Stephen Maguire...a great future gone?

Lets rewind to the year of 2004, when an exciting young Scottish player was raising more the one eyebrow, being lauded with praise from some of snooker's most influential names and even being touted as the game's next dominant player.

February 2004
Scotland's Stephen Maguire wins his first ranking tournament after hammering Jimmy White 9-3 in the final of snooker's European Open. He also topple John Higgins and Stephen Lee on his way to the title.

April 2004
Maguire loses 10-6 to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but the bigger picture is hidden by the scoreline. Maguire played some excellent, positive snooker and this was the match where he really arrived on the scene.

Ronnie: "Stephen is an excellent player and will win this some day, maybe even two or three times. Of the young players, definitely the best."

October 2004
At the British Open he plays some outstandingly good snooker to hammer Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1. Loses final to John Higgins 9-6

Ronnie: "I've never seen anything like that on a snooker table before. I think he's the best player in the world right now"

John: "Ronnie says he's one of the best young players, but he's one of the best full stop really"

November 2004
Plays exceptionally well on his way to winning the UK Championship, snooker's second biggest prize. Beats Ronnie 9-6, Davis 9-2, Lee 9-5, King 9-5 before topping off a brilliant tournament with a 10-1 mauling of David Gray.

Ronnie: "I played better today than I did on the way to winning the Grand Prix or reaching the semi-finals of the British Open, and I still lost 9-6. He could rule the game for the next ten years"

Steve Davis: "The way he strikes the ball is ridiculously good. He's inspired."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fast forward to present day. The 14th of September 2009

Maguire is ranked 7th provisionally (albeit 2nd officially). He cuts a moody figure on-table and is much-maligned by many fans. He has had some success, but in 5 years has only added two more ranking titles to his tally, hardly the kind of dominance some were expecting. He is also yet to reach a World Championship final.

Is Maguire in danger of becoming another example of unfulfilled talent, in a game littered with underachievers?

Some people don't like him. And most don't consider him anywhere near as good as the like of Ronnie, Higgins and maybe even Selby and Murphy.

Bet let's remeber one thing. When he was playing so well in 2004, there was a great buzz around him. He was playing some genuinely great snooker and it lit up the sport for a while. People have short memories, but we all know what he's capable of from those heady days.

He's far from over the hill. Form is temporary, class is permanent. But is he in danger of becoming just another player?

His problem is that he beats himself too often. As soon as he starts banging his cue and shaking his head it sends out all the wrong signals to his opponent and that's been his undoing in a lot of big matches. Also the emphasis he puts on being World Champion although understandable because it's what they all want, seems to heap extra pressure on him when he's at the Crucible and in recent times he's played at below 50% of his normal level just because he puts so much pressure on himself.

I think if he were going to ever dominate, then he would be doing so by now. He's always a dangerous opponent for any player, but I don't usually fancy him against the top top players in big matches and those are the matches you have to win to win the big titles.

there has been to many ifs and buts surrounding Maguire that he is fast becoming a has been before he really got there.

a fantastic talent but his temperament is his downfall like so many other of todays top players Carter,Day and Ding to name just three.