The Retro-Football Corner

Flipper the Priest said:
I hate to say because I have some affection for him, but I don't think he would've cut it consistently at the very top end. I saw him in the flesh about 10 times for Celtic and even then, over that time, in that weaker league he was inconsistent. But when he was good, he was very good.

At the same time, Aiden McGeady (who I have zero affection for) was a far more effective player. To use another player's career as a point of reference.
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I kindly disagree; his impact was second to none at Celtic as he created space and scoring opportunities for his teammates, let alone his scoring frenzies.

To have drawn interest from Real Madrid in 2002 is no joke as he was already a J. League MVP and part of the best X of the 2000 Asian Cup along Nanami. We are talking about a player that, if it wasn't for the undeveloped state of Japanese football in the 90s, would have most certainly made the jump to Europe much sooner like Kubo or Kagawa did.
As for his potential, it slowly vanished when he signed for Reggina, a team that just got promoted to Serie A without many expectations of surviving. At the time, Italy was the pinnacle of football and Nakamura's safest best was to sign for a better team. Either way, he did what he could with a bad team and given a better squad, like Venegoor of Hesselink, Boruc, Hartson, Thompson and others, his overall play would be better. By the time Celtic got him he was 26 and slightly injury-prone already; considering this, Nakamura's adaptation to a tougher, rougher league like Scotland went nicely.

I don't think he would have been a starter for Arsenal or Liverpool either but he could have made that jump at his peak. In retrospective, his career got hurt because Japan wasn't trusted as a valuable footballing market yet his time in Europe helped to develop Japan's reputation overseas; nowadays players like Kubo have benefitted from the path that pioneers like Hide Nakata, Nakamura, Inamoto, Takahara and Koji Nakata did 15-20 years earlier.

Too much text 😅
 
The debate of who is the greatest modern Japanese player of all time is really interesting.

Even though IMHO I think Shinji Kagawa lays claim to the #1 spot, players like Nakamura, Nakata, Shinji Ono, Shinji Okazaki, Kaz Miura and Keisuke Honda make this a very interesting topic. :)

Then again, I'm not a stats guru, so my inclusion of Kagawa as the #1 is merely observational. Nakata retired too early, but he was a pioneer, Nakamura's prime was really bright, and Miura and Ono's longevity were amazing!!

In terms of charisma alone, Ono was my favorite! :BSCARF:
 
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Masami Ihara, Guy Ramos, Yasuhiko Okudera and Kunishige Kamamoto deserve some shouts as well.
 
Flipper the Priest said:
I hate to say because I have some affection for him, but I don't think he would've cut it consistently at the very top end. I saw him in the flesh about 10 times for Celtic and even then, over that time, in that weaker league he was inconsistent. But when he was good, he was very good.

At the same time, Aiden McGeady (who I have zero affection for) was a far more effective player. To use another player's career as a point of reference.
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I feel McGeady at Celtic was similar to Naka. Brilliance in top form, but plenty games he went missing. Spartak, Everton and Sunderland, he never stood out as this superstar he was touted to be, and his career just kind of fizzled. Patrick Roberts too, similar for Celtic in terms of the fans loved him, wanted him back, but he never really did anything outside of that.

Bringing it back to Naka, his Espanyol spell maybe gives a flavour of him in the EPL. A similar league I'd say, and ultimately, he wasn't even there that long before returning to YFM. There's never been a Celtic wide man who was consistently top form, so if you judge by others in the team over the years, Naka was one of the better players.
 
millossobek said:
The debate of who is the greatest modern Japanese player of all time is really interesting.

Even though IMHO I think Shinji Kagawa lays claim to the #1 spot, players like Nakamura, Nakata, Shinji Ono, Shinji Okazaki, Kaz Miura and Keisuke Honda make this a very interesting topic. :)

Then again, I'm not a stats guru, so my inclusion of Kagawa as the #1 is merely observational. Nakata retired too early, but he was a pioneer, Nakamura's prime was really bright, and Miura and Ono's longevity were amazing!!

In terms of charisma alone, Ono was my favorite! :BSCARF:
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Are we going by pure stats, or overall ability? As I feel Inamoto should be in contention also. Defensively, the likes of Maya Yoshida and Yuto Nakazawa are seen as big names, not to mention the man himself Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. Naohiro Takahara possibly up there as well, as a cult hero if you will.

GK, either Kawaguchi or Narazaki as the obvious favourites from when PES ruled the waves
 
FC Bayern said:
I feel McGeady at Celtic was similar to Naka. Brilliance in top form, but plenty games he went missing. Spartak, Everton and Sunderland, he never stood out as this superstar he was touted to be, and his career just kind of fizzled. Patrick Roberts too, similar for Celtic in terms of the fans loved him, wanted him back, but he never really did anything outside of that.

Bringing it back to Naka, his Espanyol spell maybe gives a flavour of him in the EPL. A similar league I'd say, and ultimately, he wasn't even there that long before returning to YFM. There's never been a Celtic wide man who was consistently top form, so if you judge by others in the team over the years, Naka was one of the better players.
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I'll clarify that I think Nakamura was outstanding at Celtic. I would've said McGeady was more consistent over a season and offered a far greater threat in any given game. This is regarding their respective spells in Scotland only.

Patrick Roberts was great for Celtic but at that time they were strolling everything. With Rangers in disarray it was absolutely right that they won everything in sight, and in style. Roberts was a big part of that but he was so flimsy.

As much as I'll defend it, you have to take Scottish football with a pinch of salt. The chasm is so wide. Celtic and Rangers should win every game.

Edit: just remembered this video exists, which illustrates the point well. Apart from Hearts spending money they didn't have, it was probably even more imbalanced 15-20 years ago.

 
Flipper the Priest said:
Patrick Roberts was great for Celtic but at that time they were strolling everything. With Rangers in disarray it was absolutely right that they won everything in sight, and in style. Roberts was a big part of that but he was so flimsy.
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FM 14-15 legend, may I add.
 
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