Shearer on Juninho

I get the dig at Boro as a town, from someone not from here, even just comparing it to "the North" it's not as good as Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, York etc, but none of those are towns, and I don't class many of them as "the proper North". Sunderland is a City, probably the worst I've been to anywhere in the UK, but I'm sure there are probably some decent areas which I don't know about.

But when you compare Boro to the other local towns within 50 miles it's not worse, I would say it is probably better.

I don't mind Boro for a night out, and as a general area to live it's good for quite a lot of things, in close proximity, and of course it's cheap.

Of his players list, I'll give him Aguero, on a par with Juninho, but that's about it. Interesting that he mentioned some "non attacking" players in his list, most tend to forget about those, but you can't win without them, and they can have even more of an impact for their teams.

A player who came second as player of the year (should have won it), from a team which went down, is unbelievable, don't think anyone has been near doing that since? Says a lot.

Juninho's peak level was above all on that list in my opinion, but if we're honest, he didn't maintain that level for long, and when he won a trophy he was nowhere near his best.

I can understand why Juninho gets overlooked, for a number of reasons, but we all know how good he was, and that's all that matters to me.

We all know if Juninho had not gotten injured, or had played for Man Utd or someone decent then he would have had a long career at the very, very top, but it takes luck to make most of the all time great lists, you need to avoid injury, have the long career and play for the best teams.

Trophies aren't a measure of how a good a player is, that's a combined measure of how good those playing with him are, and how good the funding and the manager are.
 
I get the dig at Boro as a town, from someone not from here, even just comparing it to "the North" it's not as good as Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, York etc, but none of those are towns, and I don't class many of them as "the proper North". Sunderland is a City, probably the worst I've been to anywhere in the UK, but I'm sure there are probably some decent areas which I don't know about.

But when you compare Boro to the other local towns within 50 miles it's not worse, I would say it is probably better.

I don't mind Boro for a night out, and as a general area to live it's good for quite a lot of things, in close proximity, and of course it's cheap.

Of his players list, I'll give him Aguero, on a par with Juninho, but that's about it. Interesting that he mentioned some "non attacking" players in his list, most tend to forget about those, but you can't win without them, and they can have even more of an impact for their teams.

A player who came second as player of the year (should have won it), from a team which went down, is unbelievable, don't think anyone has been near doing that since? Says a lot.

Juninho's peak level was above all on that list in my opinion, but if we're honest, he didn't maintain that level for long, and when he won a trophy he was nowhere near his best.

I can understand why Juninho gets overlooked, for a number of reasons, but we all know how good he was, and that's all that matters to me.

We all know if Juninho had not gotten injured, or had played for Man Utd or someone decent then he would have had a long career at the very, very top, but it takes luck to make most of the all time great lists, you need to avoid injury, have the long career and play for the best teams.

Trophies aren't a measure of how a good a player is, that's a combined measure of how good those playing with him are, and how good the funding and the manager are.
I think that's a little rose tinted to be honest. Suarez nearly dragged Liverpool to a title. Fernandinho has won several leagues with Man City as an integral player. Tevez similar. Poyet shouldn't even be in that list let alone above Juninho.
 
He won player of the year. It was the football writers award that he came second to Zola for.
There's a few different ones isn't there? Didn't he win Carling player of the year, which I think was the sponsor of prem player of the year, but not the players player or writers player?
 
I think that's a little rose tinted to be honest. Suarez nearly dragged Liverpool to a title. Fernandinho has won several leagues with Man City as an integral player. Tevez similar. Poyet shouldn't even be in that list let alone above Juninho.
Nah, I don't think 96-97 is, his level then was incredible and I would say above the others "peak", but for the other years in his second/ third spells he was well behind, which I mentioned. Suarez and Fernadinho weren't dragging along 10 other players. Juninho didn't have much with him when Emerson's form dropped and Rav didn't fancy it, and Juninho was often man/ double marked, as everyone knew that was all we had.

Suarez and Fernandinho had the benefit of playing with a hell of a lot of other good players, and also got a hell of a lot more of the ball and more airtime. I think had Juninho been in a better side, even top 4, without the injury, he would have been held in even higher regard.

The others didn't have to play with Stamp, Mustoe, Moore, Hignett, Beck, Fleming, Whelan (Phil), Vickers, Whyte etc, not digging any of those, but none of them would have got in a top half side.

The thing is though, he did get injured and didn't play for a top side, but that's just unlucky. Doesn't make he pre-injury level worse, and I'm not saying he was near that level again, as he wasn't.
 
For me, it's even more incredible what Juninho did. He was playing with lesser players than most on this list. Imagine him in the Man City team alongside Silva delivering the bullets for Aguero?!
 
For me, it's even more incredible what Juninho did. He was playing with lesser players than most on this list. Imagine him in the Man City team alongside Silva delivering the bullets for Aguero?!
I kind of wish Juninho had gone to another Prem team, rather than abroad, so more could have seen what we seen.

It would have been horrible too mind, like watching the the one that got away, shafting some other bloke :LOL:

Most other Premier League fans, probably only saw him in 3-5 games, half f which we took a beating in, or our "highlights" of which were quite limited in 96/97.
 
I kind of wish Juninho had gone to another Prem team, rather than abroad, so more could have seen what we seen.

It would have been horrible too mind, like watching the the one that got away, shafting some other bloke :LOL:

Most other Premier League fans, probably only saw him in 3-5 games, half f which we took a beating in, or our "highlights" of which were quite limited in 96/97.

Yeah, I couldn't bear watching him playing against us!

I was at the Old Trafford 3-3 game and sat in the Stretford end (went with a work colleague) and he tore them apart. The fans around us couldn't believe what they were watching and all their big guns were on the pitch that day. The word was, after the game Fergie belted upstairs to tell Martin Edwards that they should move heaven and earth to sign him.

The kid was special... and he was ours!

Quid edit! I was in San Paolo in around 98/99 and got talking to the taxi driver who took me to the hotel. As soon I told him who I supported he gushed about Juninho for the rest of the journey and wouldn't take money from me. He said Juninho was a god to San Paolo fans!!
 
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I was at the Old Trafford 3-3 game and sat in the Stretford end (went with a work colleague) and he tore them apart. The fans around us couldn't believe what they were watching and all their big guns were on the pitch that day. The word was, after the game Fergie belted upstairs to tell Martin Edwards that they should move heaven and earth to sign him.
I remember that game, I think Juninho got like 86% for the MOM votes on Sky, and Andy Gray asked what game the other 14% had been watching :LOL:
 
I remember that game, I think Juninho got like 86% for the MOM votes on Sky, and Andy Gray asked what game the other 14% had been watching :LOL:

Ha! Remember that. I felt so proud being a Boro fan that day and for all their fans to see what I'd been seeing. They couldn't cope with him that day. If only we'd held out to win it... who knows!!
 
Nah, I don't think 96-97 is, his level then was incredible and I would say above the others "peak", but for the other years in his second/ third spells he was well behind, which I mentioned. Suarez and Fernadinho weren't dragging along 10 other players. Juninho didn't have much with him when Emerson's form dropped and Rav didn't fancy it, and Juninho was often man/ double marked, as everyone knew that was all we had.

Suarez and Fernandinho had the benefit of playing with a hell of a lot of other good players, and also got a hell of a lot more of the ball and more airtime. I think had Juninho been in a better side, even top 4, without the injury, he would have been held in even higher regard.

The others didn't have to play with Stamp, Mustoe, Moore, Hignett, Beck, Fleming, Whelan (Phil), Vickers, Whyte etc, not digging any of those, but none of them would have got in a top half side.

The thing is though, he did get injured and didn't play for a top side, but that's just unlucky. Doesn't make he pre-injury level worse, and I'm not saying he was near that level again, as he wasn't.
We still went down though.
 
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