea in the intro😭

[@needfoolthings]

They have worked hard to get there. Strikers alone...

[@dcnole]

The irony of Di Maria being a "not that bad" non-flop is that he is probably United's best transfer of the post-Fergie era. Certainly, he's the player who has had the best post-United career of anyone because he's one of 2 people in the last decade that United has sold for any meaningful amount of money, and one of the few who wasn't completely ruin by their time in Manchester. People scoff at this, but think about it. United largest ever transfer is Ronaldo from 2010. And their 4th biggest is DAVID BECKHAM for 37.5m euros in 2003.

[@njabulombuyazi5132]

Glad you had Micheal Owen here. Always felt like his time at Madrid was viewed unfairly

[@RomaInvicta202]

1. Neymar was "a flop" because of all the hype around him; personally I don't like him, but he was very unlucky to have started his career during Messi/Ronaldo era. 2. I think only people who know very little about football would call di Maria a flop in United, I remember I was often amzed how good he was while watching games

[@ratzinger3814]

Video suggestion: players/managers loved by rival clubs, eg glenn Murray for Brighton and palace or Brian Clough for derby and forest

[@asparuhdochev]

On point again. Especially the first three. I've always said 'they weren't that bad' when someone calls them flops in these particular clubs.

[@dscwac396]

The word flop was upgraded when zlatan was put into the conversation and then apologized personally to zlatan

[@dillonobrien8793]

Pogba to United, our best player when fit for most of the six years

[@duyanhng8430]

if they just get a damn proper dm to cover for him ffs

[@kageryu311]

Lukaku to Man United as well as Pogba to Man United. Both weren't as bad as people said for Man United. It almost gets to a false narrative that Lukaku was a Premier Legue Flop despite scoring over 120 PL goals. Same as Pogba which more of his issues were to do with his relationship to Jose Mourinho and his Injury record. He put out number ofn G&A better than Bruno Fernandez on his best season with the club.

[@zurimondesir2995]

Been saying that neymar wasn't a flop he literally played insane whenever he wasn't injured while at psg and dragged them to a champions league final where he played one of his best games against a stacked bayern. People love to crap on him for leaving barca but guess whos been to more champions league finals since he left...

[@lokmansahat6220]

Hello Alfie, can you speak about AFC Asian Cup and why the competition is consider was below par from World Cup and Euro.

[@drs_21]

It’s pretty self-explanatory

[@RockySanz54]

Ibrahimovic is arguably the biggest overlooked player of all time. IMO he's among the top5 CFs of the modern era

[@bzilla-d4i]

The most criminally underrated footballer i can think of is Alberto Gilardino. Man literally won every cup competition he played in, only thing he didn't win was Serie A. Won Serie A Footballer of the year, Italian Footballer of the year, and Serie A young player of the year. Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and the World Cup.

[@szymon91215]

5:40 "Both willing and able" Why do I feel like I know where you got that one from :))

[@drs-xj3pb]

Where? It's been a standard phrase in English for quite a long time now.

[@danielgeorgiev8006]

Manchester United fan here....i think that Veron, Di Maria weren't that bad(and I'm born in 2000) and even Maguire is not a bad player, just not for 80 or 90 mil! Also, nice videos as always❤. Love from Bulgaria 🇧🇬 ❤️

[@ghost_ib9928]

Cavani wasn't that bad either

[@Jjtaro]

Maguire wasn't bad? £80M+ to ruin the club by scoring more goals and assists against his own club than for it, and make at least 1/2 big mistakes every match which lead to goal scoring opportunities for his opponents

[@rafaels.c.almeida7235]

​@@Jjtaromost of these problems only came up after people started to smash and banter him for no reason, no one has that psychology to withstand that much hate for no reason, his first season was very good

[@willmourino2119]

I think I’m the only the only Liverpool fan who thinks Benteke really wasn’t that bad for us. I get why klopp would sell him because those kind of strikers really aren’t for him. 10 goals isn’t great for the whole season but most of those goals were either winners for equalisers

[@dionisiosmarinos4285]

You can say that zlatan is not a goat or a lion or one of the greatest players that football has seen recently. Everyone has the right to be wrong, but call him a bad signing for any team ? That just goes to show some people don't know football

[@thejungwookim]

*Video suggestion:* Most appearances XI or 7 footballers with most appearances (latter would probably be mostly GKs)

[@1630revelloify]

Great choices, Alfie. I think that some of these players are rated as flops for two reasons; 1 - overexpectation due to inflated transfer fees, 2 - a disappointing season for the team after the signing, which is blamed on the signing rather than the team/management. Anyway, I've an idea for a future 7. The seven worst career outcomes for players who actively engineered their departure. As an AFC Bournemouth fan, I'd nominate Ryan Fraser (refused to play in order to avoid injury before his contract ran out under Eddie Howe - ended up at Newcastle before Eddie Howe took over, and is now on loan at Southampton with little chance of returning to St James' Park) and Joshua King (who was released by Everton after signing for a nominal fee, and then by Watford after a free transfer and is now winding down his career at Fenerbahçe). There must be better examples.

[@sagecentral1809]

I hope to see nunez on this list in a few years time

[@gabsnandes7818]

Nunez is one of the weirdest players I have ever seen, he's not bad, and he's currently doing fine But I see him getting the hardest things right and failing on simple chances It's so weird

[@serenes8938]

Your videos are so good mate. Thanks

[@deborahluck539]

Always love your videos!!!

[@asparuhdochev]

Idea for next video: 7 players who started bad at the new tean, but turned out to be club legends, e.g. Luka Modric

[@markodaly4335]

This honestly just a fantastic video. Top level

[@Wladislav]

That Michael Owen description is just *chef's kiss*. I hope it gets used for his obituary (hopefully not any time soon.)

[@waltdraper1]

As a Pool fan: Naby Keita was my first thought for this list. His injuries dragged him down and potentially made him a flop, and he’s bottom or near bottom of a lot of Liverpool signing lists, but he was actually pretty good when he played just never could play

[@PaxBisonica89]

When he mentioned flop i was expecting a 50 min dissertation about the AFCON.

[@MrSmith1984]

To be honest though, the fact that Morata has done better than his successors at Chelsea says more about how bad they where rather than any indication of how good Morata is.

[@forzaacmilan36]

Pogba was definitely not a flop at United. The guy was definitely their best player 90% of his time there

[@justhuy7960]

As a Man United fan, I remember Di Maria's only season at Man United and totally understand why people think he is a flop. The problem is that he started the season so well, of 4 goals he scored, 3 of them came before that 5-3 catastrophe lost against Leicester, after that match Man United fell apart and so did Di Maria. When Man United went down so bad and needed someone to score (cause Falcao was also trash), obviously the fans wanted Di Maria to score and score only, unintentionally disregarded all of his other contributions, and he also pushed to leave at the end so the fans have to many reasons to hate him and call him a flop, I wouldn't call him a flop but was obviously a wrong man at the worst time of this club.

[@olegabbatini7015]

Thank you for a good video. I agree with your choices, but here are some others that could be included: Kaka to Real Madrid Petr Cech to Arsenal Jack Grealish to Man City Paul Pogba to Man Utd

[@justhuy7960]

Grealish was considered as the flop, even after the treble ?

[@wolfpackpete6408]

On Crespo being more prolific than Drogba... Drogba was a great striker for his hold up play and giving the opposition centre-backs a difficult game in many ways. Drogba wasn't actually that prolific a goalscorer, although he was a big game player who scored important goals. Crespo was a world-class poacher. Decent finishing, but his only really outstanding attribute was his 6th sense for where to be in the box. For the type of striker he was, he really needs to score more goals than a Drogba type of striker, we can't compare what they offer the team based on goal stats. It's like Utd fans comparing Cantona to Van Nistelrooy based on goals. Van Nistelrooy with a goal rate almost double, but Cantona won 4 out of 5 Premiership titles, and that likely would've been 5/5 if not for the long suspension after the Palace incident. Van Nistelrooy on the other hand won just 1 Premiership medal in 5 seasons...

[@rodolfomonteiro5080]

João Felix at Atletico Madrid played 7837 minutes across 131 games, and registered 52 goal contributions (34 goals and 18 assists). That's an average goal contribution every 151 minutes. While he fell under expectations, mostly because of his transfer fee, that is in no way bad numbers. Especially because he kept being played out of position, mainly at right midfield

[@tallblondegooner]

I can't believe Alfie said Santi Carzola the way he did. Needs to do a whole video on him now.

[@MrAtzu]

As a Real Madrid fan, I think James Rodríguez would have been a good mention. I often see fans of other clubs (especially outside of Spain) labeling James as a Real Madrid flop and it simply just isn’t true. He was an amazing player, especially during his first season at Los Blancos under Ancelotti. He just didn’t suit Zidane’s system as Zidane liked to play 4-3-3 with a holding midfielder (Casemiro) and two central midfielders (Kroos and Modric). He was never terrible at Real and it’s so unfair to see him mentioned as a ”Real Madrid flop”.

[@kaliou6645]

6:03 🧸⚽️Bear in mind this Video Suggestion: 7 Active Players with the Lowest Career Goals

[@keirrobinson4156]

Tore Andre Flo at Rangers would have been worth a shout here, his goals to games ratio was actually excellent and he didn't play a full 90 minutes in a lot of those games, but unfortunately the reported 12 million price tag became an albatross around his neck.

[@mandel94]

Kaka at Real Madrid could be an honorable mention. His stats there were really not that bad

[@dej71]

Haven’t watched the video yet but I have a feeling this is how we will look back on Darwin Nunez

[@thepenguinmafia]

It's bizarre. I don't know any liverpool fans who think he's a flop. Given his wages, age, and contract length his amortised cost isn't even that high. Klopp and liverpool players sing his praises too.

[@diomuda7903]

I think of Luis Chavez. A Mexican who was originally seen as a waste, later included only by Gerardo Martino as a third choice in WC 2022 before he turned out to be Mexico’s newest superstar with the free kick that dumped Saudi Arabia out.

[@entmeister-general415]

The Morata one I think is slightly misleading he scored 5 goals in his first 3-4 games if I remember correctly and 3 of those came against Stoke who finished 19th that season.

[@flankspeed]

Lamela is straight-up "Streets won't forget", and I ain't even a Spurs fan. I'm a Liverpool fan: and I will say Crespo was unlucky to have scored 2 in the UCL 2005 final but not win. His 2nd in particular was, with that Kaka assist, the best goal in a cracking game. And it troubles me not at all to say it.

[@footbar3764]

I would also do fabregas at barcelona. For some reason many thinks he was a bench warmer when infact he was brillian and a starting xi player who created tons of goals

[@tdyerwestfield]

Ibrahimovic underwhelmed at Barcelona because of Guardiola's inability to coach a player into a different role. Just spending mega money and having total disregard if it doesn't work is his trademark across his entire managerial career, whereas all other managers have to find a way to make it work.

[@drs-xj3pb]

How does that saying go about leading a horse to water?

[@tdyerwestfield]

@@drs-xj3pb Except you can actually coach footballers to play football if you care about coaching.

[@drs-xj3pb]

@@tdyerwestfieldOnly if the footballer wants to be coached.

[@dazwold]

What on earth is going on at Livingston?

[@cpaps8500]

I'm surprised you didn't include Veron at Man Utd

[@jahmanihenry7513]

Great video 🤙🏾

[@pandaman1331]

A flop is relative to the expectations people had for players. Kaka or Götze for example were considered flops but if you look at their stats and actual performances, they were pretty good. People simply expected far more from them. Götze was considered the most talented German player of his generation. Some Germans even thought he might win the ball on'dor in the future. And Kaka of course came as a ball on'dor winner. So even though he wasn't bad at all, people simply expected way more from him. And maybe rightfully so.

[@Brown87]

Tore André Flo deserves an honorary shout, as he somehow seems to fall victim to the "Mandela effect" when his time at Rangers is remembered 🇬🇧 To this day, he's still the most expensive signing ever made (£12m) by Rangers and for some reason, fans of Scottish teams (including some Rangers fans) will say he only scored two goals in 17 matches or maybe 4 goals in 25 matches 🙄 Flo scored 29 in 53 appearances for Rangers and that included a goal on his debut at Ibrox against Celtic in a 5-1 victory ⚽ Seriously, why does everyone remember him as being a "flop" when he clearly wasn't? 😐

[@Markothedreamer]

Yea i also never really understood how ibrahimovic was a "flop"

[@bigryle]

Alfie - how about a video on the players who've played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid.

[@dmur.]

Alfie I don’t know what you’re doing but the bots love it, please stop.

[@vinkata]

Messi in PSG and Ronaldo in United (second spell ) are the biggest flops ever.

[@mv2dap]

A Flop is a harsh word and I agree we shouldn't define Zlatans season at Barça with it. However, for a player of its calibre and also for its price tag, it still was underwhelming and dissapointing.