Jump to content

Worst signing that worked out best


kwsaint

Recommended Posts

With all the transfer speculation at the moment, what was the signing that we all thought was crazy at the time that worked out best.

 

In recent times, Peter Crouch for me. Turned out to be a far better player than he was ever given credit for.

 

Discuss

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Marsden.....couldn't get on the bench in the division below us and became a hero in the league above..... you can close the thread now.

 

Have to agree with Marsden - from meh to fans favourite.

 

Also Gerry Forrest - came from Rotherham I think and was a class right back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Likewise Ricardo Fuller.

Neither he nor Viafara were any bloody good for us. If they had had a love child with Viafara's attitude & Fuller's potential ability he might have been good, but as it was, one was a headless chicken and the other only played when he fancied it and was more interested in diving than shooting

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With all the transfer speculation at the moment, what was the signing that we all thought was crazy at the time that worked out best. In recent times, Peter Crouch for me. Turned out to be a far better player than he was ever given credit for. Discuss

 

If you read the headline again .. it goes without saying ..ALI DIA ......! (the good part was... he disappeared the next day ..never to be seen again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul Williams did a hell of a job considering... though I suspect passing off Telfer as a success story might be a little too much for most on here...

 

How about James Beattie, did anyone expect anything from him when we signed him ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to say that James Beattie was written off immediately after he signed, including famously by Saintsforever's Keith Legg who saw no future for Beatts. Surprisingly I believe Saints ended up getting the very best out of him including a good transfer fee,.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jimmy Case. Purchased at the "end the end of his career" for about £50k.

 

Absolute club legend and only ousted by that no-mark Branfoot.

 

Agree. Actually I think the fee was c £20,000, which also underlined at the time that we were getting a bloke who had already been 'pensioned off'.

 

Frank Worthington is another candidate. Pretty uninspiring for the first couple of months, but January - April* he was superb (1983/4) in our cup run,and run to finish second.

 

* of course it should have been to May,but I think he had a fall out with Lawrie, or Lawrie decided to run with the youngsters for next season , and Frankie was out of favour. Great shame we had not signed him c1979/80 to play in our great one touch team with Channon,Ball, and KK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carlton Palmer. Whenever I saw him before he signed for us he was absolute rubbish. After he signed for us he was amazing. I remember slating him on Saintslist and having to eat my words.

 

He was amazing for the first season I agree,but in his second season I think he lived up to the lazy p!ss poor attitude that many had expected. Why ? Don't know, but word at the time was Mark Hughes influence in the dressing room had caused major unrest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I throw into the hat an unknown "bloody foreigner"

 

Ivan Golac

 

But agree with Case & Marsden.

 

But to show HOW good Carlton Palmer (surprisingly) turned out for us was that he was being mentioned as being worth a return to the England World Cup Squad by some commentators.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul Williams did a hell of a job considering... though I suspect passing off Telfer as a success story might be a little too much for most on here...

 

How about James Beattie, did anyone expect anything from him when we signed him ?

 

He had many detractors who couldn't see what he contributed to the team Strange, for what many considered to be a pile of steaming whatsit, he was the fittest and fastest player in the squad at the time (WGS comment) plus he was always picked by the manager. Willo had damn big boots to fill, but he certainly pulled it off. (nice he is still with us).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He had many detractors who couldn't see what he contributed to the team Strange, for what many considered to be a pile of steaming whatsit, he was the fittest and fastest player in the squad at the time (WGS comment) plus he was always picked by the manager. Willo had damn big boots to fill, but he certainly pulled it off. (nice he is still with us).

 

I always liked Telf. A cog in the machine, he would have thrown himself into hell for his club. He struck me as a scapegoat during a time when the rest of the team could have learned a great deal by following his example.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crouch. I remember meeting some Villa fans on Saints pre-season tour in Sweden in 2004 and saying 'thanks for unloading that lanky piece of **** on to us'. One of the Villa fans said 'He'll do really well for you. Head like a 50p but quite good with the ball at his feet. The complete opposite of what you'd expect.' He was absolutely spot on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mickey Evans was brought in to try and save us from relegation. People were furious as he was from a lower league team but he ended up getting some vital goals in our run in that saved us, particularly the one he got up a Forest and another where he damn near knocked himself out after colliding with a post as he headed it in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Marsden & Telfer for me.

 

The former speaks for itself (I think we were all dissapointed when he signed & he turned out to be one of the first names on the teamsheet) but I'd also pick Telfer. OK he never showed any special moments (other that managing to con the ref & the linesman that the ball hadn't gone out for a throw against WBA (I think) from which BT scored 3 seconds later), but he was a workhorse who always stuck to the instructions WGS gave him (even when the rest of the team were falling apart - the 2-2 away to Fulham game was an example, 2-0 down and Telfer was the only player actually sticking to the game plan - I even think WGS mentioned that fact if I recall right - or did I just make that up?).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul Jones (didn't we have Maik Taylor beforehand?)

 

Similarly, Niemi when there was no apparent need to replace Jones.

 

Claus Lundekvam (such an underwhelming signing, no one noticed)

 

Agree on Beattie being a shock success (wasn't he the makeweight in Kevin Davies going the other way?)

 

Also, what about Brett Ormerod?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul Jones (didn't we have Maik Taylor beforehand?)

 

Similarly, Niemi when there was no apparent need to replace Jones.

 

Claus Lundekvam (such an underwhelming signing, no one noticed)

 

Agree on Beattie being a shock success (wasn't he the makeweight in Kevin Davies going the other way?)

 

Also, what about Brett Ormerod?

 

Would disagree on that one.

 

Brett had a great scoring record up at Blackpool. He had scored 20 goals in 27 games in 01/02 and 27 in 49 the season before.

 

4 other PL clubs were in for him at over 1mil.

 

If anything I would say that he "disappointed me".

 

Of course he was a fantastic TEAM player, (and would always have been first name on my team sheet) but once he joined us his goal scoring dried up - 1 goal (on his debut) in 18 matches in his first season. We thought we'd bought a player who would get 15/20 goals a season and we got 11 League goals in 98 appearances...

 

 

(note again, this doesn't mean that I do not think he was a great player, just I thought we'd bought a natural goal scorer and he wasn't)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CMFG is clearly on the list as number 1, but I would also give an honourable mention to Ostenstad.

 

I remember both him and Flo were linked with us, and when we did not get Flo I thought we had signed nothing but the Norwegian also ran - At the same time Nevland and Solskjaer had gone to Manure too..

 

He turned out superb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree. Actually I think the fee was c £20,000, which also underlined at the time that we were getting a bloke who had already been 'pensioned off'. QUOTE]

 

In that Number states ....£30,000, but whatever it was it was money well spent. Only a fraction of his value...if you consider he was 7 seasons with us, and would have been more if Branfoot hadn't ****ed up , and got rid of him.!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...