Ex players who were shyte.

Defoe isn’t fair imo, we didn’t play to his strengths at all. He could have easily scored double figures for us if we used him correctly, same as Glenn Murray, but Howe never did. Both players with a lot of qualities but just not a good fit, the only strikers who ever really thrived under Eddie were all rounders eg pace, power, channel runners, proficient at holding the ball up etc for those two it was our/Eddie’s fault for signing players that were never going to fit in here.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Anderton?
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He was a bright light in a pretty gloomy era.

Magician at that level, even though he'd lost his pace by then.

He basically just wanted to play football, somewhere on the south coast near to home.

Was almost worth admission fee alone back then, seeing him in action, pull the strings in a level well below his technical and football intelligence level.

And whst a way to bow out the game... that strike!
 
redharry said:
Its a difficult one as so much depends on your expectations at the time. When the club were shite (most of the time) then expectations were pretty low but we still managed to sign some dreadful ones.
When we sold Ted Mac expectations were very high and we signed Clark and Gibson who both totally underwhelmed after their first couple of games. Another like that was George Lawrence. Crap in a decent side.
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I recall a funny occurence involving George Lawrence. It was an away game at Oxford. Our crowd was giving him verbal shite for over an hour. Then Lawrence lets fly and stuck it in the top corner. Our crowd suddenly rose up and sang - There is only one Georgie Lawrence, one Georgie Lawrence etc

I stood behind the gosl laughjng my head off.
 
Cherriess said:
Relatively speaking compared to how he'd previously been.
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If he still had pace he wouldn't have been near us imo.

Plus he was enjoying life on the p1ss in town most weekends at that point. So was winding down, but his ability carried him well enough still at our level.

Used to see him every weekend in klute, dusk till down necking bsck drinks. With a bloke that looked like a spitting image of Milan mandaric...and of similar age to mandaric (about 70)...which seemed odd, but they were a good laugh.
 
What about Mark Watson a striker that we signed from West ham as part of a transfer deal involving one of our players. This is another who Mel Machin lost patience with. Then there was Jason Brissett who had plenty of ability with no end product.
 
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Defoe wanted an easy, cosy life at Dean Court to end his professional career..being constantly reminded....and constantly reminding himself of his career goalscoring record.
There was an interview done at Dean Court shortly after he returned..whereupon he and the interviewer ( can't remember who that was) sat in the stands and talked of bugger- all else...nothing about the club..or the seasons progress....just about his past goals.
Howe was probably aware of this narcissistic occurrence..and it irked him somewhat...and a rift developed....I say probably because it's only supposition from my limited knowledge...but instinctively it feels near the truth.
It's why I prefer the transfers to be heavily biased toward young players on the make...with maybe just 1 or 2 more experienced types...a ratio of say 8 to 2 of every 10 transfers....with an added improved use of the Academy for eventual Ist team usage...to save spending big Money.
 
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New Old Cherry said:
Defoe wanted an easy, cosy life at Dean Court to end his professional career..being constantly reminded....and constantly reminding himself of his career goalscoring record.
There was an interview done at Dean Court shortly after he returned..whereupon he and the interviewer ( can't remember who that was) sat in the stands and talked of bugger- all else...nothing about the club..or the seasons progress....just about his past goals.
Howe was probably aware of this narcissistic occurrence..and it irked him somewhat...and a rift developed....I say probably because it's only supposition from my limited knowledge...but instinctively it feels near the truth.
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He was expensive. But at the time, things were working with Wilson and King, so EH probably thought there was no need to play Defoe. I seem to recall reading something about Eddie and Defoe not seeing eye to eye. Might have been because Eddie kept him on the bench.
 
Waz afcb said:
Defoe isn’t fair imo, we didn’t play to his strengths at all. He could have easily scored double figures for us if we used him correctly, same as Glenn Murray, but Howe never did. Both players with a lot of qualities but just not a good fit, the only strikers who ever really thrived under Eddie were all rounders eg pace, power, channel runners, proficient at holding the ball up etc for those two it was our/Eddie’s fault for signing players that were never going to fit in here.
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That over the head volley he done. Very few players could pull that off.
 
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