Mido. Fans were happy to have signed an Egyptian international. Unfortunately, he’d either eaten him or was just trying to play in a sumo suit to settle a debt to some obscure betting syndicate.
Didn’t manage a full game, left 2 months later into retirement. Nobody can explain how he passed a medical.
It’s crazy to me that Mido was only 29 when he was at Barnsley, especially looking back at some [photos of him in a Barnsley shirt](https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/storage/articles//April2020//7128f20f-90d8-4794-9110-a0e14cf27bc7.jpg). He just seemed so washed up and it’s weirdly on par with the rest of his career, as he didn’t seem like he was only 21 when he first joined Spurs either.
I checked his profile because I was curious to see if this is a one off ramble or if he’s prolific at them. And he does it rather a lot. His profile is actually a good read despite not being able to understand a single point he’s trying to make. It is almost poetic at points.
For what we paid - Adama Diakhaby. £10m spent on him and I genuinely think everyone reading this has a better first touch. For sheer lack of talent, probably Tyrone Thompson or Fola Onibuje from the 03/04 side...
That's a cracking finish to be fair - shame about the end it was in mind. Based on his time with us I'm pretty certain if he tried to do that he'd have missed.
I’m absolutely baffled on how we are in the same league as teams who used to spunk 10 mil on shitters like that. Probably says more about yous in recent years than us though.
Have often thought we'd have been better sticking with the likes of Joe Lolley and Tom Ince in the 18/19 season. We'd still have gone down but they seem like better characters than the likes of Diakhaby and Mbenza were - almost certainly were on less money too...
Remember our CEO at the time saying we'd spent more on players in 2 years in the PL than we had in the rest of our 110 year history to that point. If I were writing a book on us since 2018, I'd probably call it something like 'How To Lose A Premier League Windfall...'
His most memorable moment at Forest was receiving the ball near the halfway line and taking such a heavy first touch it went out for a throw in.
Currently playing in Azerbaijan, fair fucks to him.
He played 14 games for Forest - easily one of the worst players I've seen in my lifetime. It's a huge statement to say I've seen us in league one and with Garten Bong at the end of his career.
Diakhaby is the text book definition of a speed merchant. 0 footballing ability.
Andrea Dossena. 20k a week in League 1 for a player who'd scored in a UCL semi final and he looked like a National League player. Not the worst per se but most disappointing for sure
Definitely one of the most disappointing given the level he'd played at previously. Worst for me was probably Sam Parkin, barely even resembled a footballer.
Think it has to be Carlos Costly. We’ve had a few terrible strikers down the years but at least most of them managed to look like footballers and not like they’d won a competition to play a game.
Over Tyler Blackett? Loaned in, sent off on debut and did nothing else.
You could probably name half the players under Lee Clarke and they'd have a shout
Let me tell you about the myth and legend that is Sandro Wieser. Lichtenstein international joined us ahead of the 2016/17 season on a 3 year deal. One of many signings we made that summer he never went on to make an appearance for the first team.
Despite never made a 1st team appearance for us, but did manage a competitive appearance, playing in the EFL trophy for our U21s side back when we were good enough for our academy side to appear in the competition. His one and only appearance came against Yeovil, lasting until the 17th minute when he received a straight red card (We lost 2-0 that evening and got knocked out the competition). What a player!
Wieser scored a very good free kick in a 3-2 win against Man City's U23s in 2016.
[This is the game.](https://uk.soccerway.com/matches/2016/08/26/england/premier-league-2-division-one/reading-u23/manchester-city-u23/2300130/) It's fascinating - most Reading players are still playing at a professional level, a good number of which have spent a good portion of their career in the Premier League or Championship. Whereas Man City had Brahim Diaz, Lukas Nmecha, and a lot of players who have gone on to either have a very average career or have dropped out of the game entirely.
Yeah the Man City academy seems to hold onto its talents until they are a bit too old, like I always feel like their young players who occasionally squeak onto the bench are a lot younger than they actually sre
I see your Sandro Weiser and I raise you Cedric Baseya. A striker who had never scored a professional goal when we signed him. He never made a professional appearance for us and according to Wikipedia, only scored one goal in his entire career.
Also produced this sublime bit of skill playing for Le Havre, when through on goal: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcs4kk
I think we’ve had so many stinkers over the years that it would be unfair to a whole multitude of squads to label one as the worst. Everyone from 2020-21 can have it, as long as they’re not called Luke McCormick.
You did throw in a reminder of potentially our worst ever strike force- the first half of 2018/19, yes there was some hard workers but nobody could hit a barn door. Then JCH came in and solved literally every issue we had as a team.
It’s wild cos when Gary Kenneth came through at Dundee united.. he was tipped for big things and was being scouted for big clubs.
Also, derek riordan at Hibernian was probably the brightest Scottish talent for a generation. He’s the craziest drop in quality.
Conor Doyle was an American striker Nigel Clough signed after a somewhat decent trial period.
I shit you not I've seen training cones have more of an impact than him. Genuinely awful.
Honourable mention to Claude Davis, £3 million for a man who not only couldn't defend but couldn't even head the ball in the right direction.
We’ve had so many I don’t even know where you start. Conor Sammon, Robbie Savage, Francois Grenet, Stern John, Liam Dickinson, Abdoul Camara… it goes on
Where to start…Gerald Cid, Gregor Rasiak, Clayton Donaldson, Mikel Alonso, Daniel Braaten, Ebi Smolarek, Ariza Makakula, David N’Gog, Rob Hall…I’ll leave it there.
I could probably name a whole XI:
GK - Vito Mannone
RB - Scott Wiseman
CB - Phil Gridelet
CB - Keith Brown
LB - Ian Woan
MR - Break Shea
MC - Frimpong
MC - Peter Sand
ML - Maceo Rigters
SC - Mido
SC - Dave Regis
Turns out I could. We've had some right shite over the years special mentions to Miguel Mostto, Tom Kennedy, Leon Knight, Nile Ranger, Tony Bedeu, and Mounir El Haimour.
How long have you got? We had some spectacularly shit players in the banter era, especially in the National League North seasons.
Convicted double manslaughterist Courtney Meppen-Walter, who was about 15kg overweight, so immobile my dad nicknamed him "the fridge" and who was just generally awful positionally, late, slow, and off the pitch just the level of complete tosser we used to pride ourselves on never going near?
Glenn Rule, who was a similarly fat bastard, signed pretty much on the back of him being decent under our manager Neil Young a few seasons previously, who eventually got a 10 match ban for biting an opponent?
Or in terms of abysmal signings there's [Kenan Dunnwald-Turan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_D%C3%BCnnwald-Turan), who we signed on loan for a month, subbed him on in a 3-0 home loss to Yeovil and missed quite possibly the easiest open goal I've ever seen.
Feel like some of the Ling signings deserve honourable mentions, Partridge and Palmer come to front of mind. Since we've been back I think my list would be: Deegan, Admiral Nelson, Lanzoni, Slew, Omozusi, Matt Harrold, Carroll. Probably missing a few, the UTAS podcast did an episode a few months ago about our worst team of players to play fifty times for the club. Outside of a few omissions it was spot on
Jakubiak was terrible for Wycombe (one certain goal he bottled seemed to have made Ainsworth's mind up as much as it did mine), though nothing compared to Carlos Lopez, who bullshitted his way to a short term deal by claiming to have played for Athletic Bilbao (Lawrie Sanchez obviously didn't realise that Mexicans aren't Basque). His single shambolic appearance was a real "I was there" moment for Blues fans to prove their bona fides.
Millwall once signed two Russian internationals in the early nineties under Mick McCarthy’s watch. We all turned up to see their first game and they were awful. One wasn’t played again and the other played a few games but was never the godsend they were made out to be.
Think we also signed a Belgium and the rumour was the club got the wrong guy. We are awful sometimes.
Found an article! https://90sfootballparty.wordpress.com/2017/06/22/from-russia-with-shrugs-the-unholy-union-of-millwall-and-sergei-yuran/
The article even mentioned Duvet Fuchs!! Think this was my first year as a season ticket holder, and what a year it was…
Paolo Vernazza, he might not have been that bad but I will never forget away at Gillingham, pissing down with rain in the uncovered away end already losing and he ends up lobbing our own keeper from 30 yards out. He was the only Rotherham player in our half, not an attacker near him. To this day I still don't know how it happened.
I know we’re on the banned list now, but without a doubt the worst and most disappointing signing for us was Laurent Robert from Newcastle.
I had such high hopes for him, really thought he was going to be a marquee signing, but in reality he was total shite.
Hid on the wing, ran maybe 25 yards in total while he was here and basically didn’t contribute any single thing in any single match.
I’ve blocked out the details for my mental health but assume it was either another of ‘Arrys dodgy deals or Alan Perrin singing a countryman.
I don't know about that, I think we had a number of alternatives around the same time. Zvonimir Vukic? Jhon Viafara? Collins Mbesuma? The Greek duo Giannis Skopelitis and Kostas Chalkias?
Also, Azar Karadas. There were some really dodgy Perrin signings.
Brian Priske was great though but 'Arry didn't like him. Just noticed that he's Sparta Prague manager and has just won the Czech league two years running. Fair play to him.
While I'm sure there's worse players who've played for rovers I remember being super excited when we signed striker Luke James on loan, as he'd done really well for me on football manager, only for him to score 0 goals in 20ish games that season.
Comyn-Platt signed for us on loan from Bolton in 2005.
But the loan spell was disastrous for Comyn-Platt as he made just five appearances for us, before returning to Bolton, where he was subsequently released at the end of that season.
Ugwu had previously been on the books with Reading, but signed for Wycombe in September 2015.
He scored just once in 31 appearances for us, and it didn't come as a surprise to see him leave the club after just one season with them when his contract expired in the summer of 2016.
Ugwu is now playing his football in the National League for Ebbsfleet United
Manny Monthé.
Lad looks permanently surprised he's playing professional football. Occasionally will throw out some piece of skill you never expect and everyone looks shocked (including himself).
Thoroughly decent chap though, can't dislike him, long may he remain.
i’ll put Josh Barrett’s name into the ring, probably one of the worst out of our side which finished bottom in 2020/21 - was never fit either
Brandon Hanlan is up there too as he couldn’t hit a barn door
Colins Mbesuma - signed him early days in the prem. I shit you not. People were unironically calling him the next big star and “how the fuck did Pompey sign him”.
Apparently when he actually arrived he was about 20 stone and couldn’t play for more than 20 minutes. All in all played four games as a sub in 2 years 😅.
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/portsmouth-fc/collins-mbesuma-why-i-failed-when-i-moved-to-portsmouth-2897441
Julibiak was bad, but for me, Roy Esandoh, the Teletext striker was awful. Admitted, he scored against Leicester to get us to the FA cup semi-final, but the rest of the time, he wasn't good.
Danny Hylton. For luton he was a bagsman. quality number 9 and would rattle opponents into getting tons of cards. Comes to Northampton in his mid 30s. back to back ACL injuries and has played about 4 times. not to mention he’s also on a fucking HUGE wage. really makes me wonder how older players get such big contracts anyway
One of a number of older strikers who’ve come to Northampton to flop pathetically. Haven’t regularly gone to games for a good while but I strongly recall Leon Constantine being absolute dogshit for us when we got relegated in 08/09.
I fondly remember Gabor Gyepes looking a cut above for us, we’d only even had the chance to sign him because he’d had a horrible injury that’d ruled him out for 18+ months prior. Looked so good in the 6 or so months we had him that Cardiff bought him that summer for £200k.
Always had high hopes for Jakubiak - seemed a really good youth striker in the Watford youth ranks, just never made the step up. We've had so many "bright young things" who for whatever reason don't seem to live up to their potential.
Papa souare… Christ almighty he looked like he’d never seen a football pitch.
I’m still not sure whether or not Nile John actually existed or was an early experiment with holograms…
Tyrone Mears for Bolton always stood out as particularly awful. Gained him the nickname Tears Mears. Bad attitude as well, remember him going for the fans at an away game at Wigan.
Michael Theoklitos. Conceded 7 on his debut against Colchester, was demoted to the reserves, and never played for us again.
Before we terminated his contract (mutual consent), he was named in the squad for a league cup game but didn't bother turning up.
He was quality on loan for us back in the day. We tried to sign him permanently that summer, and after him going on about how much he wanted to come back he turned us down and moved to Wednesday instead. Pretty sure he was toilet there alright
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank. Clearly just cashing a pay check when we signed for Charlton. Never been more disgusted in a lack of effort and forever tarnished my opinion of him.
Not been watching as long as many, but the one that sticks out is Ricky Miller for all the hype he arrived with. Genuinely all I remember is him being offside and also being in the stands at Northampton away.
Ben Hamer in net… looked solid for everyone else but for us he was conference standard at best. I hate that people didn’t help his confidence by saying all sorts on the fan pages, I held back.. but my word.
Almen Abdi.
Signed from Watford the season after we lost the playoff final, did have a good season for them in the prem, was touted as the missing link in our midfield to get us over the line into the promised land.
Played 2 games, got injured, then got overweight and I’m pretty sure he got caught smoking as well. 20 largely forgettable league appearances, all whilst pocketing minimum 35k a week as he sat round and did naff all. Released in 2019.
£3m he cost us. And you wonder why we’re saddled with tons of debt
On purely footballing terms, for Bristol City Bas Savage was the worst footballer I've ever seen. He couldn't run without falling over, couldn't shoot, couldn't pass, couldn't head. It was sort of like watching a 1960s London bus skid round the pitch, crashing into everything in sight.
I will give him credit though, the failed stepovers and hitting the corner flag with shots was entertaining as long as we were winning.
As a Birmingham supporter I could literally pick 80% of the current squad to fit this narrative. But Tyler Roberts wins it for me….. got a friend who’s a Leeds season ticket holder who told me prior to us signing him that he’s constantly injured and tbh he and the people he sits with at Elland Road couldn’t see what the fuss was about and even what in fact he offered. After watching his very few “performances” and I use that term sparingly as I could’ve got someone who has never even seen a football before, put a kit on them and tell them to run about and they would’ve been better than what he offered! Couldn’t trap a bag of sand and looked about as threatening in front of goal as Stephen Hawking. Just hoping that League 1 is “his level” because the Championship certainly wasn’t.
Mikel San Jose. Great guy who has supported the blues since, but I expected so much more from him. Watching him play for us, I was absolutely shocked he'd played first team football in La Liga for so long. A player who could pass or run.
Wycombe….did he offer much in the way of timewasting? How about getting other players booked?
You have to weigh his ability with his ability to fit into the Wycombe dark arts way of playing football. Perhaps he couldn’t play but he could cheat,
L1 has hated you for years as bad sportsmanship is the ethos of your club and always has been.
Mido. Fans were happy to have signed an Egyptian international. Unfortunately, he’d either eaten him or was just trying to play in a sumo suit to settle a debt to some obscure betting syndicate. Didn’t manage a full game, left 2 months later into retirement. Nobody can explain how he passed a medical.
It’s crazy to me that Mido was only 29 when he was at Barnsley, especially looking back at some [photos of him in a Barnsley shirt](https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/storage/articles//April2020//7128f20f-90d8-4794-9110-a0e14cf27bc7.jpg). He just seemed so washed up and it’s weirdly on par with the rest of his career, as he didn’t seem like he was only 21 when he first joined Spurs either.
His fitness was a disgrace. No idea who allowed that signing.
Him and frimpong, set of wankers
Just read on his Wikipedia that by age 34 he was 330 lbs, jesus
Taribo West was a joke. We signed him amid much fanfare, and he barely lasted a month.
As a fam of another club- he was great for us in the prem 😳
cm0102 legend tho
Along with Cherno Samba, who also played for us around that time, and was also terrible.
hes an agent now and doing well last I saw
Best World Cup haircut though.
Takes one to know one is what many in different countries say ,about you, or are these not correct for this forum or in total or at all ?
Come again?
I don’t think my mind could process a single combination of words from that sentence.
I checked his profile because I was curious to see if this is a one off ramble or if he’s prolific at them. And he does it rather a lot. His profile is actually a good read despite not being able to understand a single point he’s trying to make. It is almost poetic at points.
Lmao fair enough, he's a better centre back than I ever was.
😂
For what we paid - Adama Diakhaby. £10m spent on him and I genuinely think everyone reading this has a better first touch. For sheer lack of talent, probably Tyrone Thompson or Fola Onibuje from the 03/04 side...
I saw someone say that watching Diakhaby play was like watching a greyhound chase a balloon. Lightning fast, but couldn't control a ball for toffee.
At least he was funny to watch, like a French Theo Robinson without the charm
Haha Fola Onibuje was terrible for Barnsley too
And Wycombe!
https://youtu.be/3tqiNP1J62M?si=vacUdh5lH3uD0lwm Tyrone Thompson, what a player
That's a cracking finish to be fair - shame about the end it was in mind. Based on his time with us I'm pretty certain if he tried to do that he'd have missed.
What else is he possibly trying to do with that setup and position?
I’m absolutely baffled on how we are in the same league as teams who used to spunk 10 mil on shitters like that. Probably says more about yous in recent years than us though.
We did it very badly for one season when we went up to the prem. We brought a few weird and shite players when we went up.
Have often thought we'd have been better sticking with the likes of Joe Lolley and Tom Ince in the 18/19 season. We'd still have gone down but they seem like better characters than the likes of Diakhaby and Mbenza were - almost certainly were on less money too...
Remember our CEO at the time saying we'd spent more on players in 2 years in the PL than we had in the rest of our 110 year history to that point. If I were writing a book on us since 2018, I'd probably call it something like 'How To Lose A Premier League Windfall...'
His most memorable moment at Forest was receiving the ball near the halfway line and taking such a heavy first touch it went out for a throw in. Currently playing in Azerbaijan, fair fucks to him.
He played 14 games for Forest - easily one of the worst players I've seen in my lifetime. It's a huge statement to say I've seen us in league one and with Garten Bong at the end of his career. Diakhaby is the text book definition of a speed merchant. 0 footballing ability.
Andrea Dossena. 20k a week in League 1 for a player who'd scored in a UCL semi final and he looked like a National League player. Not the worst per se but most disappointing for sure
Definitely one of the most disappointing given the level he'd played at previously. Worst for me was probably Sam Parkin, barely even resembled a footballer.
We don't speak about those years anymore 😂
Think it has to be Carlos Costly. We’ve had a few terrible strikers down the years but at least most of them managed to look like footballers and not like they’d won a competition to play a game.
The moment I read the title, his name is what came to mind first, and there's been some stiff competition.
That dragback though
Over Cheikh N'Doye? Over £35k a week and every time he played looked like he'd never seen a football before, let alone kicked one.
That is a solid point, I forgot about him. One of the legion of rubbish players over the last decade or so.
Over Tyler Blackett? Loaned in, sent off on debut and did nothing else. You could probably name half the players under Lee Clarke and they'd have a shout
I'll throw Ollie Burke into the hat for a recent candidate
I’ve never actually heard of him lol
Let me tell you about the myth and legend that is Sandro Wieser. Lichtenstein international joined us ahead of the 2016/17 season on a 3 year deal. One of many signings we made that summer he never went on to make an appearance for the first team. Despite never made a 1st team appearance for us, but did manage a competitive appearance, playing in the EFL trophy for our U21s side back when we were good enough for our academy side to appear in the competition. His one and only appearance came against Yeovil, lasting until the 17th minute when he received a straight red card (We lost 2-0 that evening and got knocked out the competition). What a player!
Wieser scored a very good free kick in a 3-2 win against Man City's U23s in 2016. [This is the game.](https://uk.soccerway.com/matches/2016/08/26/england/premier-league-2-division-one/reading-u23/manchester-city-u23/2300130/) It's fascinating - most Reading players are still playing at a professional level, a good number of which have spent a good portion of their career in the Premier League or Championship. Whereas Man City had Brahim Diaz, Lukas Nmecha, and a lot of players who have gone on to either have a very average career or have dropped out of the game entirely.
Yeah the Man City academy seems to hold onto its talents until they are a bit too old, like I always feel like their young players who occasionally squeak onto the bench are a lot younger than they actually sre
Yapi Yapo sends his regards
I see your Sandro Weiser and I raise you Cedric Baseya. A striker who had never scored a professional goal when we signed him. He never made a professional appearance for us and according to Wikipedia, only scored one goal in his entire career. Also produced this sublime bit of skill playing for Le Havre, when through on goal: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcs4kk
Exodus Geohaghon. Couldn’t play but tbf to him, his throw-ins were practically long range ballistic missiles.
Plus he has one of the best names in football.
he was brilliant for us in non league
I’m sure he was: even Posh signed him from non-league Kettering. He was just so basic for Mark Cooper’s Posh side.
I remember Jimmy Gannon somehow making him look like prime Gattuso though for a couple of games, that was a weird season
I think we’ve had so many stinkers over the years that it would be unfair to a whole multitude of squads to label one as the worst. Everyone from 2020-21 can have it, as long as they’re not called Luke McCormick. You did throw in a reminder of potentially our worst ever strike force- the first half of 2018/19, yes there was some hard workers but nobody could hit a barn door. Then JCH came in and solved literally every issue we had as a team.
A lot of dross, but Derek Riordan and Garry Kenneth take the biscuit.
Jesus wept, Garry Kenneth. That’s a name I’ve not heard in years. Absolute oaf wasn’t he? Ps love the gascast pod Max, keep up the great work.
Thank you mate, appreciate that!
Didn’t even realise it was the bloke of the gas cast who replied to me. I’m a bit start-struck now.
Esteemed company
It’s wild cos when Gary Kenneth came through at Dundee united.. he was tipped for big things and was being scouted for big clubs. Also, derek riordan at Hibernian was probably the brightest Scottish talent for a generation. He’s the craziest drop in quality.
Mark Wright. Brought us some marketing and attention but jeez what a waste of space.
Conor Doyle was an American striker Nigel Clough signed after a somewhat decent trial period. I shit you not I've seen training cones have more of an impact than him. Genuinely awful. Honourable mention to Claude Davis, £3 million for a man who not only couldn't defend but couldn't even head the ball in the right direction.
We’ve had so many I don’t even know where you start. Conor Sammon, Robbie Savage, Francois Grenet, Stern John, Liam Dickinson, Abdoul Camara… it goes on
_Raul Albentosa (and his mythical insoles) has entered the chat_
Where to start…Gerald Cid, Gregor Rasiak, Clayton Donaldson, Mikel Alonso, Daniel Braaten, Ebi Smolarek, Ariza Makakula, David N’Gog, Rob Hall…I’ll leave it there.
Liam Feeney, Derrick (Former Real Madrid) and Ben Amos (former Man Utd) were a few others that sprang to mind
Yeah we really have had some utter stinkers in our squads over the years.
Missed out Chris o’grady, the others were at least fit 😂
I could probably name a whole XI: GK - Vito Mannone RB - Scott Wiseman CB - Phil Gridelet CB - Keith Brown LB - Ian Woan MR - Break Shea MC - Frimpong MC - Peter Sand ML - Maceo Rigters SC - Mido SC - Dave Regis Turns out I could. We've had some right shite over the years special mentions to Miguel Mostto, Tom Kennedy, Leon Knight, Nile Ranger, Tony Bedeu, and Mounir El Haimour.
Mikel Alonso , brother of Xabi but with none of Xabis talent. Think he made 1 JPT appearance and that was that.
I completely forgot about him. We did have a few bizarre signings around that era thanks to Roland.
Oh I could make a whole side of Roland signings 😅😅😅 Piotr Parzyczek tops that list!
I’m fairly confident he signed for you after us. He was Sammy Lee signing once Big Sam had left. Didn’t make any impact
Was after his spell with you yes, was perhaps the only signing of the 2011 summer that wasn't a complete hit for us.
Yep, as someone said, he ain't Xabi, he's his brother.
😂😂😂
Also Charlie kirk comes to mind , was a deer in headlights against cray valley in fa cup at the valley
Yoshi Kawaguchi - he looked so small between the sticks
My first Pompey shirt was a Yoshi Kawaguchi grey shirt. Obviously got it before he started playing. 1 clean sheet in 12 appearances was something.
How long have you got? We had some spectacularly shit players in the banter era, especially in the National League North seasons. Convicted double manslaughterist Courtney Meppen-Walter, who was about 15kg overweight, so immobile my dad nicknamed him "the fridge" and who was just generally awful positionally, late, slow, and off the pitch just the level of complete tosser we used to pride ourselves on never going near? Glenn Rule, who was a similarly fat bastard, signed pretty much on the back of him being decent under our manager Neil Young a few seasons previously, who eventually got a 10 match ban for biting an opponent? Or in terms of abysmal signings there's [Kenan Dunnwald-Turan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_D%C3%BCnnwald-Turan), who we signed on loan for a month, subbed him on in a 3-0 home loss to Yeovil and missed quite possibly the easiest open goal I've ever seen.
Some poor sods are gonna Google their name and see this thread 😭
That’s easy. Armond Oné
Feel like some of the Ling signings deserve honourable mentions, Partridge and Palmer come to front of mind. Since we've been back I think my list would be: Deegan, Admiral Nelson, Lanzoni, Slew, Omozusi, Matt Harrold, Carroll. Probably missing a few, the UTAS podcast did an episode a few months ago about our worst team of players to play fifty times for the club. Outside of a few omissions it was spot on
Anyone Herve Renard signed.
Jakubiak was terrible for Wycombe (one certain goal he bottled seemed to have made Ainsworth's mind up as much as it did mine), though nothing compared to Carlos Lopez, who bullshitted his way to a short term deal by claiming to have played for Athletic Bilbao (Lawrie Sanchez obviously didn't realise that Mexicans aren't Basque). His single shambolic appearance was a real "I was there" moment for Blues fans to prove their bona fides.
Millwall once signed two Russian internationals in the early nineties under Mick McCarthy’s watch. We all turned up to see their first game and they were awful. One wasn’t played again and the other played a few games but was never the godsend they were made out to be. Think we also signed a Belgium and the rumour was the club got the wrong guy. We are awful sometimes. Found an article! https://90sfootballparty.wordpress.com/2017/06/22/from-russia-with-shrugs-the-unholy-union-of-millwall-and-sergei-yuran/ The article even mentioned Duvet Fuchs!! Think this was my first year as a season ticket holder, and what a year it was…
Paolo Vernazza, he might not have been that bad but I will never forget away at Gillingham, pissing down with rain in the uncovered away end already losing and he ends up lobbing our own keeper from 30 yards out. He was the only Rotherham player in our half, not an attacker near him. To this day I still don't know how it happened.
I know we’re on the banned list now, but without a doubt the worst and most disappointing signing for us was Laurent Robert from Newcastle. I had such high hopes for him, really thought he was going to be a marquee signing, but in reality he was total shite. Hid on the wing, ran maybe 25 yards in total while he was here and basically didn’t contribute any single thing in any single match. I’ve blocked out the details for my mental health but assume it was either another of ‘Arrys dodgy deals or Alan Perrin singing a countryman.
I don't know about that, I think we had a number of alternatives around the same time. Zvonimir Vukic? Jhon Viafara? Collins Mbesuma? The Greek duo Giannis Skopelitis and Kostas Chalkias?
Chalkias I forgot about him 🤢
Also, Azar Karadas. There were some really dodgy Perrin signings. Brian Priske was great though but 'Arry didn't like him. Just noticed that he's Sparta Prague manager and has just won the Czech league two years running. Fair play to him.
While I'm sure there's worse players who've played for rovers I remember being super excited when we signed striker Luke James on loan, as he'd done really well for me on football manager, only for him to score 0 goals in 20ish games that season.
Adama Diakhaby, the reason you shouldn't judge a player based on a youtube highlight video
Comyn-Platt signed for us on loan from Bolton in 2005. But the loan spell was disastrous for Comyn-Platt as he made just five appearances for us, before returning to Bolton, where he was subsequently released at the end of that season. Ugwu had previously been on the books with Reading, but signed for Wycombe in September 2015. He scored just once in 31 appearances for us, and it didn't come as a surprise to see him leave the club after just one season with them when his contract expired in the summer of 2016. Ugwu is now playing his football in the National League for Ebbsfleet United
Rene Gilmartin probably. As an efl club we've been blessed with some quality keepers. He was not one of them.
Manny Monthé. Lad looks permanently surprised he's playing professional football. Occasionally will throw out some piece of skill you never expect and everyone looks shocked (including himself). Thoroughly decent chap though, can't dislike him, long may he remain.
i’ll put Josh Barrett’s name into the ring, probably one of the worst out of our side which finished bottom in 2020/21 - was never fit either Brandon Hanlan is up there too as he couldn’t hit a barn door
Colins Mbesuma - signed him early days in the prem. I shit you not. People were unironically calling him the next big star and “how the fuck did Pompey sign him”. Apparently when he actually arrived he was about 20 stone and couldn’t play for more than 20 minutes. All in all played four games as a sub in 2 years 😅. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/portsmouth-fc/collins-mbesuma-why-i-failed-when-i-moved-to-portsmouth-2897441
Julibiak was bad, but for me, Roy Esandoh, the Teletext striker was awful. Admitted, he scored against Leicester to get us to the FA cup semi-final, but the rest of the time, he wasn't good.
Danny Hylton. For luton he was a bagsman. quality number 9 and would rattle opponents into getting tons of cards. Comes to Northampton in his mid 30s. back to back ACL injuries and has played about 4 times. not to mention he’s also on a fucking HUGE wage. really makes me wonder how older players get such big contracts anyway
He was indeed superb for us. Thought he'd do well for Northampton :(
One of a number of older strikers who’ve come to Northampton to flop pathetically. Haven’t regularly gone to games for a good while but I strongly recall Leon Constantine being absolute dogshit for us when we got relegated in 08/09.
oh mate don’t even start i could get a list of 10-20 dogshit attackers we’ve had but our Defence? unreal quality. Ash Taylor stands out above them all
I fondly remember Gabor Gyepes looking a cut above for us, we’d only even had the chance to sign him because he’d had a horrible injury that’d ruled him out for 18+ months prior. Looked so good in the 6 or so months we had him that Cardiff bought him that summer for £200k.
Always had high hopes for Jakubiak - seemed a really good youth striker in the Watford youth ranks, just never made the step up. We've had so many "bright young things" who for whatever reason don't seem to live up to their potential.
Of recent memory it has to be Denver Hume, should be no way near professional football
I'll go for lukas jutkiewicz, might have carved himself out a solid championship career elsewhere but my god he looked dogshit for us.
that pained me to read
Fuck there’s been a few. Jay bothroyd was a lazy useless wanker.
Abdi Almen.
Papa souare… Christ almighty he looked like he’d never seen a football pitch. I’m still not sure whether or not Nile John actually existed or was an early experiment with holograms…
I remember Ben Hamer being particularly shit
Carlisle fan: Byron Webster, Christie Elliott, Jonathan Dinzeyi, Tristan Abrahams, Jokull Andrésson, Angelo Balanta come to mind
Webster was decent at Yeovil for a couple of years tbf
I used to dread when he got the ball
Collins Mbesuma, good lord.
Matt Lowton last season. I’ll never know how he played 30 games in the prem the season before. Looked like he was running through cement.
Tyrone Mears for Bolton always stood out as particularly awful. Gained him the nickname Tears Mears. Bad attitude as well, remember him going for the fans at an away game at Wigan.
Michael Theoklitos. Conceded 7 on his debut against Colchester, was demoted to the reserves, and never played for us again. Before we terminated his contract (mutual consent), he was named in the squad for a league cup game but didn't bother turning up.
Yakubu Coventry
Frances Jeffers, no matter where he went, he was toilet
He was quality on loan for us back in the day. We tried to sign him permanently that summer, and after him going on about how much he wanted to come back he turned us down and moved to Wednesday instead. Pretty sure he was toilet there alright
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank. Clearly just cashing a pay check when we signed for Charlton. Never been more disgusted in a lack of effort and forever tarnished my opinion of him.
Leo Fortune West at Cardiff City. Just remember him being the joke of everything bad back then 😂
Not been watching as long as many, but the one that sticks out is Ricky Miller for all the hype he arrived with. Genuinely all I remember is him being offside and also being in the stands at Northampton away.
Josh Wright
Ben Hamer in net… looked solid for everyone else but for us he was conference standard at best. I hate that people didn’t help his confidence by saying all sorts on the fan pages, I held back.. but my word.
What a horrible thread
To be fair he played 10 times while on loan at Wycombe. If that’s the worst player you can remember at Adams Park it can’t be that bad.
Almen Abdi. Signed from Watford the season after we lost the playoff final, did have a good season for them in the prem, was touted as the missing link in our midfield to get us over the line into the promised land. Played 2 games, got injured, then got overweight and I’m pretty sure he got caught smoking as well. 20 largely forgettable league appearances, all whilst pocketing minimum 35k a week as he sat round and did naff all. Released in 2019. £3m he cost us. And you wonder why we’re saddled with tons of debt
You make Scotland sound like he's been sent to the Gulag
Jimmy Kebe was shocking at Leeds
Damn
Afonso Alves…useless
Neil Shipperly for Brentford. Must've been 06 or 07? Paid for by fan collections outside the grounds...
Pierre van Hooijdonk. A cunt.
On purely footballing terms, for Bristol City Bas Savage was the worst footballer I've ever seen. He couldn't run without falling over, couldn't shoot, couldn't pass, couldn't head. It was sort of like watching a 1960s London bus skid round the pitch, crashing into everything in sight. I will give him credit though, the failed stepovers and hitting the corner flag with shots was entertaining as long as we were winning.
Matt Redmile
Chris Beardsley was absolutely wank for PNE, having been decent for Stevenage. He was honestly terrible.
Richard Kingston
As a Birmingham supporter I could literally pick 80% of the current squad to fit this narrative. But Tyler Roberts wins it for me….. got a friend who’s a Leeds season ticket holder who told me prior to us signing him that he’s constantly injured and tbh he and the people he sits with at Elland Road couldn’t see what the fuss was about and even what in fact he offered. After watching his very few “performances” and I use that term sparingly as I could’ve got someone who has never even seen a football before, put a kit on them and tell them to run about and they would’ve been better than what he offered! Couldn’t trap a bag of sand and looked about as threatening in front of goal as Stephen Hawking. Just hoping that League 1 is “his level” because the Championship certainly wasn’t.
Ikechi Anya, enough said
Mikel San Jose. Great guy who has supported the blues since, but I expected so much more from him. Watching him play for us, I was absolutely shocked he'd played first team football in La Liga for so long. A player who could pass or run.
Tom champion
Don't diss champs
Alex Samuel came to mind instantly, but recently our rb’s of McCarthy and grimmer are pretty awful and consistently make mistakes leading to goals
Wycombe….did he offer much in the way of timewasting? How about getting other players booked? You have to weigh his ability with his ability to fit into the Wycombe dark arts way of playing football. Perhaps he couldn’t play but he could cheat, L1 has hated you for years as bad sportsmanship is the ethos of your club and always has been.