[Archived] The Worst Ever Rovers Player?

[RevidgeBlue]

Give Matteo a few more games and he'll be a contender.

I was with you in not being an admirer of Matteo, but I feel he's played very well in the last three games.

This topic should be divided into two categories:

"Worst value for money"

Davies and Grabbi out on their own with "Bad back" Dahlin deserving of an honourable mention.

"Worst player"

The likes of John O Mara, and Paul Mckinnon that I've seen.

[Scotty]

Give Matteo a few more games and he'll be a contender.

The same Matteo who's played really well the last two games?

[roversWASmylife]

Davies

Dailly

Diawara

Peacock

All come high up the list, more so Davies because of the amount that he cost us.

Anyone remember Oumar Konde. One of Roy's signings.

[the original david brent]

Niklas Gudmonnson, Anders Anderson, simon ireland, craig skinner are all contenders for worst rovers players ever that I remember. matt dickens the worst keeper ever, for palming a shot that was flying into b'burn end back into the net v wolves. He closely followed by darren collier.

what about lee richardson? I remember he come on as sub at wembley 92, beat 3 players down left than tripped over ball.

Lads older than me refer to someone called tony diamond. Apparently he was dreadful, before my time though so cant comment.

can't believe somebody said gordan cowans, he was pure class

[1864roverite]

mcm

you obviously wer enot around when big Norman scored a hattrick against Oldham ? Norman Bell was an okay player in an average team.

for me the list goes something like this

tony diamond

sean curry

paul shepstone

kaba diaware

fatboy davis

grabbi

ward

peacock

ander andersson

per pederson

marcolin

marshall burke

jimmy quinn (how can someone so poor then move for big money on at least 3 occasions is beyond me)

dick brown

craig skinner

[FourLaneBlue]

I thought Jimmy Quinn was a hero, I was little but used to be proud that Rovers had an international playing for them. Remember, Northern Ireland were in the 1982 World Cup, they beat Spain, so it was a big deal to an 8 year old.

Think you are getting mixed up between Noel Brotherston and Jimmy Quinn there speeeds...

IN 82 it was Noel who played and anyway Jimmy wasn't even a Rover then anyway. Quinn made the 86 squad while at Rovers but they weren't as succesful that time.

As for Quinn being a hero, he may have been. The only reason I mentioned him was the crowd reaction to him when I first started going (I wasn't even near going to secondary school then even) and wondering why half of our songs were about Jimmy Quinn and the other half were about a Burnley team way down the league from us.

The Jimmy Quinn songs have gone...but the Burnley songs remain the same as always!

[todd_could_take_tyson]

Do anyone know what club Grabbi is at now and what his scoring record has been since leaving the rovers?

[HugeChin]

what about lee richardson? I remember he come on as sub at wembley 92, beat 3 players down left than tripped over ball.

I remember that! Flying down the left wing and tried to cross it and swung at fresh air.

Oh the shame!

[robbojohnno]

Forgetting the relation between transfer fee and performance the worst player in a rovers shirt is without question Kaba Diawara he was awful. Thankfully we binned him before his months loan was complete.

no chance was kaba diawara worst. he was bad but did you not see kevin davies?

[whittle blue]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "Big Jim" Fryatt. ........................  I seem to remember his one claim to fame as a Rovers player was scoring a goal (cant remember who against) in something like 7 seconds from the kick-off. A Rovers record?

4 seconds actually. For Bradford Park Ave v Tranmere.

[Cheeky Sidders]

Over the years I've seen some real stinkers down at Ewood but as Revidge says we need to consider how much players cost in terms of their overall shitness (I love that word) level. I also think we've also got to take into account the amount of effort they made. I can forgive anybody for a lack of talent (if they can't do it, they just can't do it), but what I cannot pardon is lack of effort.

So while many are mentioning Paul McKinnon (and yes, he was absolutely rubbish), we got him for nowt from a non-league club (where he scored shed-loads of goals) and I seem to recall he did run around a lot. After a few weeks he left the club after asking to be released because he knew he just wasn't up to it. A gamble that never paid off that's all. For that alone, he doesn't deserve the accolade as worst ever.

I remember Stuart Munro(e) was particularly awful (another recruit from Rangers if I remember rightly) but he also cost less than the price of a bag of crisps and he didn't play that many games.

Others in the cheap and out-of-their-depth category include Richard Brown, Matt "what the" Dickens, Paul Shepstone (genuinely p1ss poor) and Tony "What a gem!" Diamond, as well as fading old timers like Mike Duxbury, Ally Dawson and, unbelievably, World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles. They were crap, but they tried and they were cheap. As such, we can't really say they were the worst ever.

In the early Walker years, Mackay and Dalglish had a major rush to sign any old crap and we ended up with the likes of Lee Richardson, Simon Ireland, Andy Morrison et al, but we have to see them in the light of promising youngsters who never lived up to it. Crap without question, but not the worst ever.

In the later Walker years we had a new breed of crap player, ie. over-inflated price-tag and still crap. They included Christian "we were only going to ask for £5k per week but Hidgson opened negotiations on £16k per week" Dailly, Darren Peacock and Ashley Ward. Now Dailly was attrocious and I don't remember being bowled over by his level of industry, but in fairness to Peacock and Ward (who were crap, granted) they did try. As such, they are exempt.

During that time we also had a legion of foreign cheap crap, mainly from Scandinavia (or Nordic countries for all you pedants out there). I don't know about you lot but this roll call sends a shiver down my spine. Per Pedersen, Lars Bohinen (initially good but fecking bone idle and amusingly colour-blind), Martin Andresen, Niklas Gudmundsson, Anders Anderson and another bloke called Pedersen who was a defender. We also had Patrick Anderson who seemed to be crap but subsequently went on to play for Bayern Munich and Barcelona so I think it was our fault for not getting the best out of him. We had loads of other foreign players who were shocking, including Patrick Valery (psychotic French dwarf signed by Hodgson), Oumar Konde, Sebastian Pelzer, Kaba Diawara, Dario Marcolin, Dino Baggio (how the mighty fall), Hakan Sukur, Richard Witschge (whinging Dutch snob), Sebastian Perez (whinging French ponce who was constantly caught on the ball), George "the derailed Athens Express" Donis and, finally, Javier "KFC Bargain Bucket" de Pedro. All crap but not massively expensive and all were bit-part players at best.

However, three of them stand head an shoulders above the others because of their price tag, effort they failed to put in and their pitiful level of success.

Defendant #1 Martin Dahlin

He came with a big reputation, did sod all, scored a couple of goals (I can only remember the one against Liverpool though) and then spent the rest of his time on the treatment bench. He was signed by Hodgson so his shitness level is beyond question, but it now transpires that he was injured. He was also past his best and we were never going to get a good return from him.

Verdict - not guilty on grounds of infirmity and age.

Defendant #2 Corrado "Cicchio" Grabbi

Big reputation from the Italian league where he was idolised by his former fans, but when the Nana from Ternana came to East Lancashire he wasn't so much idolised as simply idle. Overweight, underachieving and clearly hopelessly out of his depth. This food-loving fop was signed by Souness seemingly on the basis of a few videos. The multi-million pound price tag (was it £6m or £7m?) certainly left a sour taste but we celebrated like mad when he scored those oh so rare goals. We were stitched-up when we signed him and I'm not sure that was his fault. We also, allegedly, played him out of position.

Verdict - acquited due to lack of evidence.

Defendant #3 Kevin Davies

By 'eck this lad could shoot! Long shots, tap-ins, one one ones, he scored the lot... and then he came to us and discovered the joys of Sandersons pies. We paid him too much, he spent it on pies, we gave him time to settle, he didn't care, we got impatient, he ate more pies, we got angry, he didn't care. In short, he cost too much, he didn't try, his attitude was a disgrace and he was sensationally rubbish.

Verdict - irredeemably guilty and condemned to eternal damnation by all right-thinking Rovers fans.

[blue/white]

Wow, Cheeky.. well done lad.

You've put much thought into your thesis.

Question you though:

If presumably played out of position, where in the park should our man Chicchio have played?

[whittle blue]

Norman Bell - crap.

[Blue blood]

Davies. Even not taking into account the massive transfer fee, there has never been a more disinterested lazy #### who doesn't cae about the club though sadly, many have tried. Added to which he never once looked threatening and lacked all the basic abilties a striker should have. As I recall he was dopped after just two games (for Gally who scored the winner vs Leicester).

Having said that the worst ever performance has to be from Jay Boothroyd against bolton this season. Never have I seen such ineptness.

Ward, Dailly and Grabbi to me are all unfairly blamed because some numpty signed them for stupid money they clearly weren't worth. That wasn't their fault, and they all tried which goes a long way. I can tolerate players no matter how pants if they try and look as if they care, after all they weren't to blame for getting such lavish sums spent on them. Both Dahlin and Ward scored a few goals for us which got us some important (and not so important) points. In fact it was Dahlin who was fouled for Sutty rocket free kick that got us into Europe - worth the transfer fee on its own. Equally Dailly wasn't a bad defender, just average. Certainly not worth 5 million but then Roy wasn't brilliant with his cash.

Im suprised Peacock didn't get more mentions - he truely was the worst defender ever - like Amruso with none of Amoruso's offensive capablity. Actually, when you consider it Amo isn't quite that dire, he looked too good for the reserves. Peacock was dreadful even at that level.

Fettis was another player who I really though didn't know what he was doing, the worst at one on ones ever. And Ireland was pretty pants too. Im sure I saw him once in a SPL game and he looked bobbins there too.

[92er]

Weren't transfer medicals introduced into the English game because of the Martin Britt fiasco?

From memory,it was the sogning of Gilliver, the following season, that led to the radical change. Huddersfield refused to pay compensation so we ended up with John Coddington.

[philipl]

Yes you are right- no wonder we ended up in Div 3!

[jim mk2]

Weren't transfer medicals introduced into the English game because of the Martin Britt fiasco?

From memory,it was the sogning of Gilliver, the following season, that led to the radical change. Huddersfield refused to pay compensation so we ended up with John Coddington.

Codddington in defence; O'Mara up front.

Nightmare.

[mattyboy6000]

Lee Richardson was a good player- classy, wrong time wrong place though

kevin davies was, similarly, in the wrong place at the wrong time, excellent attacking from deep, lost the plot under hodgson who attempted to play him as an out and out striker and allowed him to turn into a big fatty. hodgson, a great coach? never. hardly a coincidence all these worst players that keep popping up from hogdson's era.

Richard Brown? not great before dalglish, but a long way from being one of our worst players.

Andy Kennedy- now this guy was a self obsessed hairdresser in denial of his true vocation if ever i saw one. i saw him miss chances i could have put in with my nobend

Darren Collier - why he wasn't prescribed beta-blockers one will neve quite understand

Javier de Pedro? no explanation needed.

Richard Witsghe - Dutch world beater or something. this may have been before and after he was at ewood.

[Cheeky Sidders]

Wow, Cheeky.. well done lad.

You've put much thought into your thesis.

Question you though:

If presumably played out of position, where in the park should our man Chicchio have played?

When the goals didn't materialise, Grabbi claimed to have been a left winger. It's little surprise that when he returned to Italy he signed for Ancona (who were promptly relegated after scoring a record low number of goals) and was then released. Where is he now?

[colin]

It may be a little too recent for the historians but......

Brian Kidd signed Simon Grayson from Villa.

Then we got relegated.

Co-incidence? I think not.

[cn174]

Where is he now?

Grabbi seems to have disappeared - we searched on the internet a bit ago but he's not at any other Italian club. He went to Ancona, but he got released and he's vanished into the football dustbin most likely.

[percy]

Where is he now?

Grabbi seems to have disappeared - we searched on the internet a bit ago but he's not at any other Italian club. He went to Ancona, but he got released and he's vanished into the football dustbin most likely.

In talks with Bolton then?

[Billy Castell]

Can you imagine it ?. A forward line of Grabbi and Davies playing at the Breezeblock. Maybe Big Sam could then re-sign Jardel to be the super sub, and Dario Marcolin providing the drive from midfield.

[FourLaneBlue]

Others in the cheap and out-of-their-depth category include Richard Brown, Matt "what the" Dickens, Paul Shepstone (genuinely p1ss poor) and Tony "What a gem!" Diamond, as well as fading old timers like Mike Duxbury, Ally Dawson and, unbelievably, World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles. They were crap, but they tried and they were cheap. As such, we can't really say they were the worst ever.

Bit unfair on Ossie Ardiles there Sidders...he came, he saw, he got crocked by Nicky Marker in his first game and we never seemed the same again that season. Although Ardiles didn't manage anything a hell of a lot was expected, it didn't happen and neither did automatic promotion. We were in pole position near the end of the season and we blew it, not for the first or even the last time.

Marker wasn't very good for us either when we signed him later although I might still have been biased for disliking him for his awful tackle on Ardiles. Seemed a bit of an Andy Todd-type player but Todd this past year or so has reached a different level.

Another victim of the boo boys at Ewood was Handbags Wilcox. We've had a few wingers down the years who have got a bit of stick, sometimes very unfairly because they were playing well at the time. Seem to also remember Wilcox swearing at a fan in the crowd one game or something but I might be mixing him up with someone else.

[youandwhosearmy]

In terms of signing players at a particular time, surely Matty Holmes needs a mention. After all we did sign him after we won the league and should have been cementing our position. Just a thought.

Regarding Grabbi, somehow I just can't rate him as our worst player ever because those goals he did score made me jump around like I was on drugs. The equaliser against Liverpool springs to mind.

My vote for worst player is one of the players bought for crazy prices (Dailly/Ward/Blake/Davies