Just how highly Juninho is regarded.

I was stopped outside the ground on many occasions by supporters of other teams, they all said that TLF was a very special player.
I was having a beer with two Everton supporters after we had played them, they said he was among the best they had seen anywhere.
Anyone who loves football always appreciates players of that calibre, irrespective of who they play for!
 
TheBlueButterfly said:
I'm sure I'm right in saying that Neymar was hyped from being a young lad so most had heard of him when Barca signed him, Juninho was largely unheard of until that Umbro Cup at Wembley?

Loved Emerson too. Especially those two crackers away to Sunderland.
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Different era mate differing media exposure now you can watch Santos as easy as you watch south end. Back then you couldn’t so no one watched São Paulo that’s why.
 
Jostler said:
He looks like he’s auditioning for a role in antiques roadshow on that second pic.

My absolute hero when I was growing up, it still makes me sad he never got to represent us in Europe
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A tell ya what chap - I`de love to have some more antiques like that (y)
Unfortunately, the quality of our players today are more a car-boot sale or a lucky-dip bran-tub.
If we had someone who was half as good as him - able to dribble with the ball, move, take players on and beat them.........
At least we`ve got Michael Smith from Rotherham on the raydar! :love:;)(y)
 
I remember having a few beers with a couple of Brazilian football fans about 10 years ago and we got talking about Juninho.

I asked them about how he's viewed in Brazil and they said he is really highly rated over there. They knew all about his time with us and said the signing was quite big news in Brazil at the time.

One other thing they said was that for France 98' the plan was to build the team around Juninho and Ronaldo, he said that before the injury Juninho was viewed as the first choice number 10 for Brazil.

Bringing up his stats in 2002 is missing the point completely, he wasn't the same player after his injury. In 1997 I think he could have played for any team in the world he was that good.
 
zorro_mfc said:
My point was mainly at atypical
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Juninho was an excellent player. No one has ever disputed this.

I don’t try to play him down. But I cringe when fans of other clubs can’t be objective about their own players.

Juninho was great for one season, arguably the best in his position, but he wasn’t consistently one of the best players in the PL beyond that. Some Boro fans say he was the best player in the world for a time, I disagree with that and I’m not going to say he was just because he played for Boro. He wasn’t anywhere close to R9 and a handful of other players.

He was better than Kinkladze and Zola that season, neither of which were anywhere close to being the best players in the world. Nowhere near.
 
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Uwefuchs said:
I remember having a few beers with a couple of Brazilian football fans about 10 years ago and we got talking about Juninho.

I asked them about how he's viewed in Brazil and they said he is really highly rated over there. They knew all about his time with us and said the signing was quite big news in Brazil at the time.

One other thing they said was that for France 98' the plan was to build the team around Juninho and Ronaldo, he said that before the injury Juninho was viewed as the first choice number 10 for Brazil.

Bringing up his stats in 2002 is missing the point completely, he wasn't the same player after his injury. In 1997 I think he could have played for any team in the world he was that good.
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Firstly I very much doubt a couple of brazillians would know what the plans for the nation team were, though I don't doubt your story. In 96, 2 years before his injury Brazil had a fair number of fixtures and Juninho figured in none of them. It doesn't look like in 98 they were planning on building the team around him. By 98 Rivaldo was Brazil's first choice number 10 and remained so.

No one is saying Juninho wasn't a special player, he obviously was.
 
Laughing said:
Firstly I very much doubt a couple of brazillians would know what the plans for the nation team were, though I don't doubt your story. In 96, 2 years before his injury Brazil had a fair number of fixtures and Juninho figured in none of them. It doesn't look like in 98 they were planning on building the team around him. By 98 Rivaldo was Brazil's first choice number 10 and remained so.

No one is saying Juninho wasn't a special player, he obviously was.
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No they were just giving an opinion just like you and me are.

Your opinions don't make you an expert on the Brazilian national team either.
 
Uwefuchs said:
No they were just giving an opinion just like you and me are.

Your opinions don't make you an expert on the Brazilian national team either.
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No of couse they don't, but I did look at appearances for the respective players and my opinions are based on that, and that alone.
 
Laughing said:
No of couse they don't, but I did look at appearances for the respective players and my opinions are based on that, and that alone.
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I think I'll pay more attention to a couple of Brazilian football fans talking about their own national team than a lad from Middlesbrough trying to win an argument on the Internet 23 years later. 👍🏻
 
Uwefuchs said:
I think I'll pay more attention to a couple of Brazilian football fans talking about their own national team than a lad from Middlesbrough trying to win an argument on the Internet 23 years later. 👍🏻
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Off you go then, I wouldn't waste your time on opinioned debate though, it's wasted on you.
 
Well for me he`s in the top 10 of Brazilians to wear the No10 shirt and also the best player I will see wear a Middlesbrough FC shirt

I don`t know if he was best in the world but he would have deffo got into a World 11 at the time......in my opinion of course
 
I think if we are honest he was a great player but we do overplay how good he was. For me he sits just outside the top echelons of great players to have graced the premiership. You wouldn’t find him in any top ten lists of great premier league players, not even top 20.

he’s a legend to us and always will be rightly so but take off the MFC glasses and there are numerous players ahead of him.

edit: a quick look on the internet and we see he just makes the top 100.

www.sportbible.com

The Greatest Players In Premier League History Ranked From 1-100

There has been so much talent in the Premier League since its inception in 1992.
www.sportbible.com www.sportbible.com
 
FatCat said:
I think if we are honest he was a great player but we do overplay how good he was. For me he sits just outside the top echelons of great players to have graced the premiership. You wouldn’t find him in any top ten lists of great premier league players, not even top 20.

he’s a legend to us and always will be rightly so but take off the MFC glasses and there are numerous players ahead of him.

edit: a quick look on the internet and we see he just makes the top 100.

www.sportbible.com

The Greatest Players In Premier League History Ranked From 1-100

There has been so much talent in the Premier League since its inception in 1992.
www.sportbible.com www.sportbible.com
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Well I respect your opinion but I do disagree . I’m only thinking back to those first days and I went to pretty much every match home and away and every game I went to and chatted to opposition fans in the pubs before/after the matches , many talked about him and how they were looking forward to seeing him . I was immensely proud of him and still are .
There are other ratings from the prem forums that all mention him perhaps not 10 but deffo up there . My opinion of course
 
FatCat said:
I think if we are honest he was a great player but we do overplay how good he was. For me he sits just outside the top echelons of great players to have graced the premiership. You wouldn’t find him in any top ten lists of great premier league players, not even top 20.

he’s a legend to us and always will be rightly so but take off the MFC glasses and there are numerous players ahead of him.

edit: a quick look on the internet and we see he just makes the top 100.

www.sportbible.com

The Greatest Players In Premier League History Ranked From 1-100

There has been so much talent in the Premier League since its inception in 1992.
www.sportbible.com www.sportbible.com
Click to expand...
Good post. This is my point really. He was wonderful for us (in a poor season in the league) but it was only one season that ended badly. Looking at that list there are few players he deserves to be in ahead of. The main thing is that he only achieved his “best” for that one season. Most top PL players did it for a sustained period.
 
Borobarmy said:
Well I respect your opinion but I do disagree . I’m only thinking back to those first days and I went to pretty much every match home and away and every game I went to and chatted to opposition fans in the pubs before/after the matches , many talked about him and how they were looking forward to seeing him . I was immensely proud of him and still are .
There are other ratings from the prem forums that all mention him perhaps not 10 but deffo up there . My opinion of course
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They indeed were special times and it had the whole country looking at us with envy no doubt. As per my original post I wouldn’t have him as low as the rating I put up it was just the first one I found.
 
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