Hands up - players you've wrongly written off

[PeterWithesShin]

Ugo's home debut v Norwich.

Which wasn't his debut. Home or away.

[onje_villa]

Has to be Delph. But as others have said it's not that the criticism was undue. Some players have literally transformed from very poor at this level to being one of the best. Huge credit to Delph for that.

I have to say Delph still has the look of a disaster waiting to happen, his touch can be so poor and he never really looks to have the ball in control but he just plays his own way, maybe that is what other teams are finding hard about playing him, the only other player he's similar too is Yaya (different level obviously). His energy and commitment though are fantastic and he is the driving force behind the team and quite rightly captain.

[Damo70]

My son has always been Delph's biggest critic whereas I usually stood up for Delph to an extent. He hasn't conceded he was wrong as yet, but I think that is just his pride.

[PeterWithesShin]

A few years ago I was one of the very few on here standing up for Delph and saying there was a player there! /smugmode

Mind you, I said similar about Herd. /oooopsmode

[onje_villa]

I'll be honest and say I thought he was possibly one of the worst players in the league. I still think he was! Different gravy now...

[john2710]

Delph was always a real player in the making, it's just that managers / injuries & his own enthusiasm held things up for a while.

Clark / Baker have improved, Bacuna too, but I'd still be cautious on the last two.

Ashley Young in his first dozen or so games looked average at best.

[garyshawsknee]

I thought Baker was out of his depth, and just thought Cleverley was crap. Been happy to have been proven wrong, again.

[PeterWithesShin]

I think folks got sick of me posting this and saying anyone who can do this at 18 or 19, even at league one level, has something about them.

And as I always said at the time, mute the sound!

[SX150]

Always thought Delph was special but Cleverley I wrote off. Some of the games I saw him he looked like he had never kicked a ball before never mind playing for England.

[supertom]

A few people wrote Benteke off in his early days here. Plus a few were less than excited about his purchase, and I recall one of our Belgian fans, having seen plenty of him, declaring he wouldn't make it at this level. Now that is all kinds of wrong.

Personally I too wrote off Baker and Clark, as well as Hutton. More recently Cleverley. It's remarkable the transformation that Cleverley has had under Sherwood. He'll be back in the England set up before long.

[darren woolley]

Cleverley but I'm glad I was wrong.

[not3bad]

Cleverley and N'Zogbia.

EDIT: and Alan Hutton

[Steve67]

I think Nathan Baker might make it at Villa. Big lad, fairly quick, seems to be less error prone these days.

[olaftab]

Cleverley but I'm glad I was wrong.

I remember you have made some very harsh comments about him.

[eamonn]

The u-turn on Hutton has been the most amusing to witness on here.

Until this season he was one of the worst, dirtiest players to have ever played for us and the sooner he was taken off the payroll on £45k a week or whatever, the better. After that crucial winner in front of the Holte against Leicester before Christmas everyone wanted his bald Scottish babbies.