flobaba wrote:
Klaus wrote:
There are a couple hundred degrees of separation between not being the best player in the world and being a flop though. Bloke was awarded as the best midfielder in Spain during a time when there were more great midfielders in that league than anywhere at any point in recent history, he's been in both the La Liga and the Bundesliga teams of the season, he's been in the Champions League team of the year twice. If he's a flop then who's a success?
You are the one who used the word flop. Jones is the one who used the term dud.
I only said some players get a huge profile boost during the World Cup which doesn’t necessarily reflect on what they can or will do with the rest of their careers. And I mentioned James because I do think he was poor at Madrid (compared to his World Cup performances and hype) and never really fit in, hence his being loaned out to Bayern.
That's not true though. James was top drawer in his first season and then had problems with Zidane who preferred Isco who's arguably the most talented midfielder since Iniesta. He was gifted to Bayern because the two clubs have a good relationship transfer wise according to Bayern's CEO they don't gouge each other when it becomes clear one of their players wants to make the switch. They're still paying north of 50m for him, not bad for a poor player.
The World Cup does give many players a boost and hype that doesn't match their ability but let's not act as if that was James' breakthrough, he went for 45m to Monaco at a time when that was still a massive amount of money.
