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Who is the player who you had the highest hopes for only to be a flop?


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Seeing all the links flying around about Spanish midfielders such as Verdu and Banega made me think about our former midfield maestro, Inigo Idiakez, and how I had such big hopes that he could be the creative, goal scoring driving force our midfield needed to take us back to the Prem only to fall well short of that and then even miss a crucial shoot out spot kick.

 

This in turn made me think who are the players other forum users had the highest hopes for only for them to fall well below that expectation. I guess Delgado and Skacel could be both up there for some and Gaston hasn't justified that £12m fee yet and maybe even Keegan didn't lead us to the Division One title. Any thoughts?

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Let's not consider Ramirez in the same breath as people like Skacel and Delgado, unless you were expecting him to fit right in and score 20 goals this season.

 

I had over-inflated expectations of Bradley Wright-Phillips which he inevitably didn't meet.

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I think Jason Euell has to be up there alongside Saganowski.

 

Euell came with a big reputation, having scored goals from midfield and up front for Wimbledon and Boro etc but just never got going here. Saga was the complete opposite! Came as an unknown, was an absolute corker of a loan signing, THE ultimate goal machine (10 in 13) and then got his contract and scored about 10 more goals in the next 2/3 seasons. Such a huge let down.

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Boa Morte, Carlton Palmer Perry Groves all big disappointments

Charlie George Peter Osgood both bought still at their peak but never really justified the fees consistently

Frank Worthington Joe Jordan came to late in their careers some good performances but not enough

Prutton England under 21 never really lived up to the potential

Speedie and Dixon replaced Shearer never did anything at all

But Delgado is probably the bigest disappointment given the return against the initial hype

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Charlie George really. Because we went to so much trouble to get him from Derby over a long drawn transfer saga when the press wanted him to go to West Brom - I'll never forget the headline from the lovely John Sadler in the Sun 'George a Saint - its like Nureyev in panto'. It was months before he played as he arrived with an injury. That isn't to say he wasn't fantastically talented. He produced some wonderful moments including destroying Liverpool in 79. But there just weren't enough of them. It was really disappointing that he went out on loan to Forest as his career with us ebbed away. He could have been one of our greats.

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Delgado. Huge expectations; but a complete and utter flop.

The thing about Delgado is that there was clearly a player there. When he played he frightened United and Arsenal to death.

In fairness to him he didn't arrive at Saints under the best circumstances, being apparently signed by Rupert and I don't think WGS was inclined to give him the nurturing that was needed. With our luck, if we hadn't signed him when we had the chance he would have gone somewhere like Derby, scored 20 goals and then we would have been moaning about missing out - just like we did with Wanchope.

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Frank Worthington Joe Jordan came to late in their careers some good performances but not enough

 

A little unfair to Jordan. For a player in his twilight years 17 goals from 61 games isn't such a bad return on £150,000. And he never was a prolific scorer even in his youth. What he added was real determination and fight in leading the line. I sometimes wonder if Jordan had arrived a season earlier, instead of Worthington, that we might actually have won the league.

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Mostly saga seeing as he looked the mutts when on loan. Thought we'd breeze the championship with him. Didn't show up once he got a contract...

delgado, kanchelskis, boa morte, torpedo and some of the other youngsters who sounded amazing but never really materialised - mark peters? Perplyotkin? I can hardly remember them tbh.

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Just thought of another one. Alan McLoughlin. Our first million pound player. Thought he'd be great for us but Chris Nicholl didn't seem to know what to do with him and stuck him out on the left, out of position. Another let down though perhaps not solely of his own making. Then Branfoot just wanted rid because he couldn't hoof the ball far enough, presumably.

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The thing about Delgado is that there was clearly a player there. When he played he frightened United and Arsenal to death.

In fairness to him he didn't arrive at Saints under the best circumstances, being apparently signed by Rupert and I don't think WGS was inclined to give him the nurturing that was needed. With our luck, if we hadn't signed him when we had the chance he would have gone somewhere like Derby, scored 20 goals and then we would have been moaning about missing out - just like we did with Wanchope.

 

Well, yes - "there was clearly a player there". But that just reinforces the point that there was a vast gap between our expectations of what he could do, with what he actually did. Very sad and disappointing.

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Delgado, I still remember the (youtube) video during half time of some of his goals and thinking he would be great for Saints. Last time I seen him he was trying to get into a bar in Cardiff and claiming to be a saints player! The bouncer let me and the people I was with in and Delgado asked us if we were Saints fans, it wasn't so obvious to him with all the yellow we were wearing. When we told the bouncer we knew he was a Saints player he let him in, didn't stop most the saints fans from wondering why the useless p**k was there in the first place!

 

The other was Leandre Griffit who scored on his debut and I had heard great things about only to be disappointed with the reality of him playing in 8 matches for us.

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Delgado. Huge expectations; but a complete and utter flop.

 

This.

 

I was at the Ipswich game when they announced we'd signed him. They showed a video on the big screens. He looked like Pele.

 

2/10 for performance, 11/10 for expectations.

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Seems like most of these answers are correct.

 

As our record signing for so long, why is it that nobody seemed to have had such high hopes for Rory Delap. and just out of curiosity, if we adjust for inflation and the relative price of players when we bought him etc, what would have been the price we paid for him if we had bought him now?

 

just curious.

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This.

 

Hilarious that some people on this forum got so excited over some YouTube footage and a 45 minute spell vs WBA in a friendly.

 

Not that hilarious. His Youtube montage was full of him scoring absolute crackers to be fair! So you can understand people thinking he might be quite good. What else is there to go on?

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If you're gonna name Mark Hughes, I'll suggest Stuart Ripley.

averaged about 1 goal in 10 games in his hey day. League winner. One goal in 53 for us. And couldn't give a ****.

 

Gets a lot of stick does Ripley on this forum, but I'd be interested to see his assists record with us. He'd put in endless quality crosses for us, that's all I remember about him And usually Tiss, Beatts or Kachloul would get on the end of them.

 

No problems with Ripley from me.

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Has to be Skacel.

 

Honourable mention in dispatches for Delgado, Idiakez, Ramirez, Saganowski (post contract)

Always thought Skacel might have been better if the club had been able to buy him a pair of shorts that fitted. Having over-sized bloomers flapping round his ankles made it difficult for him to take a corner.

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Always thought Skacel might have been better if the club had been able to buy him a pair of shorts that fitted. Having over-sized bloomers flapping round his ankles made it difficult for him to take a corner.

 

Not to mention Burley insisting on playing him out of position all the time

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Boa Morte, Carlton Palmer Perry Groves all big disappointments

Charlie George Peter Osgood both bought still at their peak but never really justified the fees consistently

Frank Worthington Joe Jordan came to late in their careers some good performances but not enough

Prutton England under 21 never really lived up to the potential

Speedie and Dixon replaced Shearer never did anything at all

But Delgado is probably the bigest disappointment given the return against the initial hype

 

Carlton Palmer was quality for us!

 

Speedie and Dixon were proper ****e though.

 

Also, as others said, Mark Hughes was a disgrace.

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This is Saints. Such a thread could end up being the longest ever, eclipsing the Pompey Takeover Saga in a matter of weeks.

 

It's hard to get past Delgado though. Thought he would bang them in which he did... two or three times. For me Kevin Phillips was a massive let down as well although at least he scored now and again.

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Some of these suggestions really surprise me.

 

Carlton Palmer a disappointment? He came with a reputation for being one of the worst players to play for England, then performed pretty well.

 

Anders Svensson came with a big reputation? Nobody I knew had ever heard of him when he joined us from Elfsborg.

 

Jason Euell had long been considered past it when he joined us, so it would've been crazy to have high expectations.

 

Ones I agree with are Griffit, who looked like an amazing talent, scoring for fun in the reserves, then having a couple of good first team games where he scored, then being terrible in a very poor team performance against a rampant Arsenal and never recovering. Saganowski looked amazing until he got a contract. Prutton was a future England player who never really stood out even when we dropped a division.

 

I agree with Speedie too. I hadn't followed him much, but had a Coventry supporting mate who went on and on about him being more skillful than Gazza. He wasn't.

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