Team of players you wish we'd kept

[Lighthouse]

I'm thinking players we could have realistically kept here, not people like Bale, Theo, Surman etc.

 

GK - Richard Wright - Looked far more composed in his cameo than I've ever seen Kelvin look.

 

RB - Wayne Thomas - Would have had to take a pay cut, but I doubt Donny are paying him billions.

LB - Gregory Vignal - Again maybe would have needed a pay cut at a time we were broke, so a tad ambitious there.

CB - Jan Paul Saeijs - I know Jaidi has been excellent this year, but Saeijs was a monster, with very little help from his team mates.

CB - Matt Mills - I know he wanted to go, but if only Redknapp had recognised his tallent instead of signing Powell and Haijto, he probably would have stayed.

 

RM - Michail Antonio - 10 times better than anything I've seen from Forte or Guess.

CM - Mario Licka - Would have been a decent, relatively cheap option under Poortaloo/WTF

CM - Matt Oakley - Yes, this one's been done to death, but he was far more deserving of the 2 year deal we gave Wright.

LM - Rudi Skacel - As with Mills, he wanted to leave, but if he hadn't been messed around playing LB I reckon he'd have stayed and tore L1 a new one.

 

ST - Papa Waigo - Apparently wages/transfer fee was the stumbling block.

ST - Marian Pahars - I know he was crocked, but would have been a great option off the bench on a pay as you play.

[sidthesquid]

Haven't got time to think of any others, but find my comments on your suggestions.......

GK - Richard Wright - Yes

RB - Wayne Thomas - Never - aging crock who had about 3 good games for us

LB - Gregory Vignal - Mediocre at best

CB - Jan Paul Saeijs - Ditto (though a few good games in a poor team)

CB - Matt Mills - 100% agree with your comments

RM - Michail Antonio - Likewise - a real miss this season

CM - Mario Licka - see JPS above

CM - Matt Oakley - 100% agree with your comments

LM - Rudi Skacel - Overrated underperformer who lived off half a good season for Hearts for the restt of his career

ST - Papa Waigo - Dunno on him 50/50

ST - Marian Pahars - finished mentally, if not physically by the time he went.

[Stubby]

Depends how far back you go. Fred Kemp, David Webb, Kevin Davies, Steve Williams...

[Tartarus112]

GK - Anitti Niemi - Legend status really

RB - Martin Cranie - Although he turned sides, i was gutted when he left. Looked a great youngster

LB - Wayne Bridge - Obvious really

CB - Alex Pearce - Only on loan but still has gone on to great things at Reading

CB - Matthew Mills - Pearce's partner at Reading in I believe

CM - Simon Gillett - Let go by Pardew in one of the daftest free transfers in a long time. Clearly alot better than our current CM's

Cm - Jhon Viafara - Imo one of, if not the best, Cm since we left the prem

AMR - Theo Walcott

AML - Gareth Bale

AMC - David McGoldrick - Great potential especially in the withdrawn striker role

St - Leon Best - Just the sort of strong lad we needed up front the season after he left.

[VectisSaint]

CM - Simon Gillett - Let go by Pardew in one of the daftest free transfers in a long time. Clearly alot better than our current CM's

24 appearances for Donny in 2 seasons, only 3 so far this year, shows he really isn't ever going to make it big. Not much of a loss really though I thought it was not good at the time.

[paulwantsapint]

Redkrap & burley screwed us with awful handing of Martin cranie & matt mills

 

Sturruck sold one size fitz hall to leave only cb claus

[norwaysaint]

The only ones on this list that I agree we could have and should have kept are Cranie and Mills. Both would've stayed if we'd given them a chance, both always played well when called upon and both have gone on to do well at other clubs. Cranie was treated terribly. Despite being a great up and coming player in team that wasn't brilliant, we farmed him out or left him in the reserves while we played all sorts of other crap. Then we finally brought him in for the very last match of the season where he performed superbly for us to see what we'd missed before he left. Mills was pretty much ignored until he left, too. Meanwhile we were bringing in players like Callum Davenport and Andreas Jakobsen.

[Doctoroncall]

The only ones on this list that I agree we could have and should have kept are Cranie and Mills. Both would've stayed if we'd given them a chance, both always played well when called upon and both have gone on to do well at other clubs. Cranie was treated terribly. Despite being a great up and coming player in team that wasn't brilliant, we farmed him out or left him in the reserves while we played all sorts of other crap. Then we finally brought him in for the very last match of the season where he performed superbly for us to see what we'd missed before he left. Mills was pretty much ignored until he left, too. Meanwhile we were bringing in players like Callum Davenport and Andreas Jakobsen.

 

In that time we had a scarely high through put of players, I wouldn't be surprised if it was around the 100 mark and as you say we missed the best talent sitting in our reserves.

[sebastian firefly]

shearer, steve williams (better then hoddle),mark wright, wallace x2, the list is endless and im now ****ed off thinking of what might have been

[redkeith]

Since we first got relegated

 

Richard Wright

Saejs

Cranie

Mills

Higginbottom

Antonio

Folly

Oakley

Griffit

Blackstock

Wiago

 

All of the above seem to have been let go without much of a fight. The biggest waste though was the way Rednkapp and Burley didn't give the younger players a chance.

[norwaysaint]

shearer, steve williams (better then hoddle),mark wright, wallace x2, the list is endless and im now ****ed off thinking of what might have been

 

I don't agree with many of these as players we could have kept. We got a UK record fee for Shearer, who later broke the record again. How could we have kept him? Most of the others there were out of our control as well. I'd say the same about Niemi too, who was mentioned earlier.

[Village Saint]

The only ones on this list that I agree we could have and should have kept are Cranie and Mills. Both would've stayed if we'd given them a chance, both always played well when called upon and both have gone on to do well at other clubs. Cranie was treated terribly. Despite being a great up and coming player in team that wasn't brilliant, we farmed him out or left him in the reserves while we played all sorts of other crap. Then we finally brought him in for the very last match of the season where he performed superbly for us to see what we'd missed before he left. Mills was pretty much ignored until he left, too. Meanwhile we were bringing in players like Callum Davenport and Andreas Jakobsen.

 

Certainly agree that the others were all no loss but Mills walked out when we were a Premier Division club. His subsequent career shows very very clearly that he will never be a Premier Division player. It was a very sound decision. Nor of course will Cranie ever be of Premier standard but he walked out when we were in the Championship to go to a Premiership club who promised him first team games so I am not sure quite how we could have kept him! The OP was having a laugh over Richard Wright who indeed did have a twilight resurgence in his cameo for us but subsequently proved a complete disaster everywhere he played!

[saint_stevo]

Antonio? ffs

[Lighthouse]

I have no idea what realistic means in this case, seems entirely subjective. I'm sure if several of those had wanted to play in L1 we'd have got them.

 

Oakley will always be the worst handled one for me. Burley showed no respect to someone who'd done a hell of a lot for the club, hugely underrated, then let him slip away for nothing, replacing him with expensive garbage in Idiakez, Wright, Licka, Viafara, Pele. Even Saffri wasn't as good. Pathetic from Burley.

 

Skacel was good. As said before, it was never his fault he had idiots parading him on the pitch making him out to be Messi. He was just a good CCC player and played well at left wing. As always, Burley had to mess him around and ruin him as a player.

 

Antonio is becoming a weird one. Ten times better than Forte and Nguessan? Who've played a couple of hours between them?

 

When I say realistic, I mean players we had half a chance of keeping if we'd made more of an effort. I'm not writing off Forte and Guess yet, I'm just saying I haven't seen anything close to Antonio's contribution so far.

[saint_stevo]

When I say realistic, I mean players we had half a chance of keeping if we'd made more of an effort. I'm not writing off Forte and Guess yet, I'm just saying I haven't seen anything close to Antonio's contribution so far.

 

A long throw, a runner and someone who could consistently fail to get his cross over?