As football fans, we are subjected routinely to the same transfer speculation routine.
First we hear a tenuous link between our club and a random player. Usually the player will be from a far flung country playing in an obscure league for a team we can barely pronounce. But as devout followers of our club, we feel a special need to research the link as much as possible. We stop short of flying over to catch an away game in the Slovenian Prva Liga, yet we have to have our curiosity satiated somehow.
That's where the football highlight video comes in. Some of you may know of the football highlights merchant that is Scout Nation. The Youtube account has over half a million subscribers and his channel has dozens of videos of up and coming footballers' highlight reels.
So the football fan watches these 'Welcome To Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea vids' and is instantly filled with false hope and ill founded expectation. You go around telling your mates about how the new signing is the next Edin Hazard, and is going to take the Premier League by storm.
Unfortunately, these slickly edited showreels can often successfully polish a turd. And not only have your club spent a fortune on some numpty, but you look the right eejit!
Here is a tribute to the nine football highlight videos that really pulled the wool over our eyes.
1. Bebe
Bebe is one of the first names that springs to mind when you think overhyped footballer. The Brazilian signed by Alex Ferguson was found out at the highest level. The Scotsman even admitted to never watching the hulking striker play but many United fans sure did, drooling over some badly edited pixelated footage of the striker playing in some match for Vitória de Guimarães.
2. Oussama Assaidi
Billed as a tricky winger in the mold of a Hazard or Sanchez, Assaidi spectacularly failed to light up the Premier League, living on the periphery of the Brendan Rodgers era. You would've thought he was a world beater from this footage though.
3. Yaya Sanogo
Signed by Arsene Wenger from Auxerre in the hopes of emulating such strikers as Nwankwo Kanu and Emanuel Adebayor. It wasn't to be for the Frenchman. The Scout Nation curse strikes again.
4. Ryan Gauld
The Baby Messi had to deal with a sickening amount of hype. The Scotsman moved from Dundee to Sporting Lisbon to escape the hype of the British media and his star has faded somewhat although the midfielder still has plenty of time to justify the initial Scout Nation special.
5. Adama Traore
Adama Traore is a prime example of the football highlight video getting out of hand. The youngster has lightning quick pace which when you're playing for Barcelona's second team makes you a world beater but as has been shown in his performances for Aston Villa and Middlesbrough a degree of guile and footballing intelligence is also necessary. Watch how this highlight video papers over his cracks.
6. Ricardo Quaresma
The tricky winger has had quite the career and his Youtube compilations would have you think he should be in the top five players in the world. Quaresma is a phenomenally talented footballer, yet his temperament and workrate meant that he really underachieved as a player. Ricardo Quaresma was made for football highlight videos.
7. Freddy Adu
Fredua Koranteng Adu was the archetype of the hyped up footballer. There have been epic poems written about Edu's potential. The American was supposedly US soccer's great shining light and his highlight videos did nothing to assuage these expectations. He now plays for the brilliantly named Tampa Bay Rowdies.
8. Ryan Babel
Ryan Babel arrived at Liverpool under the heavy tag of the next Thierry Henry. The comparisons were there, tall athletic and tricky. Babel never lived up to the potential and although netting 22 goals for the club he never reached the heights his football highlight videos had promised.
9. Ricky Van Wolfswinkel
Ricky Van Wolfswinkel should have been a legend. He had it all: brilliant name, free scoring in (albeit) the Dutch league, and a killer highlights reel. Van Wolfswinkel arrived at Norwich on the back of several promising hype videos. Things didn't go to plan for the striker and he only mustered two goals in three years at Carrow Road.
