Southampton's 5 Best and Worst Transfer Signings of the Past 15 Years

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1664096-southamptons-5-best-and-worst-transfer-signings-of-the-past-15-years?

Vote - and then discuss!?

McCann for me was the worst because of who he replaced - together with Le Saux and Van Damme he was the replacement for Bridge and Marsden down our left hand side. It meant we wasted what little money we spent from Bridges transfer fee - and started us on our way down.

Morgan was / is the best - fir his age when we signed him, his value now and the talent and ability he's shown this season - and the potential he's still got.

Lambert would be a very close second though - followed by Pahars for me. It brought a tear to my eye the day Pahars left - just like the day Matty retired.

Lambert in terms of value, impact and consistency is the best signing we've made in my lifetime, perhaps bar Niemi.

Lambert in terms of value, impact and consistency is the best signing we've made in my lifetime, perhaps bar Niemi.

Niemi was staggeringly good on a consistent basis. MoM display after MoM display; he's probably still my favourite Saints player of the modern era.

Worst for me might have to go to Jason Euell (big wages, big reputation, endless inept performances) or Andreas Jacobsson and Michael Nilsson, who looked hopelessly out of their depth.

My best 5:

Niemi

Beattie

Lambert

Morgan

Kelvin Davis (notwithstanding his difficulties at times this season and initially, he has been instrumental in our back-to-back promotions)

Honourable mentions to Pahars, Fonte, Michael Svensson, Claus (may have been more than 15 years ago actually)

Worst five:

Davenport

Jakobsen

Forecast

Pulis

Wright Phillips

Best: Lambert, Niemi, Pahars, Killer, BT

Worst: Forecast, Van Damme, Olivier Bernard, Pulis, Stuart Ripley

My best 5:

 

Niemi

Beattie

Lambert

Morgan

Kelvin Davis (notwithstanding his difficulties at times this season and initially, he has been instrumental in our back-to-back promotions)

 

Honourable mentions to Pahars, Fonte, Michael Svensson, Claus (may have been more than 15 years ago actually)

 

Worst five:

 

Davenport

Jakobsen

Forecast

Pulis

Wright Phillips

Bit harsh on a 22yo loan signing....

ITs easy to pick rubbish players like Pulis signed when we had no money and there was plenty of crap then, but we were a struggling, skint, championship club who was scraping the barrel so I'm not going to include any of them so for me its...

Scott Marshall - for those that dont remember a centre half signed by Dave Jones from Arsenal and consider a bit of a coup at the time. Was dire, played twice, scored 2 own goals and we lost the games 0-3 and 0-4.

Delgado - enough said.

Imats Bledilis - his sole contribution was to come on as a half time sub when we were 3-0 up at Tranmere in the cup, hardly get a touch and look totally out of his depth

Mark Draper - spent his whole time injured and balls deep in a barmaid from the lizard lounge.

Stuart Ripley - poor signing and a complete knob.

Best in no particular order:

Lambert - he took us to the premier league

Kevin Davies - effectively made us around 14 million with Beattie swap and sales

Michael svensson - top centre back

Dean Richards - another top centre back and we signed him on a free

Antti niemi - best keeper in my time as a saints fan

Worst - ignoring lower league times as its not comparable

Delgado - always no 1

Jacobson - expected to replace svensson - didn't

Van damme - huge waste of money

McCann - another waste of money

Redknapp (Harry) - ok so not a player but still paid him a lot in wages and he relegated us after so many years and will be forever hated

Best:

5. Michael Svensson. Immense. Without him we crumbled.

4. James Beattie. At one point the most exciting young striker in the English game.

3. Morgan Schneiderlin. Along with St Mary's Stadium, the best thing Rupert Lowe ever did for us.

2. Antti Niemi. The best keeper i've had the privilage of watching.

1. Rickie Lambert. Pound for pound the best forward in the country.

Honourable mentions to Marians Pahars, Jose Fonte, Dean Richards, Kelvin Davis, Jack Cork and Chris Marsden.

Worst:

5. Mikael Nillson. Ordinary, so ordinary. Symptomatic of our then malaise. (See also Wayne Thomas)

4. Bradley Wright-Phillips. Such a waste of that prize winner's money.

3. Kleber Chala. Agustin Delgado's travelling companion. Contributed even less then his countryman.

2. Inigo Idiakez. Past it and then in the play-off semi final blew it.

1. Jelle Van Damme. Signed to fill a desperate need for a young dynamic overlapping full-back. Was a mardy, arrogant son of a b***h.

Dishonourable mentions to: Nigel Quashie, Andreas Jakobsson, Ryan Smith, Ryan Bennett (he did improve thank god), Olivier Bernard, Agustin Delgado

Best

1.Niemi

2.Pahars

3.Killer

4.Lambert

5.Spiderman

shouts for Ekuland(poss more than 15yrs),Richards,Marsden

Worst

1.Ali Dia (George Weah's cousin) arguably the worst signing in prem league history

2.Neil McCann

3.Stuart Ripley

4.David Hirst (might've been more than 15yrs ago)

5.Ali Dia he was so bad he definitely deserves at least 2 spots

Hirst? He was quality just a bit injury prone and then a bit tubby. Won us a game up at Anfield and linked up well with Egil and Matty though

My worst 5 in no particular order but could of had 20 Dixon/Speedie/Charlie George/ Nilsson/Davenport(anyone who saw that display against Villa)

1. Dave Mclaren still have nightmares

2. Tommy Fourpast the worst keeper ever

3. Neil McCann did he ever beat anyone?

4. Lew Chatterley simply terrible

5. Olivier Bernard absolute tosh for us

My worst 5 in no particular order but could of had 20 Dixon/Speedie/Charlie George/ Nilsson/Davenport(anyone who saw that display against Villa)

 

1. Dave Mclaren still have nightmares

2. Tommy Fourpast the worst keeper ever

3. Neil McCann did he ever beat anyone?

4. Lew Chatterley simply terrible

5. Olivier Bernard absolute tosh for us

No problem with any of them, but you appear to be stretching the "Past 15 Years" requirement.

No problem with any of them, but you appear to be stretching the "Past 15 Years" requirement.

yeah sorry didnt read that bit - multi tasking at work....last 15

1. Pulis - saw him in 6 reserve games and utterly totally sh1te

2. Fourpast as above

3. Davenport as above most lightweight centre half ever

4. Bernard as above

5. Neil Mccann as above

Niemi was staggeringly good on a consistent basis. MoM display after MoM display; he's probably still my favourite Saints player of the modern era.

 

Worst for me might have to go to Jason Euell (big wages, big reputation, endless inept performances) or Andreas Jacobsson and Michael Nilsson, who looked hopelessly out of their depth.

SWEDISH COMMENT; Jacobsson was already past his prime before coming to Saints, (yet two/three years earlier, he and Michael Svensson had been the rock of the Swedish defence)

Nilsson (to be fair to him)...looked really good (in Sweden) as an attacking midfielder, but after being selected for the Swedish squad was suddenly "press-ganged " into the RB spot because of a massive injury crisis.

He played well for a few v. good games against easy opposition....and suddenly Saints thought they'd bought a good RB .(WRONG !) However, I wouldn't disagree with your judgement (in their time at SFC).

Best

1.Niemi

2.Pahars

3.Killer

4.Lambert

5.Spiderman

good choices..... I'd go with that, too.

good choices..... I'd go with that, too.

Surprised no-one has mentioned dear old Ulrich van Hubble. He certainly put himself about a bit with the opposition forward line and later attracted the attention of the Dutch police.

Should he be included with the plus-es or the minus-es. The choice is in your hands

Surprised no-one has mentioned dear old Ulrich van Hubble. He certainly put himself about a bit with the opposition forward line and later attracted the attention of the Dutch police.

Should he be included with the plus-es or the minus-es. The choice is in your hands

Van Goebel, but he would fall outside of the date parameters anyway. Signed in 97 which is out of the 15 year range...just

Wow, why has no one mentioned Rory Delap?

Wow, why has no one mentioned Rory Delap?

.......in which category:?

Number 1 worst signing by miles.........Harry Redknapp!!!

Worst:

Dia

Forecast

Pulis

Paul Muarry

Kleber Chala

Best:

Lambert

Niemi

Killer

Deano

Morgan

Thinking about the amount of players we’ve signed in the last 15 years, seems slightly odd that everyone seems pretty much agreed on the best 5 (especially on this forum!).

Is it indicative that we’ve wasted an awful lot of money and/or a lot of signings haven’t actually set the world alight (or, been utter gash)? Or, are many clubs the same, and you only get this amount of players that make this sort of impact on the team and club, within this time period?

Probably wouldn't be in my top 5, but what a statement of intent it was signing Fonte when we did.

SWEDISH COMMENT; Jacobsson was already past his prime before coming to Saints, (yet two/three years earlier, he and Michael Svensson had been the rock of the Swedish defence)

 

Nilsson (to be fair to him)...looked really good (in Sweden) as an attacking midfielder, but after being selected for the Swedish squad was suddenly "press-ganged " into the RB spot because of a massive injury crisis.

 

He played well for a few v. good games against easy opposition....and suddenly Saints thought they'd bought a good RB .(WRONG !) However, I wouldn't disagree with your judgement (in their time at SFC).

In the few games that I saw Nilsson play, I thought he suffered from being behind Febrice Fernandes. One game springs to mind where FF created a huge amount of space on the right forward of centre. into which Nilsson ran unmarked, only for the crop circling routine to start up

ensuring time for all avenues of attack to inevitably close. This happened three or four times and I remember thinking how much energy

Nilsson expended needlessly thanks to the cock playing jn front of him.

In the few games that I saw Nilsson play, I thought he suffered from being behind Febrice Fernandes. One game springs to mind where FF created a huge amount of space on the right forward of centre. into which Nilsson ran unmarked, only for the crop circling routine to start up ensuring time for all avenues of attack to inevitably close. This happened three or four times and I remember thinking how much energy

Nilsson expended needlessly thanks to the cock playing jn front of him.

all of the Swedish players of that era were v.g / outstanding in the Swedish national team when they had a good side.

Suddenly coming to a team struggling at the wrong end of the Prem. and a series of fast-moving managers playing musical chairs at SMS didn't help at all.

Michael Svensson was truly excellent at CB and put his body on the line many times (a latter day Jim Steele), but almost all of the others were strangers to the set-up and nearly all were played out of their best positions. RB Alexander Östlund won a few fans at SMS, but he was a real force to be reckoned with in his best days in Sweden.

Drafting in half the Swedish national side wasn't the right answer, when you consider the other half were already struggling to keep their heads above water.....

Best (no particular order):

Lambert,

Schneiderlin,

Beattie,

Niemi

Killer

Worst:

Dia,

Osvaldo,

Ramirez

Tommy Forecast

Delgado

I remember us signing some absolutely terrible Spanish/Portuguese central defender with long curly hair in, I think, the early 00s. Who was he? I have some memory of him being eaten alive by Arsenal at St Mary's. May just have been a loan signing.

Gazza? £2.5m was quite a lot for him, and he has proved that he isn't good enough to be even back up goalie. Not sure what we are doing with him, nor why we extended his contract.

I remember us signing some absolutely terrible Spanish/Portuguese central defender with long curly hair in, I think, the early 00s. Who was he? I have some memory of him being eaten alive by Arsenal at St Mary's. May just have been a loan signing.

I think his name was something like Marco Almeyda. From memory it was still 0-0 against Arsenal with around 10 mins to go when Almeyda was attempting mark Terry Henry who turned Almeyda and scored his first goal for the Ars3.

Gazza? £2.5m was quite a lot for him, and he has proved that he isn't good enough to be even back up goalie.

Not sure what we are doing with him, nor why we extended his contract.

whilst I agree with every word of that ......Young goalies are not like young midfielders / strikers....it does takes time for them to develop properly.

Gazza needs one or two loan seasons and game time with good Championship clubs..... who are " on-the-up."

If he is still in the wilderness after his deal runs out, we should look seriously at a further extension.

As I recall, Brum (reportedly) refused our offer of £6 million for Jack Butland, and Gazza was next of the list......all in all ....not " a quick fix ".

The team now is the best in that period so we really should consider current players.

Best:

Fonte

Lambert

Bertrand

Van Dijk

Mane

Worst:

Osvaldo

Ramirez

Delgado

Hooiveld

Fox

Hooiveld and Fox are not even close ffs. Neither is Ramirez for that matter, we've had some ****ing awful players in the last 15 years.

Olivier bernard was trash

Best: Morgan, Lambert, Fraser Forster, Mane, VVD

Worst: Osvaldo, Ramirez, Forren, Tadanari Lee, Mayuka,

Olivier bernard was trash

He was so out of position in one game, that he ended up playing upfront for Bournemouth.

OH, EDIT i thought this was for the LAST five seasons, but it's 15

I'll change my list

Best: Lambert, Niemi, Morgan, Michael Svensson, VVD

Worst - In terms of ability and wasted potential, Delgado, Osvaldo, Mikael Nilson, Olivier Bernard and Gaston Ramirez (talented, but ultimately wasn't the right fit here)

Depends how you're looking at it. Are we talking about how much of a positive impact they had when they joined, or how good they went on to be?

For example I would say Ramirez was quite a good signing at the time. He provided some real quality in midfield, even if it was very inconsistent. He chipped in with a few goals and assists that first year and probably gave the team a psychological lift, knowing we had some international talent in the squad. Conversely, Morgan was a very poor signing at the time, making very little impact and costing money we didn't have at the time. However he went on to be an excellent player, albeit it a good 4 or 5 years after he joined.

For me, if we're talking about positive impact; Lambert, Pahars, Fonte, Niemi and Killer

Negative or little impact; Osvaldo, Bernard, Davenport, McCann, Euell

For negative impact, I'm not including players we took a punt on at relatively low cost. To that extent I omitted players like Arias, Juanmi or Sarmiento and included players we genuinely expected a first team impact from.

Best- Michael Svensson, Niemi, Lambert, Fonte and Mane

Worst- Neil McCann, Delgado, Tommy Forecast, Anthony Pulis and the most expensive mistake of the lot, Osvaldo.

Depends how you're looking at it. Are we talking about how much of a positive impact they had when they joined, or how good they went on to be?

 

For example I would say Ramirez was quite a good signing at the time. He provided some real quality in midfield, even if it was very inconsistent. He chipped in with a few goals and assists that first year and probably gave the team a psychological lift, knowing we had some international talent in the squad. Conversely, Morgan was a very poor signing at the time, making very little impact and costing money we didn't have at the time. However he went on to be an excellent player, albeit it a good 4 or 5 years after he joined.

 

For me, if we're talking about positive impact; Lambert, Pahars, Fonte, Niemi and Killer

 

Negative or little impact; Osvaldo, Bernard, Davenport, McCann, Euell

 

For negative impact, I'm not including players we took a punt on at relatively low cost. To that extent I omitted players like Arias, Juanmi or Sarmiento and included players we genuinely expected a first team impact from.

Pahars was a pre 2001 signing and IMO Euell was far from in the top 5 worst signings!