Never go back?

Beefy78

My club, Southend United, have just signed Freddy Eastwood on loan for the rest of the season. Freddy is one of the best players to ever pull on a Southend shirt, arguably the second best striker we've had in living memory (behind Stan Collymore) and in his last spell at Roots Hall he scored the goals which got us two promotions, to a Football League Trophy final and his 25 yard free kick gave us our greatest ever moment in the sun - knocking Manchester United out of the Carling Cup in 2006.

To Southend fans, this is a huge deal. But it's got me thinking of the old saying that you should never go back. So I'm throwing it over to the good people of Boards.ie to give me some examples, maybe from your own Clubs, of where players have gone back and either not lived up to the memories of what they once were or (hopefully) picked up where they had left off.

Xavi6

Orando Broom

Mark Hughes to United. Worked out pretty ok for him.

kryogen

Paul Scholes to United, going ok so far

sundula

Santa Cruz back to Blackburn on-loan from City didnt work out.

PauloMN

Shaun Maloney. Disaster of a return, but at least he kept the club doctors busy. :pac:

I think it's very hard for players to return, especially if you have been an icon for your club. In many ways, much as I'd have loved Larsson to return to Celtic as a player, I'm glad he didn't, because the great memories could be eroded if he didn't live up to expectations on his return. He'll now always be a hero to Celtic fans, and maybe he'll manage us sometime.

Skid

I didn't rate Craig Bellamy highly at Liverpool in his first spell, but he is doing very nicely second time around.

WesternZulu

Henry did alright once he came back to Arsenal.
He reputation wasn't eroded in any way.

Crash Bang Wall

Ian Rush back to LFC done ok

killwill

Crash Bang Wall wrote: »

Ian Rush back to LFC done ok

And Dalglish, oh wait no......

Beefy78

Any Spurs fans got any opinions on Jurgen Klinsmann's second spell there? As an outsider I always got the impression that he'd been a bit of a flop second time around but none of my Spurs mates will hear it.

gustavo

Romuald Boco was equally good second time around with us , 3rd time hopefully too

Chris Turner less so

smcelhinney

Cesc Fabregas?

JoeA3

Beefy78 wrote: »

Any Spurs fans got any opinions on Jurgen Klinsmann's second spell there? As an outsider I always got the impression that he'd been a bit of a flop second time around but none of my Spurs mates will hear it.

If I remember rightly he scored 4 goals in one game (think it was against Wimbledon?) which effectively kept them up. I remember they were stuggling under Christian Gross at the time.

Robbie Keane back to Spurs? Didn't really go that well.

Fowler back to Liverpool? He did OK for a few months, then Benitez hardly played him the following season.

Everton took Francis Jeffers back I think they shipped him out again fairly promptly.

CSF

Beefy78 wrote: »

My club, Southend United, have just signed Freddy Eastwood on loan for the rest of the season. Freddy is one of the best players to ever pull on a Southend shirt, arguably the second best striker we've had in living memory (behind Stan Collymore) and in his last spell at Roots Hall he scored the goals which got us two promotions, to a Football League Trophy final and his 25 yard free kick gave us our greatest ever moment in the sun - knocking Manchester United out of the Carling Cup in 2006.

To Southend fans, this is a huge deal. But it's got me thinking of the old saying that you should never go back. So I'm throwing it over to the good people of Boards.ie to give me some examples, maybe from your own Clubs, of where players have gone back and either not lived up to the memories of what they once were or (hopefully) picked up where they had left off.

Poor oul Bisto.

Wolf Club

From an Arsenal point of view I think Martin Keown is by far the best example of a player being successful in their second stint.

CSF

Philly Hughes, muck in his first spell in the first division with us, now tearing apart the premier division with us one week at a time.

Beefy78

I'd forgotten about Fowler back to Liverpool.

Revolution9

Cruyff's return to Ajax was a success.

Juninho went back to 'Boro, twice. Both his second and third spells were relatively successful, I think.

GLaDOS

Glen Crowe came back to Bohs from Shels to win 2 titles and break goalscoring records.

Dempsey

Charlie Mulgrew

In hindsight, he should never have been told to convert to a left back when he first turned pro, sold to Wolves in part exchange for Lee Naylor 4 years later. When he came back another 4 years later, nearly everyone doubted he's get a starting place but through an injury crisis he was played at centre back, the position he grew up playing, and he has just gone from strength to strength ever since and an excellent dead ball/long throw specialist to sweeten the deal. I wouldnt be surprised one bit if he picks up some POTY awards.

dfx-

Shane Robinson didn't go too well.

Beefy78

Dempsey wrote: »

Charlie Mulgrew

In hindsight, he should never have been told to convert to a left back when he first turned pro, sold to Wolves in part exchange for Lee Naylor 4 years later. When he came back another 4 years later, nearly everyone doubted he's get a starting place but through an injury crisis he was played at centre back, the position he grew up playing, and he has just gone from strength to strength ever since and an excellent dead ball/long throw specialist to sweeten the deal. I wouldnt be surprised one bit if he picks up some POTY awards.

We had Charlie down at Southend for a while when he was at Wolves. We played him left back which I know he's struggled with at times but he was a class apart at League One level. Really glad to see him do well.

We had Gary Hooper for a couple of years too. Never worked out for him at Southend.

Nalz

Mike Phelan... the secret to success!

razorblunt

Steve Staunton to Liverpool (I'm too young to remember the first spell!)

Just wait for Aqualani to return........ahem!

James__10

I've a feeling Declan "Fabio " O'Brien will be on this list

His legendary status amognst Drogheda fans may be forgotten if he doesen't step up to the plate this season :cool:

cson

CSF wrote: »

Philly Hughes, muck in his first spell in the first division with us, now tearing apart the premier division with us one week at a time.

Suspiciously coincides with Burdocks moving into Tolka :P

Is he on a fish and chips performance bonus?

dreamers75

Des Byrne did ok with us.
Des Byrne did ok with us.
Des Byrne did ok with us.
Des Byrne did ok with us.

Kidchameleon

WesternZulu wrote: »

Henry did alright once he came back to Arsenal.
He reputation wasn't eroded in any way.

Yeah he's still a cheating baxtard

kitakyushu

I wonder has anyone else ever done the Steve Staunton trick of going back to his old club twice in a row?

ie he has the club sequence of:
Liverpool
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Aston Villa

kitakyushu

kitakyushu wrote: »

I wonder has anyone else ever done the Steve Staunton trick of going back to his old club twice in a row?

ie he has the club sequence of:
Liverpool
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Aston Villa

Found another (just by chance, wasn't even looking for it)

John Lukic
===========
Leeds
Arsenal
Leeds
Arsenal

BOHtox

I'm no Liverpool fan but Kenny Dalglish has had a horror so far at Liverpool!

Beefy78

God damn, it was good to see Freddy Eastwood in a Southend shirt again yesterday. Even if it is a mistake to go back, as a fan it's the kind of mistake that you've got to love.

eagle eye

BOHtox wrote: »

I'm no Liverpool fan but Kenny Dalglish has had a horror so far at Liverpool!

Yeah I suppose them winning their first silverware in six years is a total nightmare.

SirDelboy18

Best current example of success is probably Younes Kaboul.

SirDelboy18

eagle eye wrote: »

Yeah I suppose them winning their first silverware in six years is a total nightmare.

By all means if the Carling Cup is good enough for them let them win the next 20 Carling Cups if it means that their league form will remain the same.

KaiserGunner

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Yeah he's still a cheating baxtard

Yawn!

Lumbo

Alan Stubbs, Landon Donovan and Stephen Pienaar did well coming back to Everton.

Jeffers was a disaster and McFadden hasn't done anything apart from pick up a wage.

BOHtox

eagle eye wrote: »

Yeah I suppose them winning their first silverware in six years is a total nightmare.

Yeah spending €100m+ and then beating a championship side on penalties to win the least sought cup in English football. Well done!
I reckon anything gained by winning the cup is lost by loses to Wigan, QPR, a terrible home form and generally an inability to beat smaller teams.

Revolution9

BOHtox wrote: »

Yeah spending €100m+ and then beating a championship side on penalties to win the least sought cup in English football. Well done!

Convenient of you to neglect to mention away victories at the Britannia, Stamford Bridge and the City of Manchester stadium en route.

And arguably the biggest club in the world celebrated celebrated a Carling Cup win quite joyously, only three years ago, while reigning champions of Europe.


Demean it all you like to suit your arguement, but it's a pot worth winning.

BOHtox

Revolution9 wrote: »

Convenient of you to neglect to mention away victories at the Britannia, Stamford Bridge and the City of Manchester stadium en route.

And arguably the biggest club in the world celebrated celebrated a Carling Cup win quite joyously, only three years ago, while reigning champions of Europe.


Demean it all you like to suit your arguement, but it's a pot worth winning.

It's a ridiculous trophy. Big it up all you like to suit your arguement.

The fact is every major trophy out there is ranked higher than it in terms of desirability.

And winning this trophy certainly doesn't justify €100m+ on transfer fees.
The only thing Liverpool celebrate is qualifying for Europe next year, which they wouldn't do in the league alone. That's why it's important to them not winning a meaningless trophy. I could understand a team like outside of the top half of the table celebrating it but not a team who's spent an outrageous amount of money

Revolution9

I'm just giving the competition some respect, the same respect it's afforded by some true footballing greats.

BOHtox wrote: »

It's a ridiculous trophy. Big it up all you like to suit your arguement.

Why would the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho waste their time with it then?

And winning this trophy certainly doesn't justify €100m+

Never said it did

I could understand a team like outside of the top half of the table celebrating it but not a team who's spent an outrageous amount of money

Yet Man Utd and Chelsea celebrated winning it while being amongst the best teams in Europe at the time, and both spent quite heavily.

bazual

Peter Beardsley - Newcastle
1983-1987
1993-1997

The reason I support Newcastle. He was possibly better the second time round.

BOHtox

Revolution9 wrote: »

I'm just giving the competition some respect, the same respect it's afforded by some true footballing greats.



Why would the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho waste their time with it then?



Never said it did



Yet Man Utd and Chelsea celebrated winning it while being amongst the best teams in Europe at the time, and both spent quite heavily.

They didn't celebrate it as if they had won the league though. They celebrated winning the trophy and that's fine. Liverpool had the right to do that too. But to say Kenny Dalglish has been succesfull at Liverpool by winning this is not a fair statement!

kitakyushu

.... to this thread.

Revolution9

BOHtox wrote: »

But to say Kenny Dalglish has been succesfull at Liverpool by winning this is not a fair statement!

Again, I never said that.

full_irish

FFS, can ye not have the debate about Dalglish and liverpool in on of the MANY threads designated to it and leave this thread alone.:rolleyes:

Revolution9

full_irish wrote: »

FFS, can ye not have the debate about Dalglish and liverpool in on of the MANY threads designated to it and leave this thread alone.:rolleyes:

I'm defending the Carling Cup more than anything, but fair point.