Which promising signings didn't live up to expectation?

[Moomin]

Got a decent thread going on Exeweb on this subject and wondered which signings that fans have been pleased about turned out to be really poor acquisitions?

Some popular choices from City fans have been:

Guillem Bauza. He was well liked by Northampton and Hereford fans plus he was bigger up as playing with Fernando Torres in Spain's youth team. Sadly he was often injured for us and when he did play looked unfit and pretty useless.

Marcus Stewart. Great player for many clubs and we thought we'd signed a class act. He did ok but was so damn slow and gradually got worse until he retired.

Chris Fry. Going back a bit to the mid 90s when he'd just won POTY at Colchester and always looked great whenever I saw him play. I remember being really excited when he signed as he was a goal scoring winger which we never seemed to have. Again injuries did him over and he ended up getting released when his contract was paid up.

What's yours?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Libur... Oh. promising. Erm. Check all our signings in the last three years, basically.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Loads but of the recent ones I remember watching a YouTube highlight video of Stephen O'Donnell and thinking he looked a promising addition. Can safely say I've learned my lesson!

Also Mackail Smith came with much anticipation but was clearly some years past it

 

[Optipez]

Where to start. We've had heaps of strikers over the years who have spectacularly failed to deliver.
Recently, Danny Haynes from Charlton had high expectations but was rubbish.
Div 4 golden boot winner Karl Hawley whose best performances for us were as a right back.
Further back, record signing Tony Agana averaged four a season, Ricky Green, our previous record signing from Grimsby was so abysmal that even as a seven or eight year old I could see he was a dud.
Ooh, Tony Hackworth, signed on a big contract from Leeds from the same iyouth team intake as Alan Smith and the Champions League semi finalists. Played about a dozen times ,looked like he'd never kicked a ball in his life before and left for AFC Scarborough in the Unibond , where he sank without trace.

 

[joethegill]

A couple stick out for Gills that really should've been far more important than they turned out to be:

1. Steve Lomas. Signed in 2007 and made a big impression in pre-season - looked to be the lynchpin to a promotion charge. Got sent off for a second yellow on debut at Cheltenham, and only played a further 7 times before calling it a day. To be fair to him, it was his decision to leave as he didn't want us to pay him when he wasn't up to it.

2. Jamie O'Hara. Signed last summer to a fair bit of intrigue. Played in the top 2 divisions for most of his career and had (mostly) good things said about him. He wasn't fit when he signed, but made his first appearance as a sub against Swindon in August and was instantly impressive. However, he only went on to make one further appearance for us in the trophy. Next thing we knew, there was a mutual termination to his contract and he turns up in the Big Brother house. He's only 30, I don't think his career is over yet and I hope not, cause you could tell he has a bit of quality.

 

[Urban]

Shaun Batt

 

[shoddycollins]

Most of Kavanagh's signings.
Alex Marrow - part of a promotion-winning Fleetwood sign and supposedly a huge talent and real coup... did worse than nothing
Billy Paynter - our marquee signing... crap.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Shaun Batt

Promising? Give over.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Steve Maclean, Kenny Cooper and Simon Walton were all meant to be world beaters when we signed them in the Championship. They were all gash!

 

[Tom_CUFC]

Daryl Clare, OK he'd probably hit the decline the season before but having scored basically every time he played against us for 10 years we were expecting more than one goal from a yard out before a 6 month "finger injury". (Footnote, we were in the Conference)

 

[lordofthepies]

There'll be loads but the 4 who immediately spring (all strikers) to mind are:

Juan Ugarte - Scored a million goals in about 12 games for Wrexham. Barely played a game for us due to injury and when he did play he looked slow, unfit and shit.
Jamie Moralee - Was a very promising young striker who Watford bought from Millwall for what was then a lot of money. Two years later, he turned up on trial for us in a friendly against Leek Town and scored a really classy hat-trick. He'd spent his entire career up to this point in the second tier. We signed him and there was a real sense of excitement around the signing. He spent just under 2 years with us and never scored.
Pavol Suhaj - Along with Ugarte, Luke Rodgers and a few others, he was one of several strikers we signed at the same time to try and replace Dean Ashton. Sadly, none of them were any good. We actually spent actual money for Suhaj from a Slovenian club. He played about 5 times without scoring and looked like he'd never played football at any level before. After we let him go, he spent 12 months with Nantwich Town and even they decided to release him.
Anthony Elding - He scored a whole load of goals for Stockport which led to Leeds deciding to buy him when they were in League One. He didn't play much for them and we managed to persuade him to sign for us a months later. We spent about £170,000 on him and he was on absolute fortune (by Crewe standards). I think he scored twice from open play, was really quite terrible and behaved like a complete prick most of the time he was with us. Absolutely disastrous signing.

 

[Moomin]

Another one to add to our list would be Sebastian Scalise who was an Argentine striker signed in 2002 by our crooked chairmen Russell and Lewis, without the approval of our then manager John Cornforth.

I remember everyone being very excited due to him playing in the Argentina top flight and iirc he actually scored a few goals there too.

Sadly he never even played for us and only made the bench once before having his contract terminated.

Others from that same season were the utterly past it Don Goodman who only scored once;

Lee Sharpe, who were paying on game by game basis and rumours were that it was circa £2500 per game. He started really well and scored an absolute belter against Hull but only played 4 times before leaving.

And to think we also tried to sign Paul Gascoigne that year too...

It's no wonder we got relegated and nearly went out of business at the same time.

 

[PoolieTom]

Rakish Bingham.

No?

 

[Boletus Edulis]

In the championship days, Taribo West and Emile Mpenza. The former seemed to be a lot older than he claimed, and the later was injured too often. Mpenza did score 2 in 9, and looked very good when on the pitch but was paid a fortune in our terms.

 

[Rob_of_the_green]

David Goodwillie?!...

Although for some reason I think 'flop' is the wrong word

 

[K-Win]

All teams have had plenty of these I would imagine. One that sticks out for me was Lee Chapman back in '93. I remember being really excited when we shelled out a fair whack for him barely a season after he'd led Leeds to the Prem League title in the hope that he'd propel us into the top division. After just five less than inspiring performances he was quickly sold to West Ham.

In our Prem days we signed Lauren, fresh from the Arsenal Invincibles. Understandably he looked like he didn't really want to be here and stank up the place on a lucrative contract for three years or so.

Mark Burchill looked an exciting prospect when we signed him from Celtic. After a bright start he fell out with new boss Redknapp for pranking him during a TV interview and was never heard of again. Knowing Redknapp he's possibly now part of the foundations of the M275.

 

[les.gtfc]

Going back to the mid/late 90's we signed Neil Webb. Although obviously coming to the end of his career, he'd had a superb career for Man Utd, Forest and England and it was a big signing for us but I think he only played about 3 or 4 games, was unfit and pretty useless to be honest.

Wind forward to 2006 and we signed Peter Beagrie, again towards the end of his career but again he only played a handful of games and the only thing he really did was manage to give a penalty away having dribbled the ball from the corner flag into the penalty area before losing possession and then bringing the player down.

 

[GTFCfish]

Going back to the late 80's we signed Neil Webb. Although obviously coming to the end of his career, he'd had a superb career for Man Utd, Forest and England and it was a big signing for us but I think he only played about 3 or 4 games, was unfit and pretty useless to be honest.

Wind forward to 2006 and we signed Peter Beagrie, again towards the end of his career but again he only played a handful of games and the only thing he really did was manage to give a penalty away having dribbled the ball from the corner flag into the penalty area before losing possession and then bringing the player down.

Ahh but then for every Neil Webb and Peter Beagrie, the flip side of the coin is you get a Gary Birtles.

 

[Super_horns]

Jamie Moralee - Was a very promising young striker who Watford bought from Millwall for what was then a lot of money. .
.

400K!

Started well scoring a couple of early goals but only got 7 in 69 appearances.

Went on to be Rio Ferdinand's agent!

 

[les.gtfc]

Ahh but then for every Neil Webb and Peter Beagrie, the flip side of the coin is you get a Gary Birtles.

Or a Lord Futch (RIP).

Oh, and it was obviously the mid/late '90's when we signed Neil Webb, not the 80's. He'd have been a cracking signing then.

 

[GTFCfish]

Or a Lord Futch (RIP).

Oh, and it was obviously the mid/late '90's when we signed Neil Webb, not the 80's. He'd have been a cracking signing then.

Yeah I looked it up it was 1996, funny thing is I had a season ticket back then and yet until your post I never knew he had ever even played for us, guess that's how big an impact he made on us!

 

[les.gtfc]

Yeah I looked it up it was 1996, funny thing is I had a season ticket back then and yet until your post I never knew he had ever even played for us, guess that's how big an impact he made on us!

He was a mate of Brian Laws from their Forest days which is why he signed for us.

 

[mowgli]

Most signings by Gary Waddock.

 

[PaulHaddock]

There'll be loads but the 4 who immediately spring (all strikers) to mind are:

Juan Ugarte - Scored a million goals in about 12 games for Wrexham. Barely played a game for us due to injury and when he did play he looked slow, unfit and shit.
Jamie Moralee - Was a very promising young striker who Watford bought from Millwall for what was then a lot of money. Two years later, he turned up on trial for us in a friendly against Leek Town and scored a really classy hat-trick. He'd spent his entire career up to this point in the second tier. We signed him and there was a real sense of excitement around the signing. He spent just under 2 years with us and never scored.
Pavol Suhaj - Along with Ugarte, Luke Rodgers and a few others, he was one of several strikers we signed at the same time to try and replace Dean Ashton. Sadly, none of them were any good. We actually spent actual money for Suhaj from a Slovenian club. He played about 5 times without scoring and looked like he'd never played football at any level before. After we let him go, he spent 12 months with Nantwich Town and even they decided to release him.
Anthony Elding - He scored a whole load of goals for Stockport which led to Leeds deciding to buy him when they were in League One. He didn't play much for them and we managed to persuade him to sign for us a months later. We spent about £170,000 on him and he was on absolute fortune (by Crewe standards). I think he scored twice from open play, was really quite terrible and behaved like a complete prick most of the time he was with us. Absolutely disastrous signing.

Elding was brilliant for about 3 months during his first season. Became a cult hero iirc too. Then everyone realised what an arse he was when he wasn't getting selected and we managed to get League 1 Preston (we were in the conference) to sign him on loan. Susprisingly that didn't work out.

 

[Vanni]

I remeber the Luton fans on the old forum getting all excited when they signed Kane Ferdinand. I let them know that a Pish fan had told me he was crap, but they wouldn't have it.

As for us, I think there are quite a few actually. Top of the list has to be Keith Keane, closely followed by Connor 'fakin' Newton. Then then were the others who we didn't exactly go gaga when we heard they'd signed for us but we still thought they would be much better - the likes of Omozusi and McGurk. I dare say some of the U's fans - only a few mind you - also thought Joe Pigott was a good signing

Can I also include Barnes Homer? No?

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

Pretty much everyone I've ever seen in an amber jersey has been a crushing disappointment against my averagely heightened bar.

 

[E10rifle]

Pretty much everyone I've ever seen in an amber jersey has been a crushing disappointment against my averagely heightened bar.

This^

Though James Scowcroft (/Slowcrock), Carl Hutchings, Alan White, Emmanuel Vasseur and Darius Henderson all stand out as being particularly awful compared to expectations. And Robbie "consecutive promotions" Weir has plumbed the depths this term.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Luke Murphy and Dexter Blackstock have been shit since we signed them

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I remeber the Luton fans on the old forum getting all excited when they signed Kane Ferdinand. I let them know that a Pish fan had told me he was crap, but they wouldn't have it.

As for us, I think there are quite a few actually. Top of the list has to be Keith Keane, closely followed by Connor 'fakin' Newton. Then then were the others who we didn't exactly go gaga when we heard they'd signed for us but we still thought they would be much better - the likes of Omozusi and McGurk. I dare say some of the U's fans - only a few mind you - also thought Joe Pigott was a good signing

Can I also include Barnes Homer? No?

Might just be me but I can't remember there being much excitement at all about Ferdinand, above the usual "he might be alright" and he had played well elsewhere. If anything I distinctly recall there being a bit of disappointment that it wasn't Ruddock being announced on a permanent which didn't happen until later in the month!

 

[Urban]

Promising? Give over.

That was entirely tongue in cheek!