GREATEST EVER....Transfer Disasters

[Sampson]

20 minutes ago, dmayne7 said:

I agree that it's not fair to pin it all on him but that was massive money for us at the time and he had to replace Heskey which he didn't do.

 

Obviously Slimani didn't work out but whilst he was our record signing, it was a much less significant investment compared to what Akinbiyi was at the time, as silly as that may sound when just looking at the money. Slimani was brought in to improve the squad, not replace a player so the fact that it didn't work out, didn't have anywhere near the impact Akinbiyi's relative failure did. If we'd splashed £30m on Slimani and got relegated then I'd view it as a much more disastrous transfer though we'd have still had the money to survive and not go into administration as a result of that.

 

As I said, Akinbiyi wasn't a terrible player but he was symbolic of everything that was wrong with us. A club that was on the cusp of breaking into the very top of the league built on astute and bargain signings, to one that was in freefall, splashing the cash on division 1 players. 

 

On a pure footballing level you could argue that the signings were fairly similar in terms of success but when you bring in the wider context, it's hard to look past Akinbiyi as one of, if not the worst (not his fault).

 

Also worth saying that Taylor's overspending wasn't the only reason we went into to admin but if he'd kept that team together and recruited even vaguely well, there's no way we'd have gone down.

We got to that level spending a lot of money on Division 1 players though. The likes of Elliott, Claridge, Marshall, Eadie, Impey, were all relatively big money signings from the lower leagues which could’ve gone wrong (and in some cases did). 
 

I think Jones, Wise, Davidson and Rowett were also relatively proven PL players at the time too who cost around £9-10mil collectively. So I don’t think it’s fair to say it was a symbol of our transfer policy under Taylor. I think we actually made quite a mixture of signings, they were just mostly rubbish.

 

Replacing Heskey was never the sole problem though. Losing Lennon made a much bigger hole in the side in our creativity and the likes of Cottee, Walsh and Elliott were all very much ageing and past their best and not replaced properly.

 

We were an ageing side in the summer of 2000, the oldest in the division at the time iirc and I’ve always felt MON kind of knew this and got out when he could keep his legacy in tact (he did similar at Celtic and Villa). 
 

I sometimes hear people say we were on the verge of pushing for the top 4/6 after that Sunderland game, but our defence especially was already on the clear decline at the point and in desperate need of serious investment (our goals conceded column was getting noticeably worse every season and 99-00 was actually a similar story to this season where we scored quite a lot, but couldn’t defend and used to concede about 2 goals every game which dragged us down to mid table).

Edited 27 April 2022 by Sampson

[davieG]

40 minutes ago, Golden Fox said:

Why do you think that was

No idea but that was my overriding impression.

[fazzyfox]

2 hours ago, Sampson said:

Graham Fenton is a really good shout actually.
 

Was one of our biggest and most hyped signings ever at the time and came with great pedigree as Blackburn’s sub striker behind Shearer and Sutton in their title winning side (and scored a few goals that season), who we were all super excited about. But he was absolutely bloody useless.

 

Think he was either our record signing or 2nd biggest ever signing after Matt Elliott at the time? Can’t remember whether we signed him before or after Elliott.

 

I think he only got like 2 or 3 goals in about 50 odd games.

 

Definitely O’Neill’s worst ever signing at any rate.

One of my favourite O'Neill-isms came after a game away to Chelsea:-

 

Reporter:- "Heskey played despite being only 50% fit"

O'Neill - "More like 10% but a dead Emile Heskey is a better option than the alternative"

 

Fenton was fit, available and on the bench!

[David Hankey]

Akinbadbiyi has to be up there. £5M, I'm still wincing after all these years.

[Rain King]

2 hours ago, Sampson said:

Graham Fenton is a really good shout actually.
 

Was one of our biggest and most hyped signings ever at the time and came with great pedigree as Blackburn’s sub striker behind Shearer and Sutton in their title winning side (and scored a few goals that season), who we were all super excited about. But he was absolutely bloody useless.

 

Think he was either our record signing or 2nd biggest ever signing after Matt Elliott at the time? Can’t remember whether we signed him before or after Elliott.

 

I think he only got like 2 or 3 goals in about 50 odd games.

 

Definitely O’Neill’s worst ever signing at any rate.

Fenton played for Villa the year Blackburn won the PL.

 

Granted he signed for them the year after and scored a few goals.

[MPH]

4 hours ago, davieG said:

2004/5 must be one of the worst for recruitment

 

Danny Tiatto            Free    01.07.2004
Gareth Williams            £500,000    01.07.2004
Dion Dublin            Free    01.07.2004
Jason Wilcox            Free    01.07.2004
Kevin Pressman            Free    14.07.2004
David Connolly            £500,000    20.07.2004
Martin Keown            Free    20.07.2004
Nathan Blake            Free    30.07.2004
Joey Guðjónsson            Free    01.08.2004
Chris Makin            Free    02.08.2004
Scott Gemmill            Free    05.08.2004
Kevin Harper            On loan    08.09.2004
Stuart Taylor            On loan    18.11.2004
Mark de Vries            Unknown    06.01.2005
Alan Maybury            Unknown    06.01.2005
Lars Hirschfeld            Unknown    29.01.2005
Stephen Hughes            £100,000    31.01.2005
Patrick McCarthy            £100,000    03.03.2005
Darren Kenton            On loan    03.03.2005
Stefan Moore            On loan    11.03.2005
Patrick Kisnorbo            Unknown    27.04.2005
Paul Henderson            Free    26.05.2005
Momo Sylla            Free    01.06.2005
Robert Douglas       Free        06.06.2005  

£1.2m on 22 players. Barry Fry would have been proud of that!

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Silva. Absolute car crash from start to finish.

[LaCiudad]

2 hours ago, David Hankey said:

Akinbadbiyi has to be up there. £5M, I'm still wincing after all these years.

Good Incredible Hulk impression though 

[Guest Col city fan]

Lee Marshall

End thread 

Oh and Slimani… despite people on here dribbling over the odd goal or two… absolute waste of money

Edited 27 April 2022 by Col city fan

[stevejpos]

7 hours ago, Scotch said:

Ricardo?! What?! I can't recall a clearer example of someone blatantly smoking crack whilst starting new threads. 

I'm talking about the goalkeeper !! 

[OntarioFox]

8 hours ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

I think he means the Goalkeeper from the early 2010s (who was awful).

Not just awful - easily the worst player I've seen wear the gloves for us in 25 years of watching us play. Given his pedigree, that just made his performances all the more appalling. It was a weird season in hindsight - Chris Kirkland also played between the sticks in an effort to dislodge Chris Weale, and was similarly useless.

At set pieces, Ricardo was like a chicken being stalked by a fox - he just did a lot of flapping while remaining rooted to the ground, then got eaten alive. I still can't quite believe his debut came in that 2-0 win at Pride Park, but then again we were so dominant that day that he had nothing to do except stand and watch Yakubu bully the Rams. He seemed to cost us in every other game he played for us, whether that was one of those famous flaps for Bristol's goal in his home debut, or letting a relatively tame shot through his legs for Coventry to score a few weeks later. He played 8 games for us, but it felt like 80. Most of which were spent shouting "WEALE, WEALE!" from the stands after yet another mistake.

I still maintain that Weale was hard-done by. He'd done nothing wrong but Sven just didn't fancy him for whatever reason. I guess he was susceptible to letting the odd long distance strike past him, but he was a solid one-on-one keeper and, as we saw time and time again that season, he commanded his box far better than either of his planned replacements. At the third time of asking though, Sven did eventually get it right with a certain Mr. Schmeichel. It's actually kind of mental to think there's still a player from that era at the club 12 years later.

Edited 27 April 2022 by OntarioFox

[CosbehFox]

I'd say Gunnlaugsson was O'Neill's worst signing - £2.5 million and it never made sense. 

 

He's remembered fondly because of a couple of very good goals but he only played 30 league games in 4 years and scored 3 times. 

[ParkerPen]

23 hours ago, Sampson said:

Akinbiyi was the biggest transfer of the Taylor era, but we didn't spunk our entire budget on him - I think we spent about £15mil that season overall, so he was only around 1/3rd of the season budget. We overpaid for Akinbiyi for sure, 1 non-penalty goal in 4 is hardly the end of the world though. Slimani was also our record signing and a much relatively bigger one too and had an even worse record than Akinbiyi, while also being the marquee signing of our Champions League income.

 

There were much worse signings from that Peter Taylor in that season alone though. Matt Jones cost £3mil under Taylor as well and was far worse value for money. Trevor Benjamin cost £1.6mil. Gary Rowett was an ok player, but we overpaid quite a lot for him at £3mil. Lee Marshall £600k, Richard Cresswell £750k etc.

 

I think it's harsh to put the entirety of Taylor's disastrous spending on the Akinbiyi signing, the signings around him were just as bad if not worse.

My memory of Jones that was he was decent, but then got a career ending injury

 

or is that kind of your point !

 

Lee marshall was shockingly bad - i could never understand why he would also play with his collar up drawing (even more) attention to himself.

 

always thought cresswell should have had more opportunities given akinbiyi, but he did nothing since to suggest that would have any better

[lcfc278]

On 27/04/2022 at 11:39, davieG said:

2004/5 must be one of the worst for recruitment

 

Danny Tiatto            Free    01.07.2004
Gareth Williams            £500,000    01.07.2004
Dion Dublin            Free    01.07.2004
Jason Wilcox            Free    01.07.2004
Kevin Pressman            Free    14.07.2004
David Connolly            £500,000    20.07.2004
Martin Keown            Free    20.07.2004
Nathan Blake            Free    30.07.2004
Joey Guðjónsson            Free    01.08.2004
Chris Makin            Free    02.08.2004
Scott Gemmill            Free    05.08.2004
Kevin Harper            On loan    08.09.2004
Stuart Taylor            On loan    18.11.2004
Mark de Vries            Unknown    06.01.2005
Alan Maybury            Unknown    06.01.2005
Lars Hirschfeld            Unknown    29.01.2005
Stephen Hughes            £100,000    31.01.2005
Patrick McCarthy            £100,000    03.03.2005
Darren Kenton            On loan    03.03.2005
Stefan Moore            On loan    11.03.2005
Patrick Kisnorbo            Unknown    27.04.2005
Paul Henderson            Free    26.05.2005
Momo Sylla            Free    01.06.2005
Robert Douglas       Free        06.06.2005  

Unreal when you think back to this period.

I think on this list the only one that stands out for me is Kisnorbo, he started off a bit $hite but then he turned out alright.

[ceredigion]

I'd like to put in a word for Mark Draper. He was our record transfer fee when he signed in the summer of 1994 for £1.25 million after the Derby play-off final. He was bought to add flair and creativity to a newly promoted side which many felt had enough skill. experience and character in it to make a decent fist of it in the Premier League. But as anyone who remembers the 94/95 season will know, it was one of the club's worst ever campaigns, on a par with 77/78, 01/02 and relegation to League One and Draper did nothing whatsoever to justify the money spent on him.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

3 minutes ago, ceredigion said:

I'd like to put in a word for Mark Draper. He was our record transfer fee when he signed in the summer of 1994 for £1.25 million after the Derby play-off final. He was bought to add flair and creativity to a newly promoted side which many felt had enough skill. experience and character in it to make a decent fist of it in the Premier League. But as anyone who remembers the 94/95 season will know, it was one of the club's worst ever campaigns, on a par with 77/78, 01/02 and relegation to League One and Draper did nothing whatsoever to justify the money spent on him.

Comfortably our best player for the season he was here (admittedly not much competition), and then sold on for 3x what we paid.

[Sampson]

6 minutes ago, ceredigion said:

I'd like to put in a word for Mark Draper. He was our record transfer fee when he signed in the summer of 1994 for £1.25 million after the Derby play-off final. He was bought to add flair and creativity to a newly promoted side which many felt had enough skill. experience and character in it to make a decent fist of it in the Premier League. But as anyone who remembers the 94/95 season will know, it was one of the club's worst ever campaigns, on a par with 77/78, 01/02 and relegation to League One and Draper did nothing whatsoever to justify the money spent on him.

You have a very very different memory of Draper to me. Mine was that Draper was clearly a class above the rest of the squad and stood out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the dross in that side. 
 

Pretty sure he even made the England squad that season and we sold him to Villa for more than double what we paid for him the following summer as he was too good for the First Division. Although he never really did it at Villa.

Edited 28 April 2022 by Sampson

[CosbehFox]

3 minutes ago, ceredigion said:

I'd like to put in a word for Mark Draper. He was our record transfer fee when he signed in the summer of 1994 for £1.25 million after the Derby play-off final. He was bought to add flair and creativity to a newly promoted side which many felt had enough skill. experience and character in it to make a decent fist of it in the Premier League. But as anyone who remembers the 94/95 season will know, it was one of the club's worst ever campaigns, on a par with 77/78, 01/02 and relegation to League One and Draper did nothing whatsoever to justify the money spent on him.

hmmmm.....he scored five times and got called up by England in that season and was sold for triple the amount he was signed for the next season. Transfer fee went to tribunal - we were happy to £700k for him but being out of contract and under 24, it went to tribunal. 

[HankMarvin]

If Eadie is on the list then 4m on Matty Jones in 2000 was a significant transfer.

20 odd appearances in 4 years due to terrible injuries 

[Steve Earle]

Dennis Wise for me. 'Free transfer', but huge signing-on fee paid, a fee to his agent and big wages. All we got was to watch a career warm down. 

 

He cheated us, pure and simple.

[HankMarvin]

2 minutes ago, Steve Earle said:

Dennis Wise for me. 'Free transfer', but huge signing-on fee paid, a fee to his agent and big wages. All we got was to watch a career warm down. 

 

He cheated us, pure and simple.

Was he a free?

 

Reported 1.7m by some, transfer market has him as 3.15m he was on 35k a week 

 

The Football League Disciplinary Commission later ruled that Wise had been harshly treated by Leicester and ordered that he be reinstated and given the maximum punishment of two weeks' wages (about £70,000). The tribunal's order led the club to launch an appeal against the decision, which they won on 18 September.

[Steve Earle]

Just now, HankMarvin said:

Was he a free?

 

Reported 1.7m by some, transfer market has him as 3.15m he was on 35k a week 

 

The Football League Disciplinary Commission later ruled that Wise had been harshly treated by Leicester and ordered that he be reinstated and given the maximum punishment of two weeks' wages (about £70,000). The tribunal's order led the club to launch an appeal against the decision, which they won on 18 September.

My memory might not be serving me well. That just makes it worse!

[ceredigion]

16 minutes ago, Sampson said:

You have a very very different memory of Draper to me. Mine was that Draper was clearly a class above the rest of the squad and stood out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the dross in that side. 
 

Pretty sure he even made the England squad that season and we sold him to Villa for more than double what we paid for him the following summer as he was too good for the First Division. Although he never really did it at Villa.

You have a point. I'd forgotten that we sold him on for a hefty profit, which is definitely a redeeming feature. But then it was the same manager, Brian Little, who bought him on both occasions and Brian was far from infallible when it came to bigger money signings. Maybe a case can be made that Draper just had too many poor players around him that season to make a difference. However, when I look back at the 94/95 season, which I don't like to do unless it's absolutely necessary, it's the more limited players I remember, like Jimmy Willis, Gary Coatsworth, Iwan Roberts, Mike Galloway, who may not have been up to scratch in the PL but at least showed some spirit and fight.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

7 minutes ago, ceredigion said:

You have a point. I'd forgotten that we sold him on for a hefty profit, which is definitely a redeeming feature. But then it was the same manager, Brian Little, who bought him on both occasions and Brian was far from infallible when it came to bigger money signings. Maybe a case can be made that Draper just had too many poor players around him that season to make a difference. However, when I look back at the 94/95 season, which I don't like to do unless it's absolutely necessary, it's the more limited players I remember, like Jimmy Willis, Gary Coatsworth, Iwan Roberts, Mike Galloway, who may not have been up to scratch in the PL but at least showed some spirit and fight.

Coatsworth played his last game for us in the '94 playoff final so never played in the PL.

 

Amazingly, our fans gave Kevin Poole the Player Of The Year Award (which he promptly dropped) in '95 over Draper. But then this is the same fanbase that gave the award to Andy Feeley instead of Gary Lineker, and to Robbie Savage (twice!) instead of Muzzy.

[Wolfox]

Nicky Mohan or any other averagely priced centre half signed in that period…. They were pretty much all dross