Worst saints signings XI

[Stud mark of doom]

What’s your worst saints signings XI?

I found it a quite therapeutic selection exercise, scanning through https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/players/ and being disappointed when you see a Van Dijk or a Jimmy Case.

Here’s mine.

 

Bazunu

Lee Todd / Bella-kotchap / Calletta-Car / Oliver Bernard

Dia / Maitland-Niles / Orsic

Downs / Carrillo / Speedie (c)

Subs - Onuachu / Delgado / Osvaldo / Salisu / Kanchelskis/ Alan McCloughlin

Manager - Harry Redknapp

 

[Willo of Whiteley]

I think in the worst signings that must cover the bracket of poor ability, or simply didn’t play so weren’t good value for money?

Chuck Kamaldeen Sulemana on there too.

[Saint86]

It's absolutely insane to me that anyone can do a list of worst signings, and not have Tommy forecast (who was shit, let alone the fact we swapped bale for him) over bazunu 🤣😂🤦

Edited 12 hours ago by Saint86

[Colinjb]

Only a loan, but Callum Davenport too. 

[beatlesaint]

2 hours ago, Stud mark of doom said:

What’s your worst saints signings XI?

I found it a quite therapeutic selection exercise, scanning through https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/players/ and being disappointed when you see a Van Dijk or a Jimmy Case.

Here’s mine.

 

 

Bazunu

Lee Todd / Bella-kotchap / Calletta-Car / Oliver Bernard

Dia / Maitland-Niles / Orsic

Downs / Carrillo / Speedie (c)

Subs - Onuachu / Delgado / Osvaldo / Salisu / Kanchelskis/ Alan McCloughlin

Manager - Harry Redknapp

 

Bella-Kotchap isnt bad, he just had an attitude problem. I would replace him with Davenport as mentioned above or Alan Bennett.

I would also replace Tall Paul with David Lee (I think that was his name, short arsed winger Branfoot bought in) anfd Delgado with Sekou Mara.

Apart from those three thats pretty hard to beat.......well not in a footballing sense obviously !

Edited 11 hours ago by beatlesaint

[Lighthouse]

Depends whether you're criteria is who we wasted the most money on, or who were litterally the worst players. If it's the latter then there are far, far worse players than pretty much anyone in the OP.

Anthony Pulis, Tommy Forecast, Stephen O'Halloran, Iago Falque, Aledine Yahia, Vincent Pericard, Nicholas Bignall, Zoltan Liptak, Romain Gasmi and Marcello Sarmiento were all useless here and did f**k all anywhere else.

[Stud mark of doom]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Depends whether you're criteria is who we wasted the most money on, or who were litterally the worst players. If it's the latter then there are far, far worse players than pretty much anyone in the OP.

Anthony Pulis, Tommy Forecast, Stephen O'Halloran, Iago Falque, Aledine Yahia, Vincent Pericard, Nicholas Bignall, Zoltan Liptak, Romain Gasmi and Marcello Sarmiento were all useless here and did f**k all anywhere else.

The rules are completely up to you - forecast is a great shout but surely sub keeper? 

[trousers]

Mason Holgate

[Miltonaggro]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

It's absolutely insane to me that anyone can do a list of worst signings, and not have Tommy forecast (who was shit, let alone the fact we swapped bale for him) over bazunu 🤣😂🤦

The ghost Bazunu has actually shoehorned nearly 100 games for us (holy fuck!), Forecast was basically a paid spectator. 

[AlexLaw76]

Lots of recency bias there. We had some real dog shit playing for us in the early 90s

[S-Clarke]

Albert Grønbæk

[Midfield_General]

Harsh on Osvaldo. He was box office and a genuinely good player. Unfortunately just an absolute lunatic.

I’d swap him for Kerry Dixon who was meant to be a replacement for Shearer but was washed up when he came to us and only played a handful of games. Paul Moody should be up there as well, as he was basically non-league standard and that idiot Branfoot thought he could compete with Le Tissier for a place in the side. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Stud mark of doom]

Actually can I add Patrick Colleter to my bench - hopefully causing at altercation 

[Stud mark of doom]

8 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Harsh on Osvaldo. He was box office and a genuinely good player. Unfortunately just an absolute lunatic.

I’d swap him for Kerry Dixon who was meant to be a replacement for Shearer but was washed up when he came to us and only played a handful of games. Paul Moody should be up there as well. 

We can’t have as Speedie and Dixon, as they would surely reignite their old partnership and even outscore Shearer 😉 

I went for Speedie as he scored four less goals and attacked a fellow player with a fire extinguisher (allegedly) making him captain material. 
 

I take your point on Osvaldo - although the smashing it in the top corner v City just made the leaving on a free to start a music career all the sweeter.

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Context is important. We had some pretty average players during our drop to league 1, but we were signing league 1/ lower championship players, ergo they will worse than some of the shite we signed for the premier league, but are actually nearer the standard required. If it’s strictly shite signings, then some will be so bad, they didn’t play and you’d name some nobody outside a few anoraks has heard of. Therefore, my list is made up of players which played quite a bit, but we awful for the level required at the time. I’ve also exclude players like Juanmi who were never really given a chance (maybe because they were shite, but we can’t really tell). 
 

Mines more of a “letdown list”, as opposed to shit list. 
 

Baz, Ripley, Speedie, Dixon, Jermaine Wright, Bella Kotcha, Ian Andrews (as back up in case Baz gets injured), Downs (so far), Carrillo, Makland-Niles, Bernard, 

 

There were some others that I considered shite at the time, like Chicken George or Barry Venison, that would walk into the shite sides we’ve watched the last few seasons. 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Lord Duckhunter

[spyinthesky]

47 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Lots of recency bias there. We had some real dog shit playing for us in the early 90s

And further back when the team was playing in Third Division (South) but I guess player ability is relative to the level they are playing at and the transfer fee involved..

I makes me feel my age that at one time the record Saints fee was £1,000 to buy Jimmy Shields in the 1950's. a fee was which funded by the Saints Supporters club.

At the same time Saints signed Derek Reeves from Bournemouth Gas Company on a free and went on to score record amounts of goals in the Third Division.

[beatlesaint]

45 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

There were some others that I considered shite at the time, like Chicken George or Barry Venison, that would walk into the shite sides we’ve watched the last few seasons. 

 

Chicken George, now we are going back. I always remember an old gentleman who used to sit near me saying with a perfectly straight face "that Lawrence would be a good player if he remembered to take the ball with him when he runs" !! 

[benali-shorts]

Wesley Hoedt right up there in appalling human being terms.

 

[HKsaint]

Don’t forget Mayuka

[Sheaf Saint]

I'd definitely have David Hirst up front, for the contribution versus reputation/expectation factor.

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Lots of recency bias there. We had some real dog shit playing for us in the early 90s

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd count the likes of Salisu, Onuachu or Bella Kotchap as part of our worst ever team as they had all performed at one time or another, whether here or elsewhere. 

[Lampwick]

Scott Marshall

[Stud mark of doom]

Just to clarify - I was thinking a team of worst ever signings, not the worst ever team, which I guess would mainly be players coming through the youth system who weren’t quite good enough (so someone at the club actively thought “he could do a job for the first team” - and if we decided to shell out a load of dosh on them, even better) 

[benali-shorts]

vegard forren

[Graziano94]

Vegard Forren 

[Midfield_General]

3 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I'd definitely have David Hirst up front, for the contribution versus reputation/expectation factor.

I also thought Hirst was a complete waste of space, but then I looked it up and apparently he scored 9 in 28 premier league games, including 2 against spurs and 2 against Liverpool to give us a win away at Anfield, before injuries got the better of him and he had to retire. Much better than I remember at the time and let’s face it ever since we lost Ings we’d have killed for someone capable of those sorts of numbers. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Midfield_General]

5 hours ago, Stud mark of doom said:

We can’t have as Speedie and Dixon, as they would surely reignite their old partnership and even outscore Shearer 😉 

I went for Speedie as he scored four less goals and attacked a fellow player with a fire extinguisher (allegedly) making him captain material. 
 

I take your point on Osvaldo - although the smashing it in the top corner v City just made the leaving on a free to start a music career all the sweeter.

 

Who was it that Speedie battered? I remember it happened on a trip that Branfoot had organised to build togetherness and team spirit 🤣. Was it Hurlock? If so, then Speedie may have been rubbish but you can’t say he didn’t have some balls (or maybe was just a nutter) 

[Stud mark of doom]

My recollection is also Hurlock - definitely a brave move 

[Hodgey]

I like this game I’m going to add Stephen Crainy - absolutely dreadful left back even if he was free. In terms of value I’d also like to add Larios - £7m totally wasted and Diallo - £12m for someone with no obvious talent whatsoever, and of course Annonymousi - our Tadic replacement who was a winger who was slow, uncreative, weak and a complete inability to beat a player.
 

[benjii]

Worst keeper signing, for us and the player, has to be Ramsdale.

Record signing but made no actual difference to our season. 

Now destined to be on loan interminably before leaving on a free.

[Stud mark of doom]

This is more complicated than I thought - further clarification

We are after the worst team made up of saints signings.

Not a team made up of the worst saints signings. 

i.e. Ramesdsle should be  nowhere near it. 

[benjii]

Then it's Forecast, obvs.