Where are they now?

[Benji]

So I was looking into the post-Cardiff exploits of the one-time fantastic goalscorer Michael Chopra. It hasn't gone so dandy for him in truth. After failing to do much of note in England he played for Sachin Tendulkar's Kerala Blasters, but didn't do much blasting under the guidance of David James. No goals in the Indian Super League, so he eventually headed back to Britain. In March, he joined Scottish Championship side Alloa, and has actually scored a goal already.

Jay Bothroyd was predictably underwhelming in an underwhelming QPR side. He then failed to recapture his form in a reunion with former boss Dave Jones. Since then he's gone on a gap year to East Asia. Scoring goals in Thailand and the Japanese Second Division.

It isn't the future I imagined for a strike partnership that was utterly deadly five or six years ago.

Another notable one is Darcy Blake, formerly touted to be a regular international for Wales, he was most recently seen literally playing for a pub team in the Valleys.

I don't know if any of that means anything of note to anyone, but Bothroyd is a full England international, so give him the respect he deserves and share some other strange and surprising careers you might not have expected.

It is close season after all.

 

[Rammy]

Giles Barnes, tipped to be an exciting player for the future whilst at Derby, and certainly worthy of the accolades now plays for Houston Dynamo in the MLS during his prime years.

He became injury prone towards the end of his Derby career, and then had failed stints at Fulham and Doncaster. Not sure he ever actually played for Fulham, but got a decent number of games in at Donny. Seems to be doing very well over in the US, but then Bradley Wright Phillips has just scored about 30 goals in a season over there...

 

[Walkley_Owl]

Jay Bothroyd is an utter prick.

 

[Costello]

Dunno why, but a name that always stuck with me is Ishmel Demontagnac, highly rated winger who came through at Walsall during our early League One days, and has seemingly amounted to absolutely nothing. Having had a quick check on wiki, he's now playing for Thurrock, and is somehow still only 26..

 

[DippyDon]

Dunno why, but a name that always stuck with me is Ishmel Demontagnac, highly rated winger who came through at Walsall during our early League One days, and has seemingly amounted to absolutely nothing. Having had a quick check on wiki, he's now playing for Thurrock, and is somehow still only 26..

Was he at Northampton in 13/14? If so then he's useless, added to a bad mentality he deserves to be that low down the pyramid

 

[markwwfc1992]

Michael Branch, was an upcoming winger for Everton and ourselves, was tipped for big things. Now he's serving 7+ years behind bars for dealing in cocaine.

We had Kevin Kyle too, he now works on some oil rig off the coast of Aberdeen

 

[Bottega Don]

Dunno why, but a name that always stuck with me is Ishmel Demontagnac, highly rated winger who came through at Walsall during our early League One days, and has seemingly amounted to absolutely nothing. Having had a quick check on wiki, he's now playing for Thurrock, and is somehow still only 26..

Try to sign him on Football Manager back when he played for Walsall but apparently the wages I was offering weren't good enough.

Bet he'd love 1.5K a week now the c***.

 

[Aaron-Bcfc]

Bas Savage tearing shit up for TOT in the Thailand Premier League. Still as prolific as ever with 3 goals in 57 games

 

[Double J]

No career has suffered a downward spiral such as Simon Whaley.

He once carried Preston North End, the man did remarkable things on a football pitch.
Costing a mere 250k from Bury, he was being touted to leave us 12 months later. Boro came in with a million pound plus offer, all the time the big clubs had scouts watching him, he was destined for big things.

In a catastrophic event, he broke his toe on a coffee table, he was never the same. Loan spells at Norwich (league 1 at the time) did nothing. What ever happened after this I'm not sure. What I do know is he was released by Chorley a couple of years back aged about 26.

Gambling ruined him, well at least that's what the rumours say. Any Preston fan who saw him play in his pompous will know how tragic this story is.

 

[TomPNE94]

Whaley was incredible on his day aye.

 

[SF_]

No career has suffered a downward spiral such as Simon Whaley.

He once carried Preston North End, the man did remarkable things on a football pitch.
Costing a mere 250k from Bury, he was being touted to leave us 12 months later. Boro came in with a million pound plus offer, all the time the big clubs had scouts watching him, he was destined for big things.

In a catastrophic event, he broke his toe on a coffee table, he was never the same. Loan spells at Norwich (league 1 at the time) did nothing. What ever happened after this I'm not sure. What I do know is he was released by Chorley a couple of years back aged about 26.

Gambling ruined him, well at least that's what the rumours say. Any Preston fan who saw him play in his pompous will know how tragic this story is.

Swap coffee table with roulette table....and yeah, he was fucking great.

 

[HarvSFC]

Giles Barnes, tipped to be an exciting player for the future whilst at Derby, and certainly worthy of the accolades now plays for Houston Dynamo in the MLS during his prime years.

He became injury prone towards the end of his Derby career, and then had failed stints at Fulham and Doncaster. Not sure he ever actually played for Fulham, but got a decent number of games in at Donny. Seems to be doing very well over in the US, but then Bradley Wright Phillips has just scored about 30 goals in a season over there...

He's currently playing for Jamaica in the Copa America.