Stepping up from midtable

[roblues]

The West Ham youths of the past all qualify to various degrees e.g. Lampard, Joe Cole, Carrick, Defoe - I'd say those four carved out careers as key players at top clubs.
EDIT - as already mentioned by Burt in a couple of cases

[dazby]

I think what everyone is saying is that ALioune needs to stop thinking about football and get back to work.

[Alioune DVToure]

I think what everyone is saying is that ALioune needs to stop thinking about football and get back to work.

It was a rubbish thread to be fair. I put the question out there and then superimposed a load of rules to rubbish everyone's posts, thus ruining the debate.

File this one under ill thought out.

[Wooders]

hart, zabba,kompany, richards


surprised no-ones mentioned them yet

[walmai]

Stepping up from even one part of the table to another can happen, but its getting rarer as time passes. It is even rarer - to the point of being practically unheard of - for players to come up from a different division and prosper at any club in the top tier.

On a slight tangent, there was a piece in the paper immediately after the recent games involving MCFC (and Wigan) and West Ham (and Man U). 4 other teams were in action that mid-week and the revealing thing was that every person who scored was born overseas. Not much food for thought for Hodgson and his continuing efforts to find regular goal-scorers for our efforts to get to Brazil.

Maybe it is just due to the length of their dominance, but I would say that Man U have the best record of taking the best performer from a lower-placed club and at least making him a part of the match squad. Valencia had a decent season not so long ago. One of the long-term replacements for Rio came from either Fulham or Blackburn. Zaha may go on to prove my point.

Lampard is perhaps the best answer to your question - he has unarguably made it and stayed at the highest position in club football from humbler surroundings.

The elephant in the room is however inward travel of football players from overseas. A team is just as likely to be investing in a player who cut his teeth in the Dutch / French / etc league than in one who started at West Ham (Lampard, Terry, Cole, Johnson, Ferdinand) or Southampton (Bale, Oxlaide-Chamberlain)

[Alioune DVToure]

Stepping up from even one part of the table to another can happen, but its getting rarer as time passes. It is even rarer - to the point of being practically unheard of - for players to come up from a different division and prosper at any club in the top tier.

On a slight tangent, there was a piece in the paper immediately after the recent games involving MCFC (and Wigan) and West Ham (and Man U). 4 other teams were in action that mid-week and the revealing thing was that every person who scored was born overseas. Not much food for thought for Hodgson and his continuing efforts to find regular goal-scorers for our efforts to get to Brazil.

Maybe it is just due to the length of their dominance, but I would say that Man U have the best record of taking the best performer from a lower-placed club and at least making him a part of the match squad. Valencia had a decent season not so long ago. One of the long-term replacements for Rio came from either Fulham or Blackburn. Zaha may go on to prove my point.

Lampard is perhaps the best answer to your question - he has unarguably made it and stayed at the highest position in club football from humbler surroundings.

The elephant in the room is however inward travel of football players from overseas. A team is just as likely to be investing in a player who cut his teeth in the Dutch / French / etc league than in one who started at West Ham (Lampard, Terry, Cole, Johnson, Ferdinand) or Southampton (Bale, Oxlaide-Chamberlain)

Do you see any players from the bottom four clubs who you could feasibly sign and who would improve your squad?

Cesar might be a good shout if, as suggested, he's settled in London. What about Le Fondre and Kebe as on-the-cheap impact players?

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Valencia. Been quality for the rags. Big part of their success in recent years. Admittedly had a below par season this year round.

[Mase]

Valencia. Been quality for the rags. Big part of their success in recent years. Admittedly had a below par season this year round.

The rags didn't win anything last year. So they had no success. This year he's been shite. So what you're saying is he's had one good season with them?

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Valencia. Been quality for the rags. Big part of their success in recent years. Admittedly had a below par season this year round.

The rags didn't win anything last year. So they had no success. This year he's been shite. So what you're saying is he's had one good season with them?

Just because they won nothing doesn't mean he was crap. In the same way as if we don't win anything this season it won't mean Zabaleta's not had a great season.

Last season he was quality, their best player. Scored a fair few and assisted many others. Year before that he had a bad injury. On form though he's a world class winger, pacey, direct and a fantastic crosser. Wish we had a player like him in his prime.

[Mase]

Just because they won nothing doesn't mean he was crap. In the same way as if we don't win anything this season it won't mean Zabaleta's not had a great season.

Last season he was quality, their best player. Scored a fair few and assisted many others. Year before that he had a bad injury. On form though he's a world class winger, pacey, direct and a fantastic crosser. Wish we had a player like him in his prime.

You said, "He's been a big part of their success in recent years"

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Just because they won nothing doesn't mean he was crap. In the same way as if we don't win anything this season it won't mean Zabaleta's not had a great season.

Last season he was quality, their best player. Scored a fair few and assisted many others. Year before that he had a bad injury. On form though he's a world class winger, pacey, direct and a fantastic crosser. Wish we had a player like him in his prime.

You said, "He's been a big part of their success in recent years"

He has. In his first season they won the League and League Cup. He was also voted in the PFA team of the year.
Second season they won the league and reached Champions League final.
3rd seasom they won fuck all but he was outstanding.
This season he won the league with them.

I'd say that's a fair amount of success.

Point is he went from a lower league/mid table team to a top team with ease.