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Seeing as some find the Foe thread distasteful what about Kinkladze getting into todays team? As good as he was on the ball he didn't contribute enough for the team for me so it's a NO from me.

I think he's carrying a bit too much weight and has lost a yard of pace, so No.
Might be easier to ask who would get in the team, although I think we had that thread last month

and you are saying Robinho does contribute enough? total nonsense, he would walk into any premiership side. As much as we all want EVERY player to chase every ball down and contribute 100% some players simply dont do this, they pop up, score wonder goals and give the club lots of publicity.

in his prime kinky was one of the best players ever to wear the blue shirt!!
in a good team he would have shone even more!!!

dick dastardley wrote:in his prime kinky was one of the best players ever to wear the blue shirt!!
in a good team he would have shone even more!!!

Very much debatable. Don't get me wrong, Kinky was big hero for me just as much as for everyone else but truth is he had bad tendency to disappear in games and didn't do much for many games in a row. He was bright light in otherwise probably the most disappointing season for me and for next two seasons kept doing it now and then in first division. However he wouldn't stand a chance in current squad. SWP is twice the player Kinky were and some people are even critisising him.

In his prime it's hard to tell I think Kinky shined so much as he was in with a bad bunch that made him look so good and work that little bit harder. With great players around him he might not play aswell so it's too hard for me to call.

One of City's myths in a similar way to Mike Summerbee. We remember this total brilliance at times but both disappeared without trace for games on end. Kinky was our only light in very, very dark times.

I had the pleasure of watching all Kinky's home games (at least) and sometimes he just wasn't there. Ball's sole tactic - pass the ball to Kinky - didn't help matters I'm sure, but the fact is he often disappointed and you cant compare him to great, dominating midfield players. No way he'd get in this team.

But that goal he scored against Southampton/Dave Beasant was one of the best I've ever seen for sure - imagine the annual fuss if Giggs had scored it, but because it was us it's never shown of course.

john@staustell wrote:One of City's myths in a similar way to Mike Summerbee. We remember this total brilliance at times but both disappeared without trace for games on end. Kinky was our only light in very, very dark times.

I had the pleasure of watching all Kinky's home games (at least) and sometimes he just wasn't there. Ball's sole tactic - pass the ball to Kinky - didn't help matters I'm sure, but the fact is he often disappointed and you cant compare him to great, dominating midfield players. No way he'd get in this team.

But that goal he scored against Southampton/Dave Beasant was one of the best I've ever seen for sure - imagine the annual fuss if Giggs had scored it, but because it was us it's never shown of course.

He was no myth John...He just played with 10 shite players around him

Personally I think if he was around now...and in this team...his brilliance would shine through

Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...because if anything is a myth is that he was not good enough for the top level...which is bullshit

I think somehow he just slipped under the radar...which I suppose playing for us at that time...it's no wonder!

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

Good post that mate

Suppose it puts things into perspective...talent wise he probably had it...application wise...maybe not

I stand by the comment about 10 shite players though...like you said yourself...it was a relegation side and not pretty to watch

If you were Kinky and everyone was passing the ball to you to work your magic game after game...you'd probably get pissed off and disheartened too...and we must have had his best years...his City experience probably scarred him for life!

i adored that guy. was a joy to watch as a young lad.

if it was drilled into him that he needed to up his fitness and work rate then i have no doubt he would have succeded in this team today.

imo that guy didnt even fufill half of his potential because as already mentioned his mentality wasnt right. i have still never seen a better dribbler of the ball at such speed since (apart from cristiano ronaldo and messi).

it also didnt help that he was surrounded by a shower of shit.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

there was a reason liverpool, both milan teams ajax and im sure a few others were sniffing around him. he was a rare talent imo. but he just never fufilled it.

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

Good post that mate

Suppose it puts things into perspective...talent wise he probably had it...application wise...maybe not

I stand by the comment about 10 shite players though...like you said yourself...it was a relegation side and not pretty to watch

If you were Kinky and everyone was passing the ball to you to work your magic game after game...you'd probably get pissed off and disheartened too...and we must have had his best years...his City experience probably scarred him for life!

There are loads of creative midfielders who look great but sink without trace or disappear up their own arses. Juan Roman Riquelme is a good example of this. Eyal Berkovic, Paul Gascoigne and Stéphane Dalmat also should have had much more illustrious careers. These are the most exciting players but also the most enigmatic and troubled/troublesome seemingly. Kinkladze believed the hype, lost the speed of feet to complement his speed of thought, and the game left him behind. And the fact remains that we suffered two relegations in the three years he was here, whereas Berkovic and Bernabia dragged us up out of the Championship.

.[/quote]There are loads of creative midfielders who look great but sink without trace or disappear up their own arses. Juan Roman Riquelme is a good example of this. Eyal Berkovic, Paul Gascoigne and Stéphane Dalmat also should have had much more illustrious careers. These are the most exciting players but also the most enigmatic and troubled/troublesome seemingly. Kinkladze believed the hype, lost the speed of feet to complement his speed of thought, and the game left him behind. And the fact remains that we suffered two relegations in the three years he was here, whereas Berkovic and Bernabia dragged us up out of the Championship.[/quote]

goes to show that all the talent in the world cant win you a game of football unless your team are in it too, bernabia and berkovic probably had half the talent put together as kinky but grit, attitude and teamwork means id rather have them back in there prime then kinky anyday because those two would be able to play in the premiership today

Kinkladze's skill is without question. He had the best feet I have ever seen on a City pitch and like everybody else I worshipped him.
Sadly, he never added to the team. Not only at City but at any other club. He never made the whole better and it is not individuals that become successful but TEAMS.
Rodney Marsh was in the same mould, we drooled at his skill too but he too diminished the whole.
Ali Benarbia was probably the cleverst footballer I have ever seenm in a City shirt. He made players around him better players by creating space for them and passing to them at the right pace in the right places.
With Kinkladze, you played to him. With Benarbia, you played off him.
Kinkladze in this team...I have strong reservations.

Just finished reading his autobiography, its page after page of hard luck stories and what ifs.
If anyone wants the book (read once) PM me, it will cost me 76p 2nd class post UK mainland only but hey its nearly Xmas.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

wasnt he constantly played out of position at ajax?

Mike J wrote:i adored that guy. was a joy to watch as a young lad.

if it was drilled into him that he needed to up his fitness and work rate then i have no doubt he would have succeded in this team today.

imo that guy didnt even fufill half of his potential because as already mentioned his mentality wasnt right. i have still never seen a better dribbler of the ball at such speed since (apart from cristiano ronaldo and messi).

it also didnt help that he was surrounded by a shower of shit.

Got to agree with that!
He was streets ahead of any other player at the time and that is why he sometimes became anonamous!
If you produce a great product and are consistantly let down by your colleagues anyone's desire and will to succeed is diminished!
He was a genius! Way too good for the players around him who couldn't read him and more often than not failed to react to what he intended to do. he was the right player in the wrong team!

Would he get in todays side?
With the quality we now posess, players with a similar football brain and the competition amongst the current playing staff I have no doubt what so ever that Georgi would be the global superstar he should have been in the mid/late 90's had he played with players of a similar standing.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:
Never ever understood why none of the big teams picked him up...

They did though but was proved that he was not good enough for the very best teams. He went to Ajax who were challenging all of Europe at the time and failed badly.

One of the biggest reasons why he failed was the fact he was treated like a prince at Maine Road. Every wish was granted. We flew his family over to cook personal meals for him outside of what the other players ate, asked him which players we should buy and we went and got them to be his friends. His phyiscal condition was that of Elano - both cannot play 90 minutes of football and go missing for large parts of the game.

He did not have the mentality to be a top player despite having brilliant dribbling skill and was a joy to watch.

Cream always rises to the top in every walk of life, no-one goes under the radar who is truly world class. This is not the CV of a world class player.

Mretebi Tbilisi
Dinamo Tbilisi
Manchester City (106 appearances, 20 goals, 7 of which were penalties)
Ajax
Derby County
Anorthosis Famagusta
Rubin Kazan

At the age of 29 he went a year and a half without a club. He was picked up by Anorthosis cos his mate was the manager.

One thing that annoying is that we say he played with 10 bad players around him. Granted we got relegated but I do not regard these players from 1995-96 as poor players...

• Lomas
• Curle
• Flitcroft
• Quinn
• Beagrie
• Rosler

I'm right with you on the last part. This whole 'ten shit players' myth keeps getting repeated year after year. Truth is, we actually had quite decent squad back then. With any half decent manager we would've been comfortably on mid-table and good manager we would've been challenging top six imo. Our relegation was all Ball's doing. Retarded signings, lack of any sort of tactics (give it to Kinky) and his ability to uninspire formerly spirited players led to our downfall.

9secondlegend wrote:wasnt he constantly played out of position at ajax?

Yes and No. Yes in the fact he was made to play left wing/left wing back but no in the fact he only made 12 appearences for the club.

He couldn't push Jari Litmanen out of the side who was playing his natural position. As I said previously because he was not treated like royalty in the Ajax team compared with his days under Ball and Lee where he could get anything he wanted he just lost interest completely and didn't challenge Litmanen for the starting place. He got so lazy at Ajax that he was made to play with the reserves and wasn't issued with a squad number.

So for a completely fair footballing comparision Litmanen >>>>> Kinkladze