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Latics youths who didn't fulfil their early promise


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I'll start with Andy Sweeney, a George Best lookalike who took the breath away when playing for the reserves with his long mazy runs from deep, beating man after man.

Sadly, he couldn't produce this at first team level and I think finished up at Mossley.

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A much harder question is

 

Name a latics youth star who DID fulfill their early promise.....

 

Many have done, I can go way back to Les Chapman, but even more failed for one reason or another.

Edited by BP1960
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I'm not as old as you, I've watched Latics as a season ticket holder since 1989.

 

I can't think of any in the last 24 years.

 

Tierney has had a better career than most predicted. - He is as good as I can think really.

Eardley? People were talking him up to be a premier league regular.

Bernard? Didn't really fulfill

Gerrard? The same

Serrant? - Injuries

Allessandra? - Nope

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Bez - I'm expecting a simialr sort of impact from Schidney

Mark Innes was superb then died a real death after being moved to left-back

Andy Holt had a decent lower league career but the interest from Liverpool and Celtic killed his Latics career

Andy Gorton was good enough to have made a very good career for himself yet pissed it all away

Tipton didn't want it enough, reinvented himself as a knobhead, that charged around like a headless chicken. It was all downhill after the haircut

Richard Graham, excellent player - his body gave up on him

Danny Hall - really looked the part, but never improved

Danny Boshell - never quite made that step into Football League quality, the ability was there - he simply had no heart. How he managed contract after contract, I'll never know...

Edited by oafcprozac
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I thought Mark Innes was gonna be a world beater in midfield after his first few games...... I believe he now tiles bathrooms.

 

Same here mate, he was the main reason we stayed up in 1999, we needed a Talisman to give us impetus and he ran the midfield over that last month and scored a very important goal on the final day.

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Not sure I'd count Eardley, Bernard and Gerrard as unfilfilled promise - they all had reasonably successful careers in the top two divisions. None of them were ever going to be world class.

 

We're still going to regret letting Carlos Roca go one day though, mark my words.

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Smalley had all the attributes to be a top, top player but sadly he has the heart of a mouse and puts in minimal effort. So frustrating to watch as when he did step up to the plate at the back end of the Penney era, I thought the penny had finally dropped with him but definitely one of the things Dickov got right. His purple patch at Chesterfield showed that he could be a consistent goal threat but the fact he didn't sign for the team he helped shoot to promotion (and one short on firepower at that) is all telling.

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My sister bought richard grahams house and it was falling apart. The amount of red letters that kept coming through the door was ridiculous. Had the bailiff turn up one day wanting to recoup some of the 50 grand plus he owed.

 

Somethin went wrong for him somewhere along the line.

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The lad I couldnt understand was Chris Hall made his debut as a young kid, looked a big strong talent, i remember saying at the time give him 2 season and we could make a packet on him. He cut short his contract and now doing TV adverts!

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My sister bought richard grahams house and it was falling apart. The amount of red letters that kept coming through the door was ridiculous. Had the bailiff turn up one day wanting to recoup some of the 50 grand plus he owed.

 

Somethin went wrong for him somewhere along the line.

 

Didn't he become manager of Top Man in Oldham after he left football due to injury?

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In recent seasons Andy Crompton had potential but injuries and his own disipline problems let him down. Also rated that Pearson who went to Barrow and Phillip McGrath if he had stayed injury free.

 

Also suprised that Wayne Harrison who we sold to Liverpool not been mentioned.

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Not sure about that tbh i do however remember him having a stint as manager of a local team. Oldham town i think but might be wrong

He was at Oldham Town and was also my manager at Chadderton. Even at pushing twenty stone, he was still the best player on the park every week...

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