So close, yet so far - Transfer edition

[Monk]

Off with a broken foot at the moment, so fired up Championship Manage 01/02 and conceded a brace to a certain Marcus Allback at Heerenveen. Brought up memories of Stuart Gray sniffing around him back in 2001. He ended up joining Aston Villa a season or two later. 

 

With the exception of Javier De Pedro, who do you recall us being heavily linked with but never quite materialising? (feel free to include Andy Reid turning us down from Forest)  

 

Edited 12 July, 2022 by Monk

[jawillwill]

Mido. 

[Sheaf Saint]

Oliver Bierhoff

[trousers]

Skacel

[SuperSAINT]

I’m going to span various decades & divisions:

• Ronnie Ekelund (The return)

• Gianluca Vialli

• Elliott Ward

• Neil Danns 

• James Maddison

 

[Turkish]

Adebeyor - Lowe pulled the plug on the deal as he didn't like his attitude

Saha and Malbranque - Lowe pulled the deal as he didn't want to make our competitors fincially richer

Drogba - Lowe pulled the deal because he was too similar to James Beattie

Roskisky - Lowe pulled the deal because he's a cock

Davide Astori (RIP) Strongly linked for ages to be signing him but it never happened for some reason

Gaizika Mendieta - A completely made up rumour by me back in the early days of the Saintsweb which even made it to the echo, c2003 i think

[Mr Saints]

Harry Winks

[Turkish]

32 minutes ago, Monk said:

Off with a broken foot at the moment, so fired up Championship Manage 01/02 and conceded a brace to a certain Marcus Allback at Heerenveen. Brought up memories of Stuart Gray sniffing around him back in 2001. He ended up joining Aston Villa a season or two later. 

 

With the exception of Javier De Pedro, who do you recall us being heavily linked with but never quite materialising? (feel free to include Andy Reid turning us down from Forest)  

 

Didn't we also try to get Micheal Dawson at the same time? We ended up with Calum Davenport. I see quite a lot of MIcheal Dawson now as our kids play Futsal together, i completely forgot until now about that, will have to ask him about it when i see him 

[daldridge7]

Matt Holland and Brian Howard

[HarvSFC]

Alexander Buttner and Quincy Promes - Two bullets dodged.

Inigo Calderon during the League One days. 

[SuperSAINT]

DaMarcus Beasley

[S-Clarke]

Amar Jemal. Cue meltdowns on that one

Eliott Ward - another set of meltdowns.

John Halls - weird one, I think he'd even had his medical.

[Turkish]

5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Amar Jemal. Cue meltdowns on that one

Eliott Ward - another set of meltdowns.

John Halls - weird one, I think he'd even had his medical.

IIRC Hadn't he packed his bags and said his goodbyes at his current club before we pulled the plug and signed Dan Seaborne instead?

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Turkish said:

IIRC Hadn't he packed his bags and said his goodbyes at his current club before we pulled the plug and signed Dan Seaborne instead?

Something like that, I remember him being quite upset by the situation (and Cov too). Bit of a Cortese special that one.

[Dusic]

Jeremain Lens - lucky escape

Joachim Maehle - one that got away

 

[Monk]

One I forgot, Brian Stock in 2010, still got a Facebook message from him saying it’s true when I sent a creepy DM.  

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

Remember lots of talk about Michael Carrick when he was at West Ham. but I think once they were in Div One that was the case for everyone!

 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

Remember lots of talk about Michael Carrick when he was at West Ham. but I think once they were in Div One that was the case for everyone!

 

what a player he was, i thought he was great. If he was Italian, Spanish or French he'd have got over 100 caps.

[Delmary]

Tore André Flo

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, Delmary said:

Tore André Flo

Didn't we go for Ostenstad over him? Ostenstad was decent enough but Flo went on to be a very good player.

[Turkish]

Matt Jansen - a favourite rumour on Saints clubcall c97 - went to Blackburn i think

Alun Armstrong - around the same time - was announced on clubcall as having signed only for him to sign for Middleborugh the next day. Guess that was Alex Crooks first job.

[alehouseboys]

I seem to remember hearing that we also fancied Alan Hudson from Chelsea when we signed Ossie but he ended up at Stoke.

[ally_uk]

I still play CM 01/02 with latest season update I can't stand football manager. 

[Berkshire Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Adebeyor - Lowe pulled the plug on the deal as he didn't like his attitude

My memory of the Adebayor one was that he couldn't get a work permit, this article was the only thing I could find which suggests I'm wrong though: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jul/25/newsstory.sport4 

Good to see De Pedro mentioned in the same article too! 

[Toussaint]

Coutinho, inexplicably chose Liverpool over us

[Turkish]

4 minutes ago, Berkshire Saint said:

My memory of the Adebayor one was that he couldn't get a work permit, this article was the only thing I could find which suggests I'm wrong though: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/jul/25/newsstory.sport4 

Good to see De Pedro mentioned in the same article too! 

I think it was Gordon Strachans book where he says Adebeyor was in Lowes office and he told him he didn’t like his attitude so pulled the deal. To be fair he was a bit of a cock but then he was also a good player who ended up costing Arsenal £3m and was sold for £25m which was crazy money in those days 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Coutinho, inexplicably chose Liverpool over us

Vegad Foren inexplicably chose us over Liverpool 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[revolution saint]

Gary Lineker was close apparently.  Alan Ball was manager and Lawrie had returned as a director - they wanted to get him back from Japan but GL retired instead.

[Dman]

Who was the lad from Bristol City we were due to sign, back in the championship, but he allegedly failed a medical.

Can’t remember his name, but I do remember him being their captain and was pretty exciting at the time. 

I think we then went on to sign Jos Hooiveld instead, so I guess it all worked out well in the end. 

[Dman]

15 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I think it was Gordon Strachans book where he says Adebeyor was in Lowes office and he told him he didn’t like his attitude so pulled the deal. To be fair he was a bit of a cock but then he was also a good player who ended up costing Arsenal £3m and was sold for £25m which was crazy money in those days 

You have to wonder what would have happened to us if we’d signed Adebeyor and or Drogba back then. 
 

Assuming they would have gone on to have been what they became, you’d have thought it would have added a bit more £ to the pot, which could have potentially saved us. Who knows! 

[S-Clarke]

11 minutes ago, Dman said:

Who was the lad from Bristol City we were due to sign, back in the championship, but he allegedly failed a medical.

Can’t remember his name, but I do remember him being their captain and was pretty exciting at the time. 

I think we then went on to sign Jos Hooiveld instead, so I guess it all worked out well in the end. 

Ah yes, I know the one you mean.

Liam Fontaine, really highly rated at the time. Never progressed though, ended up pissing around in the SPL for the last 8 years. Not sure if he's retired now.

[Turkish]

12 minutes ago, Dman said:

Who was the lad from Bristol City we were due to sign, back in the championship, but he allegedly failed a medical.

Can’t remember his name, but I do remember him being their captain and was pretty exciting at the time. 

I think we then went on to sign Jos Hooiveld instead, so I guess it all worked out well in the end. 

Liam Fontaine i think

[Appy]

We were linked with Gary Hooper from Celtic for what seemed like an eternity, then he went to Norwich and didn’t do much. 

[Turkish]

49 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Coutinho, inexplicably chose Liverpool over us

Remember the days when people on here used to argue that we were more attractive than Liverpool because we were on the up and they were a club in decline and anyone that disagreed was a troll with a Dell sized mentality 🤣

[Give it to Ron]

Colin Todd went to Everton instead

We trialled someone Tu La Ling or something but never signed despite loads of hype about him

[Colinjb]

Thought the Bristol City lad was Nicky Maynard, but, clearly not their captain so probably wrong. 

Edited 12 July, 2022 by Colinjb

[Toussaint]

5 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Colin Todd went to Everton instead

We trialled someone Tu La Ling or something but never signed despite loads of hype about him

I always thought there was sum ting wong about that.

[Saint Troy]

feel like Freddy Adu was linked about 5 times and was still only 24 by the last one!

[saints1988]

Most obscure:

Chris Lines - Bristol Rovers (another Cortese mess around I believe)

[S-Clarke]

7 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Thought the Bristol City lad was Nicky Maynard, but, clearly not their captain so probably wrong. 

We were interested in him as well, at the time we were also interested in Jay.

I think Leiecter at the time (under Sven) were a bit more flashy with their cash and got him in the end, although to say he flopped would be an understatement. We bide our time and got Jay the following summer and reaped the rewards on that one.

[Turkish]

16 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Thought the Bristol City lad was Nicky Maynard, but, clearly not their captain so probably wrong. 

He went to West Ham in the championship not sure if he chose them over us or not but he didn't really do much there.

 

 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Wasn't there something about Grant Holt before he ended up at Norwich?

[SuperSAINT]

2 hours ago, Delmary said:

Tore André Flo

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Didn't we go for Ostenstad over him? Ostenstad was decent enough but Flo went on to be a very good player.

IIRC, when Souness came in, he had good European contacts & we had double-figures of trialists over.  Flo was one of them.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

1 hour ago, revolution saint said:

Gary Lineker was close apparently.  Alan Ball was manager and Lawrie had returned as a director - they wanted to get him back from Japan but GL retired instead.

We really had a thing for over the hill strikers didn't we

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

IIRC, when Souness came in, he had good European contacts & we had double-figures of trialists over.  Flo was one of them.

It was a choice between Ostenstadt or Flo, as we could not afford both (which we wanted)

[Appy]

21 minutes ago, Turkish said:

He went to West Ham in the championship not sure if he chose them over us or not but he didn't really do much there.

 

 

Yeah, West Ham signed him and Baldock at a similar time. 

[MAY-Z]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

I think it was Gordon Strachans book where he says Adebeyor was in Lowes office and he told him he didn’t like his attitude so pulled the deal. To be fair he was a bit of a cock but then he was also a good player who ended up costing Arsenal £3m and was sold for £25m which was crazy money in those days 

Yeah it’s in Strachan’s book, Lowe apparently offered him 5k a week when he should’ve been offered around 15k and Lowe didn’t like his attitude towards that 

[St Louis]

Jamie Vardy was basically a done deal to Saints from Fleetwood, under Nigel Adkins in the January (2012) transfer window. At the last minute we had the opportunity to sign Japanese superstar Tadanari Lee, and we felt that they were similar ability, but that Lee could help us grow the Saints brand/support in the Far East.

I wonder whatever happened to those two guys and what sort of careers they had? 🤔

[Fitzhugh Fella]

La Ling Dutch guy who L Mac reckoned would have won us the Div 1 title, Keith Newton full back from Blackburn, Rod Thomas from Swindon, Colin Todd from Derby. 

[St Louis]

Just now, St Louis said:

Jamie Vardy was basically a done deal to Saints from Fleetwood, under Nigel Adkins in the January (2012) transfer window. At the last minute we had the opportunity to sign Japanese superstar Tadanari Lee, and we felt that they were similar ability, but that Lee could help us grow the Saints brand/support in the Far East.

I wonder whatever happened to those two guys and what sort of careers they had? 🤔

My source for that was Nigel Adkins himself, when he did a talk at a 'Leaders in Digital Sport' conference at Stamford Bridge about 8 years ago. He could just about see the funny side of it, but wondered if he would have lasted longer at Saints had he bagged the player HE had wanted of the two.