I wish my favourite football team had never sold …

[webfact]

I wish my favourite football team had never sold …

Ever seen a great player go to another club and perform brilliantly? Read 'em and weep, as Meatloaf once sang

David Buckley

 

 

Ever sat watching your favourite football team serve up a load of old dross and muse to yourself …”I wish we had never sold….”? I would imagine all football fans have at one time or another.

 

If you’ve sat there bemoaning the one(s) that got away you are in good company. Football match ticket provider LiveFootballTickets.com decided to survey 1,273 football fans to determine which players they wish would have stayed with their former teams.

 

There are few surprises in the results. For example, just more than three-quarters of Spurs fans wish the north London giants had never let Welsh wizard Gareth Bale leave for Real Madrid. No great surprise there. Every now and again we read reports that he might come back. Possible, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

In my book, there are two forms of regret when a player leaves. The first is the “we tried everything, but the player was determined to go” style of transfer. The Fleetwood Mac “You can go your own way” transfer. The No 1 slot on the list below falls into that category. Manchester United knew they had a great player in Christiano Ronaldo, but it was his boyhood dream to play for Real Madrid. There was no holding him. Some 92% of United fans want him back. I’m only surprised that the figure isn’t higher.

 

The other form of regret is what I call the Joni Mitchell transfer. In Big Yellow Taxi she sang: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til its gone.”

 

Those, for me, are the ones that really hurt. Examples? As you can see, Chelsea fans in the survey were not overly chuffed that Mo Salah moved on. Now look what he’s doing at Liverpool. In a similar vein, the Blues also had Kevin de Bruyne on their books. He only appeared three times and was loaned out to Werder Bremen before signing for Wolfsburg. I’m surprised he didn’t make it onto the list below.

 

Did Chelsea fully appreciate the potential of Salah and de Bruyne? I’m not sure they did. Maybe that’s why they now loan out so many of their youngsters just in case one develops into a seriously good player.

 

Full story: https://londoninspire.co.uk/i-wish-my-favourite-football-team-had-never-sold/

 

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[bkkatl]

I wish my favorite football team never sold Brett Farve. 

[vogie]

Leeds Utd, Tony Currie and Duncan McKenzie.????????

[nikmar]

Thomas Gravesen

[Bredbury Blue]

SWP...then he was ruined by Chelsea.

[Pedrogaz]

Hernandez, Tevez, Pogba

[TrevorC]

Spurs - Gareth Bale

Buriram - Diogo

[nikmar]

5 hours ago, vogie said:

Leeds Utd, Tony Currie and Duncan McKenzie.????????

Duncan mckenzie - one of my childhood heroes when he was in an Everton shirt. great player to watch.

[wilai]

Xabi Alonso ????

[3 minus 2]

pat jennings ,,,, HUGE mistake

[Bredbury Blue]

An alternative to the question posed is, "which player your club bought (or joined you) you wished you'd picked up earlier?".

 

As a Man City fan I would have loved to have picked up Ali Bernarbia earlier. Most of you wont recall him but we picked him up in his twilight years from PSG and he masterminded Kevin Keegan's promotion winning team and our first season back in the Premier. He was one of those players who had no real pace but seemed to play the game at his own pace. A wonderful little player. Would have loved to see him in his prime playing for City and im sure he'd thrive in City's squads/teams of recent years.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Bredbury Blue