Biggest Flop Signing & Low Expectation That Came Good

[Gemmel]

Being linked to so many players, with what are fairly significant fees, I was wondering which players came with the higest expectation and just flopped and visa versa who came with low expectation and won us all over.

 

For me some of the biggest flops that joined us with big hype would be;

 

David Hurst

Delgardo

Kanchelskis

 

And the other side, low key or low expectation that came good....very good would be;

 

Pahars

Marsden

Eckland

[Huntingdon]

Biggest Flop - Kevin Phillips (especially after his brilliant goal at Leicester on his debut)

 

 

Come Good - James Beattie ( First few times I saw him play, I thought he was the worst player I'd ever seen)

[The Majestic Channon]

I thought David hirst was decent for us .

Also thought carlton palmer was excellent , despite being seen by some as a bit of a joke, was a good player for saints with a good attitude.

[Saint Stimp]

I didn't know much about Killer and Niemi before the joined. On the other side of the spectrum, I was chuffed when we signed Bernard and more recently Pekhart.

[SNSUN]

Ali Dia was George Weah's cousin, fact.

[sambosa75]

I think Delgado surely has to win the biggest flop awards. Great goals record in South America and at international level but just never wanted to be here. Never forget him tearing Arsenal a new one once though. He obviously had talent and was actually a nice guy. I speak a bit of Spanish and spent a few hours once in Ikon with him, helping him chat up birds.

 

Biggest low expectation/come good probably split between Chris Marsden and Kevin Richardson who I thought was exactly what the team needed. Marsden wins it though because he was superb for 3 seasons.

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Yep, biggest disappointment was Delgado, especially the way the club built him up. Niemi for unexpected great signing? Remember thinking Jonah's fine, why do we want another keeper?!! He turned out to be a bit good though...

[StVince1966]

rory de crap! 4 million pounds! say it quickly and it dont sound much!

jimmy case best buy 35k bargain me thinks

[The9]

Biggest Flop - Kevin Phillips (especially after his brilliant goal at Leicester on his debut)

 

27 goals in 2 seasons for Saints in the top division is not a flop.

[jam]

For low expectation that came good, how about Claus?

 

I think it'll be hard to top Delgado for biggest flop. I think the hype alone gets him that one.

[Dalek2003]

The 'Delgado Debacle' I'd call it. Wasn't he injured when we bought him ?

Who was actually responsible for buying him ?

[Gemmel]

The 'Delgado Debacle' I'd call it. Wasn't he injured when we bought him ?

Who was actually responsible for buying him ?

 

The same divy who tried to bring hoddle back

[saint_ben]

Biggest flop - dixon from chelsea

 

Come good - marsden & telfer

[St Chalet]

Dan Harding in modern times for being great.

 

Rudi had Messi level hype but delivered less than above.

[Junction 9]

Crouch - People forget now how sh*t he actually was when he arrived from Villa.

[Wildgoose]

Paul Williams - didn't expect much fro him when he was signed but at times he was immense and a good, consistent performer

[saints-cris]

Rudi Skacel for the flop - Dont get me wrong, he was a decent player, just nowhere near what we all thought.

Come good - Peter Crocuh.

[revolution saint]

Being linked to so many players, with what are fairly significant fees, I was wondering which players came with the higest expectation and just flopped and visa versa who came with low expectation and won us all over.

 

For me some of the biggest flops that joined us with big hype would be;

 

David Hurst

Delgardo

Kanchelskis

 

And the other side, low key or low expectation that came good....very good would be;

 

Pahars

Marsden

Eckland

 

In terms of fan expectation neither Pahars or Ekelund were low key. I'll give you Marsden though.

[Stepgar]

Always remember Graeme Souness saying not to expect much from Eyal Berkovic. "This guy wont score much" Hmmmm. got that wrong didnt he. Gutted when he left.

[Eaststander]

Speedie and Dixon. Biggest flops ever. End of.

 

Gordon Hobson was better than I ever thought he might be. But I did have very low expectations.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Crouch - People forget now how sh*t he actually was when he arrived from Villa.

 

Have to say he wasn't ****. I remember how ****ed off the Saints fans were when we signed him. He was good though, didn't play well in a poor Villa side previously.

[Pwoite]

Speedie and Dixon. Biggest flops ever. End of.

 

.

 

Agree. Speedie. Complete tossa.

[Badger]

Flops: Dixon & Speedie,Delgado (obviously), but one of the biggest disappointments was Alan McLoughlin our first £1m player.That failure really was a nail in Nicoll's coffin as manager.

 

Low expectation: possibly Case who was already past it,as was Mick Mills.Crouch too exceeded expectation.

 

 

I thought David hirst was decent for us .

Also thought carlton palmer was excellent , despite being seen by some as a bit of a joke, was a good player for saints with a good attitude.

 

For the first season. In his second season he probably justified why he was so maligned in the game, complete egotistical arsehole.

[krissyboy31]

Flop (for me) was Stuart Ripley, who I really rated as a player before we signed him. I think Marsden has to be the signing I had least expectation of that came good (although I don't think he was as good as some make out).

[paulwantsapint]

Delgado was a major waste of time

Kenwyne jones came as defender/ midfielder for pennies left as top striker for 6.5m ish

but top signings claus or doddsey well over 25 years service between them

[Right sider]

Where do you start with under achievers: Delgado, Hirst, Ripley, Howells, Hughes, George, Kanchelskis, Idiakes, KD (second time), etc...

 

Been impressed by Case, CMFG, Harding, Horne, Lallana, Claus, Killer and Kevin Davies (First time)...

[Saint Samuel]

Wasn't too sure about Lee Barnard when he first joined, initially thought he was a poor signing, but started to impress towards the end of the 2009/2010 season and he really come along well in the last year.

[Rut]

Biggest flop = Sammy Lee.

 

Biggest waste of space ever to put on a Saints shirt. Bar none.

[PhilippineSaint]

Mark Hughes a complete and utter waste of space

[skintsaint]

Mark Hughes a complete and utter waste of space

 

Didnt help we played him def mid.

[HK_Phoey]

Few I can think of, Speedie and Dixon as a replacement for Shearer and a prediction by some people I know at the time they would go on to score more goals than Shearer.

 

Rudi can't believe all the hype surrounding him.

 

On the plus side Jimmy Case was probably the best 30k odd we ever spent.

 

Also seem to remember we signed a Keith Cassels from Oxford as a big signing with a certain Mark Wright, a young central defender included as a bit of a make weight in the deal. Cassels was rubbish but Wright ended up doing ok for us ;-)

[david in sweden]

Being linked to so many players, with what are fairly significant fees, I was wondering which players came with the higest expectation and just flopped and visa versa who came with low expectation and won us all over.

For me some of the biggest flops that joined us with big hype would be;

David Hurst

Delgardo

Kanchelskis

And the other side, low key or low expectation that came good....very good would be;

Pahars

Marsden

Eckland

 

Can't agree with the Hirst comment. He joined in October 97 and scored 9 goals in 28 starts, good compared with

MLT and Östenstad who both scored 11 and Kevin Davies who got 9. (with similar apps.)

His freak training accident, (trod in a rabbit hole whilst running in the forest) and damaged his knee beyond repair and effectively finished his Prem career.

 

Delgado was (in Strachan's words) --" a done deal " by Rupert Lowe before he arrived. WGS didn't like his style and obviously

found it difficult to communicate with the Equadorian with his Scots dialect ( of course a lot of the English players couldn't understand Strachan either )Definitely a bad deal !

 

Kanchelskis looked good (in his prev. career) and was past his sell-by date when he arrived. His 1 year contact lasted 5 months and he was given a free.

 

As for the 3 with low expectations..Marian Pahars....£800K must has seemed a lot of money to Skonto in Latvia , I think he was the Saints deal of a lifetime and worth every penny... many times over. Another tragic injury victim, and someone who might have been with us another 5 years.

 

I'd also include Hassan Katchloul in this category. Came off the street and asked for a trail. He was great for a couple of years until his greedy agent persuaded him that the grass was greener elsewhere. (A sad loss).

Edited 25 June, 2011 by david in sweden

['00']

Osgood was hopeless when he signed in 74.Came good in the end.

[Kenilworthy]

Going back some time, Charlie George was a massive disappointment. A wonderful player that rarely did it for us apart from a couple of fantastic games due to injury - he was injured when we signed him and hardly played in his first season. In fact it was 8 months after signing that he made his debut at the Dell. It was a long drawn out battle between us and West Brom to sign him as well, for £400,000 which wasn't far off the British transfer record at the time. In the end he only played 52 games in 3 years for us.

 

From the same era, a player who did unexpectedly well was Peter Wells. He only came from Nottingham Forest reserves at a time when we were going through keeper after keeper, yet he played a major role in getting us promotion and was with us for 7 years.

[um pahars]

Flops,or at least under achievers who failed to live up to the hype, the transfer fee or just took the ****:

 

Charlie George

Speedie & Dixon

Mark Hughes

Cherednik & Gotsmanov

Alan McCloughlin

Perry Groves

David Howells

Van Gobbel

Beresford

Ripley

Delgado

Then too many to mention in recent years!!!

 

 

Those who surprised me or came with low(ish) profiles:

 

Phil Boyer

Ivan Golac

Mark Wright

Glen Cockerill

Micky Evans

Ostenstad

Kevin Davies

Pahars

Beattie

Msrsden

Claus

[david in sweden]

Going back some time, Charlie George was a massive disappointment. A wonderful player that rarely did it for us apart from a couple of fantastic games due to injury - he was injured when we signed him and hardly played in his first season. In fact it was 8 months after signing that he made his debut at the Dell. It was a long drawn out battle between us and West Brom to sign him as well, for £400,000 which wasn't far off the British transfer record at the time. In the end he only played 52 games in 3 years for us.

 

From the same era, a player who did unexpectedly well was Peter Wells. He only came from Nottingham Forest reserves at a time when we were going through keeper after keeper, yet he played a major role in getting us promotion and was with us for 7 years.

 

Excellent point . We got a sold a "dud" that time.

[benjii]

Speedie and Dixon. Biggest flops ever. End of.

 

Gordon Hobson was better than I ever thought he might be. But I did have very low expectations.

 

Was going to mention those two.

 

Mark Hughes, obviously.

Lee Todd.

Scott Marshall.

Graham Potter.

Delap.

Idiakez.

BWP.

 

Loads of flops basically. I shall go on:

 

Jakobsen

Davenport

Svennson

Draper

David Lee

Alan McLoughlin

Grobbelaar

etc....

[Badger]

Loads of flops basically. I shall go on:

 

Jakobsen

Davenport

Svennson

Draper

David Lee

Alan McLoughlin

Grobbelaar

etc....

 

Bit unfair on Svennson.

 

But David Lee, christ I had forgotten about him, another Branfoot masterstroke.

 

Two more Branfoot flops are Paul Shireen and Colin Cramb who although inexpensive were said to be signings with great potential . Neither featured in the first team to my knowledge. To these another Branfoot youngster was some Irish hothead who Reading couldn't release quick enough,but was destined to be the great midfield general within a few years (Barry Ferguson ?). This is possibly another category though, hugely hyped youngsters who never made it.Alan Ball signed one of these from his former club, Blackpool after he came to Saints,a kid called Eamonn Collins.Saints were fined for poaching him but he never played a first team match.

[(not THE) Kevin Moore]

A few have mentioned Telfs and Paul Williams, and I'd have to agree. Both of them on freebies and Telfs allegedly just because he was WGS' golfing buddy. But the two of them instantly tightened up a porous back 4, Willo with his no-nonsense get stuck in and 'hoooooof' attitude (perfectly complementing Claus) and Telfs with his non-stop running and versatility, he did a good job for us in a number of positions but wasn't it him and Oakley dominating Keane and Scholes when we beat Manure 1-0 with an 89th min BT header?

 

Of the two I think Telfer was the best piece of business, a good player, a hard worker and a decent bloke. Still looked lively in the 'bonus' game at the end of last season, teeing Idiakez up with a lovely cross from the right wing.

[Cabrone]

Crouch made me eat my words as he turned out to be a brilliant signing.

 

Delgado was the most overhyped flop for me and Anders Svensson was also one of the most overrated players we've ever had.

[pele]

Delgado,Speedie and Dixon dreadful!

[(not THE) Kevin Moore]

You'd have to class delgado as a 'flop' in terms of his impact, but he was clearly a classy player we just mishandled the whole thing. Signing an injured player, without the managers backing, player then getting pressured into playing for his country (despite being injured) by his countries president...

 

He scored goals in a world cup finals and when he did play for us looked a really useful player, but a combination of injuries and perhaps homesickness/cultural dfferences meant it all ended badly. I still like the bloke and was delighted he had a good world cup.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Don't think you will ever find a better "low key, low expectations" arrival than Jimmy Case (£40,000 from Brighton). We have never come near to replacing him mores the pity.

[sadoldgit]

Agree about Alan McLoughlin. Cost us £1m when that was a lot of cash. Was really excited about him but he was gash.

 

Anders Svensson was a good player playd out of position. He was awesome when we turnes Spuds over. Delgado was also a decent player, you don't pick up many decent goal scoring internationals for £3m. Shame he just didn't work out for us.

[WESTIE SFC]

Could mention Delgado's "cousin" or what he was... Kleber Chala i think his name was... we paid 1 million and i think he only made the bench once.. Another candidate for big flop...

[Lord Duckhunter]

low expectation signing who turned out to be better than I thought was Trond Soltvedt.

 

I thought Mark Hughes was going to be a better signing than he was. But it's a toss up between Speedie & Dixon or Stewart Ripley for me.

[david in sweden]

Don't think you will ever find a better "low key, low expectations" arrival than Jimmy Case (£40,000 from Brighton). We have never come near to replacing him mores the pity.

 

How right you are Duncan, Jim was only 37 and still going strong after 6 seasons but his dressing room presence and banter was apparantly a bit too much for Ian Branfoot to handle and he let him go on a free, I think.

Yet another foolish Branfoot decision (like sitting MLT on the bench half a season whilst we slipped down the league every week).

 

The only other similar situation I recall was MF Jimmy Gabriel (former Everton League and Cup winner). A good buy for £42K in 1968

we had 5 good seasons from Gabriel (223 apps. and a useful 27 goals). Think he played in 5 diff. positions in one season - even CF.

Could play both sides of midfield and even as emergency keeper in one game.

 

One of the casualties under the new McMenemy era when age 32 , he moved to the States and coached Seattle Sounders for many years. Saw a clip with an interview on U-TUBE and at 70 years old he was still very involved with Seattle where he has had " legend-status " for two decades.

 

Two Merseysiders who were unforgettable in their time.

[The9]

Recently I can't imagine anyone had particularly high expectations for Marsden, but his performances with Bridge really were essential to our success in 2003.

 

Pahars worked out better than we could imagine too.

 

On the flip side, very high expectations of Mark Hughes that came to naught. Perry Groves..?

[Badger]

How right you are Duncan, Jim was only 37 and still going strong after 6 seasons but his dressing room presence and banter was apparantly a bit too much for Ian Branfoot to handle and he let him go on a free, I think.

Yet another foolish Branfoot decision (like sitting MLT on the bench half a season whilst we slipped down the league every week).

 

The only other similar situation I recall was MF Jimmy Gabriel (former Everton League and Cup winner). A good buy for £42K in 1968

we had 5 good seasons from Gabriel (223 apps. and a useful 27 goals). Think he played in 5 diff. positions in one season - even CF.

Could play both sides of midfield and even as emergency keeper in one game.

 

One of the casualties under the new McMenemy era when age 32 , he moved to the States and coached Seattle Sounders for many years. Saw a clip with an interview on U-TUBE and at 70 years old he was still very involved with Seattle where he has had " legend-status " for two decades.

 

Two Merseysiders who were unforgettable in their time.

 

Agree with everything you say about Jimmy Gabriel.Although I thought he left prior to Lawrie arriving when he moved to Bournemouth (they were a bit of a retirement home for some of our players in those days)

 

Except he was a Scot rather than a scouser.

Edited 25 June, 2011 by Badger

[Wilko]

Strong Black Willo, Telf, Evans and Marsden all exceeded expectations. I'd probably put Jo Tessem on that list as well.

 

For me, one of the biggest flops was Olivier Barnard. I thought he would be awesome, but he turned out to be one of the most useless players I've ever seen in a Saints shirt.