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Top three Worst ever centre backs


Turkish

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We’ve had a few and the current lot all could all have a case to be included. Hoedt, Vestergaard are terrible making Jos Hooliveld look like Bobby Moore but are they in the worst three you’ve seen? stand outs for me who some may have forgotten or blanked out for their memories

 

Marco Almedia - played for us once in the late 90s. Highly rated when he signed but only made one appearance for us. He was terrible His moment of magic came when he came on as a sub v Arsenal with twenty minute left. He then went on to fall over the ball which led to Thierry Henrys first ever goal in English football.

 

Scott Marshall - signed by Dave Jones from Arsenal and was considered a bit of a coup at the time. However in his first two appearances we conceded 7 goals, two of which were own goals by him. He was utterly useless and never played for us again

 

Alan Bennett - although he improved slight, to be blunt after his first game it would have been impossible not to, his debut v Crystal Palace was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen by a professional footballer. Absolutely terrible.

 

Honourable mentions to Calum Davenport, Jackobsen, Olly Lancashire and if Vestergaard can maintain his current level he has every chance of making the top 3.

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I think the real tragedy of this situation is that over the years we have had some real class at centre back. Such a shame to see this area of the pitch in such a mess at the moment.

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

Edited by Micky
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I think the real tragedy of this situation is that over the years we have had some real class at centre back over the years. Such a shame to see this area of the pitch in such a mess at the moment.

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

We certainly have, Micky. Van Dijk and Lovren's Liverpool are top of the Premier League, with Alderweireld's Spurs in 3rd place while Fonte's Lille are 2nd in the French League and, of course, they are also all starring for their national teams. I suppose, to take the positives out of it, you could at least say, we once had some very good players.

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Should the thread title be "Bottom Three worst....)

 

There are some shockers already mentioned on here. When I first saw Vestergaard play when he joined, I thought, yeah a class CB here - but five minutes later I was very doubtful

 

Anyway - makes you appreciate Jose Fonte - had he not thrown his toys out of the pram he probably still be playing today

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Cant remember the name of the CH we signed from QPR (on loan) a few years back who then went up to Liverpool where they played him (off the bench) up front.

 

He was an international and came with a decent pedigree but was later diagnosed with depression (possibly caused by external sources!!)

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Cant remember the name of the CH we signed from QPR (on loan) a few years back who then went up to Liverpool where they played him (off the bench) up front.

 

He was an international and came with a decent pedigree but was later diagnosed with depression (possibly caused by external sources!!)

 

Caulker

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In order (over the last 50 years, top division only)

Worst - Davenport

Vestergaard

Caulker

Hoedt

Thank goodness two of them were loanees. Unfortunately, the other two were effectively bought to replace Fonte and van Dijk.

 

We have had to suffer a few donkeys at the middle of our defence.

 

However until recently they are been cheap or loan deals, as mentioned, not costing the club around £15m each in transfer fees plus say £3m each per annum in wages

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Vestergaard = Ken Armstrong

 

I think Ken Armstrong cost us c £30,000 and we sold him at a profit after a season. Not sure the comparison is entirely fair on Armstrong.

 

As for JV , I'm amazed by his lack of co-ordination, and that he's such a wreck, his stats from the Bundesliga when quoted on here were quite impressive in a fairly strong league. He's an international with on the face of it a decent pedigree, is it Hughes and his staff's famed defensive coaching that have brought about his fall ?

 

Even if the coaching and tactics are wrong and not helping him, one area that is lacking seems to be body strength, he was like a stick insect trying to hold onto the Cardiff bloke yesterday, we might as well have had Charles Hawtry or Kenneth Williams as CB at that point,. JV looked to try holding him back, christ he didn't even have the strength or co-ordination to bring the bloke down.

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Also - didn’t Ken Armstrong play the season we finished 2nd?

 

Good point - he did. Although having started the season alongside Mark Wright I think he'd been displaced in the team by about December by Agboola who formed a pretty impressive pairing with Wright.

 

Having said that when your CB's are Wright and Agboola and we allow a dwarf like Heath to score against us there remain some questions, but certainly Wright/Agboola were light years ahead of the present circus.

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Objection on Jos Hooiveld, OP! He wasn't exactly given a chance after his baptism of fire against Man City and he was an absolute colossus for us the season before.

 

Yoshi is mostly average but when he's not on it he might as well be a hologram. On his off days he is the worst of the current bunch, however I think Hoedt and Stephens are by average performance the worst defenders that have spent an amount of time in the side. I feel kinda bad attacking Stephens as he obviously cares but jeez...a CB who can't head the ball...playing week in, week out in the EPL...we are a shambles.

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Good point - he did. Although having started the season alongside Mark Wright I think he'd been displaced in the team by about December by Agboola who formed a pretty impressive pairing with Wright.

 

Having said that when your CB's are Wright and Agboola and we allow a dwarf like Heath to score against us there remain some questions, but certainly Wright/Agboola were light years ahead of the present circus.

 

Wikipedia suggests he played 26 games - over half of our best ever season. Didn’t Agboola play sweeper behind the two carter halves - firstly Wright and Armstrong and later on Wright and Holmes (I think).

 

Not suggesting Armstrong was in the same class as some of those (I can’t really remember him - if only I could say the same of the current bunch!) but bit harsh that a member of arguably our best ever team got a mention on this thread!

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Wikipedia suggests he played 26 games - over half of our best ever season. Didn’t Agboola play sweeper behind the two carter halves - firstly Wright and Armstrong and later on Wright and Holmes (I think).

 

Not suggesting Armstrong was in the same class as some of those (I can’t really remember him - if only I could say the same of the current bunch!) but bit harsh that a member of arguably our best ever team got a mention on this thread!

 

Interesting points you raise. Yes, Agboola was a sweeper, though I don't recall him playing alongside Armstrong too much.

 

Having brought Wikipedia into it, I've had to resort to Chalk & Holley's Saints History book. Armstrong did play 26 league matches, but mostly up to 23rd Jan as a regular, he only played four more after that.

 

Our teams v skates in the Cup (end of Jan), and for the semi final at Highbury were: Shilton, Mills, Dennis, Williams, Wright , Agboola, Holmes, Moran, Worthington, D Armstrong, Wallace.

 

I'm not sure where Holmes was playing, very well could have been central defence as Dennis (lb) and Armstrong (lm) would be taking up his preferred positions.

 

Bit hazy on Ken Armstrong, but I don't recall him as anything too dodgy, if anything fairly average/reliable but unspectacular.I think we were relatively mid-table when he was last a regular. Agree with you that it would be harsh to list him alongside the Callum Davenports of more recent times.

 

Shame about Agboola's fall out at the club though, he appeared destined for a great career with us, but his career went down the pan on leaving.

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Cant remember the name of the CH we signed from QPR (on loan) a few years back who then went up to Liverpool where they played him (off the bench) up front.

 

He was an international and came with a decent pedigree but was later diagnosed with depression (possibly caused by external sources!!)

 

Sad story. Last played for Dundee. Currently without a club, he's only 26.

 

I would like to nominate:

 

Jakobsson.

Hajto. (Better at thundering passes to the left wing then his actual job.)

Powell. (Pre match bets as to when he would go off injured.)

Edited by Colinjb
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