Worst Rovers signing ever?

[Amo]

Donis scored this peach of a goal:

 

[Inglorious basturk]

For how shit konde was or fettis, or javi de Pedro ......

who was the WORST? Who was really bad for the club at its lowest ebb? Who was a cancer and a parasite ?

comes down to 2 , and it’s utterly indisputable. 
Murphy or orr ( the latter offered me out on twitter lol )

[simongarnerisgod]

maceo rigters must be up there,apparently very impressive in some dutch u21 side,i never saw him play but according to those that did he was absolute bilge,i still can`t believe we ***** a million quid on jordan slew as well,last seen getting shown the door by chorley?

[frosty]

3 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

maceo rigters must be up there,apparently very impressive in some dutch u21 side,i never saw him play but according to those that did he was absolute bilge,i still can`t believe we ***** a million quid on jordan slew as well,last seen getting shown the door by chorley?

Good shout, £1m for Jordan Slew has to be up there actually. Had forgotten about him given we had a truck load of dodgy signings and wastes of space around that time.

Edited August 11, 2020 by frosty

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

42 minutes ago, Hasta said:

I remember Donis tormenting one of the Neville's so much at Old Trafford that he got subbed after half an hour and Irwin was moved across to try and cope with him.  Was a one trick pony with his speed and it didn't work out but far, far from one of our worst signings.

 

I remember seeing him playing against Ajax when he was back in Greece before we signed him and he ran them ragged down that right hand side.

[Rogerb]

7 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I remember seeing him playing against Ajax when he was back in Greece before we signed him and he ran them ragged down that right hand side.

Trouble with George was he went a wandering and left the full back exposed

[SBlue]

42 minutes ago, Inglorious basturk said:

For how shit konde was or fettis, or javi de Pedro ......

who was the WORST? Who was really bad for the club at its lowest ebb? Who was a cancer and a parasite ?

comes down to 2 , and it’s utterly indisputable. 
Murphy or orr ( the latter offered me out on twitter lol )

That’s why I picked young Myles.

A chip off the old leechy block.

[Blue blood]

I think there are 3 factors: 

1) ability, or lack thereof. 

2) impact on the club. What was their role and influence? 

3) Financial cost. 

Depending on which sort of criteria is used then you would get a different result. Of course if you scored each bad signing out of 5 (or 10) for each category and got a cumulative score then you could find out the worst player ever which may be a bit different. 

For example superstar defender Myles would get a 5 or 10 for lack of ability (depending on system) but cost and impact on the club would probably score pretty low. Davies would score pretty highly on waste of money and level of ability (at Rovers) but less so on impact as we had a ton of other forwards both good and bad. 

Very few players score highly in all three. In fact the only one I can think of is a former captain on an obscene wage on a lengthy contract who moved round the pitch like a octogenarian with a torn hamstring. To say games passed him by was an understatement and really set the culture of entitled mercenaries in our championship forray. Step forward worst player ever - Danny Murphy

 

[JPTSwindon]

Big fanfare on a future star when we paid over the odds for Jimmy Corbett, a Woy signing?

Ashley Ward / Nathan Blake as it showed how far we’d sunk from Shearer.

Diouf, an embarrassment with the spitting.

Edited August 11, 2020 by JPTSwindon

[Dreyski]

Corbett had some bad luck with injuries and never played a game for us. Got a vague recollection he was wanted by Arsenal when we nabbed him. £500,000 though.

[SBlue]

1 hour ago, JPTSwindon said:

Big fanfare on a future star when we paid over the odds for Jimmy Corbett, a Woy signing?

Ashley Ward / Nathan Blake as it showed how far we’d sunk from Shearer.

Diouf, an embarrassment with the spitting.

Loved that sewer-rat wanker.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Paul McKinnon.......with a worse scoring record than Chris Brown. I think from record that his record was -1 as his only goal in blue n white was an own goal for the reserves.

[Amo]

Danny Murphy. Makes me sick that ugly, know-nowt Boglin steals a living on MOTD. Worse of all is when he lectures us on players not trying after that non-performance at Peterborough!

In fact, I'd rather the BBC scrapped punditry entirely and just showed us the highlights and post-match interviews. It's just an Old Boys club for ex-pros and diversity hires to make a few bob.

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Amo

[Bigdoggsteel]

10 minutes ago, Amo said:

Danny Murphy. Makes me sick that ugly, know-nowt Boglin steals a living on MOTD. Worse of all is when he lectures us on players not trying after that non-performance at Peterborough!

In fact, I'd rather the BBC scrapped punditry entirely and just showed us the highlights and post-match interviews. It's just an Old Boys club for ex-pros and diversity hires to make a few bob.

 

Ha ha....Boglin. Had loads of them when younger and there is definitely a similarity 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Amo said:

Danny Murphy. Makes me sick that ugly, know-nowt Boglin steals a living on MOTD. Worse of all is when he lectures us on players not trying after that non-performance at Peterborough!

In fact, I'd rather the BBC scrapped punditry entirely and just showed us the highlights and post-match interviews. It's just an Old Boys club for ex-pros and diversity hires to make a few bob.

 

Off on a tangent but I dont think the BBC punditry is all bad, Lineker, Shearer and Wright are good together and I enjoyed the lockdown podcasts they did. Its once you start getting to your Murphys, Keowns and Phil Neville that both charisma and intelligence go out of the window.

[Amo]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Off on a tangent but I dont think the BBC punditry is all bad, Lineker, Shearer and Wright are good together and I enjoyed the lockdown podcasts they did. Its once you start getting to your Murphys, Keowns and Phil Neville that both charisma and intelligence go out of the window.

Disagree with that. I think they're all mugging off the license fee payer. Paid millions to sit and state the bleeding obvious.

Most of the post-match "analysis" is done by the production staff and fed to the pundits anyway.  

[Inglorious basturk]

12 hours ago, JPTSwindon said:

Big fanfare on a future star when we paid over the odds for Jimmy Corbett, a Woy signing?

Ashley Ward / Nathan Blake as it showed how far we’d sunk from Shearer.

Diouf, an embarrassment with the spitting.

I loved having dioufy in our corner 

[darrenrover]

15 hours ago, Blue blood said:

I think there are 3 factors: 

1) ability, or lack thereof. 

2) impact on the club. What was their role and influence? 

3) Financial cost. 

Depending on which sort of criteria is used then you would get a different result. Of course if you scored each bad signing out of 5 (or 10) for each category and got a cumulative score then you could find out the worst player ever which may be a bit different. 

 

 

We've had plenty of duffers over the years but 2 years in, using your criteria, I think Big Ben is as bad as any that have gone before him. Hopefully he's gonna come good!

[Blue blood]

13 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

We've had plenty of duffers over the years but 2 years in, using your criteria, I think Big Ben is as bad as any that have gone before him. Hopefully he's gonna come good!

Yes. Am doing said criteria with a number of candidates (will post results later today/tomorrow) but Ben doesn't come out well. The cost criteria alone boosts his score highly. Like you say, hopefully he will come good but it's a faint hope imo 

[Boroblue]

My three Dickson ethu just  collected money and it appears corrupt,Bradley Orr the biggest wanker ever that is whether he is a cheat or not and finally Danny Murphy not has bad has the other two but is the poster boy for our end.( hull away was the worst individual performance I’ve ever seen).

[Boroblue]

On 09/08/2020 at 17:43, Sparks Rover said:

Martin Dahlin was a big disappointment 

Kevin Arnott I think it was, I was very young and it was a big signong from Sunerland or Southampton....waste of time

Martin dahlin Everton away was a shocker. Id been to  a wedding and convinced people to come to watch. We sat in the obscured view area  at goodison all I can say is thank the Lord. It was appalling 

[Boroblue]

The most sublime performance speedie first leg play offs derby 

[Blue blood]

Decided to use my (ahem) formula on a few candidates for worst player ever. Each category out of 10. These are just the ones in my living memory and there are many duffers I’ve left off because the impact, i.e. number of games they played and cost are too low to make worth considering. If it’s solely on criteria 1 – how bad they are – then that’s a different ball game. But often, especially when we were a normal club, the cost and influence was minimal, a low risk experiment that did little harm to the club; for example, Fowler under Hughes, or Diawara under Souness. Low risk, minimum impact, no worries they didn’t work out.

 

I’ve done a few of the chancers I’ve seen in a Blue and White shirt. I’ll admit the King Kenny years (and Hartford’s first season) were met with young and not very discerning eyes so there are no inclusions from this time. Sadly however, these eyes were made somewhat more discerning by Rovers mixed fortunes. Here are a few who’ve stuck out in my memory, I am sure there are more though and others will come to me.

 

Christopher Walton

Inability – 8 - he seems a bit more comfortable in the air (sometimes!) then some we’ve had but kicking, shot stopping, and reactions, were all sketchy at times and his command of the area was erratic too.

Impact – 7 – a promising middle of the season was sandwiched between a poor first half of the season with a string of unimpressive displays, and then after the restart, he literally attempted to throw away any chance of playoffs missing virtually everything that came at him. In fact such a poor run of games haven’t been seen by any bad keeper at Rovers before. Two thirds of the season as a liability, with a number of mistakes leading to dropped and lost points that could have been the difference between playoffs and also rans. It was only one season though!

Cost – 6 – hard to say. On the plus side he was a loan, meaning we aren’t lumbered with him. On the negative side it means that we don’t have a keeper for next season and replaced a promising prospect with a loan, which is a very costly switch.

Total Score: 21/30

 

Darren Peacock

Inability - 8 - totally not Premier League class, turning circle of an oil tanker, touch of an elephant. Whether Premier League or Championship opposition, he always looked uncomfortable. Legs had gone too. 

Impact - 8 - replacing Hendry a rock at centre back with him was always going to be a huge mistake and asking for trouble. It was a huge downgrade and really weakened the team. Can't go higher than an 8 though as we had money to buy more centre backs (and did, and provided another candidate for this list) so we weren't stuck with him as first choice for the whole of his time with us, but he still played a lot more than he should have.

Cost - 3 - will have been on a good amount of money but given he was a free, this wasn't one of Roy's disaster buys financially.      

Total Score: 19/30

 

Christian Dailly

Inability – 6 It’s not that he was a total duffer, he wasn’t terrible; it’s just he wasn’t very good. Certainly, nowhere near £5 million plus worth of good. In the championship he was decent, in the premier league he fluctuated between weak and ok. The term jack of all trades master of none could have been written for him.

Impact – 6 – he didn’t replace Hendry either, albeit Roy playing him all over the defence really didn’t help his cause and is a mitigating factor. In the championship/division 1 he was bog standard, and if not pushing us towards promotion, wasn’t a prime culprit for us treading water in the first division. So, no positive contribution, but less negative contribution than some candidates.

Cost – 8 – massively, massively overpriced. Cost three times what we sold him for which sold him for which is pretty much his epitaph, he was about a third of the player we needed. Doesn’t get a 9 or 10 as there was plenty of money still to be spent that season so it wasn’t that restrictive.

Total Score: 20/30

 

Jason Steele

Inability – 9 –worst keeper I have ever seen, only saved from a 10 by the rare good game that he had (all two or three of them) and that he didn’t do as many calamity errors as certain keepers. Couldn’t kick, made errors, poor in the air, bad at saving shots, and kicking was terrible. Not sure there was anything that remotely hinted at being a Championship level keeper…

Impact – 7 – two (three?) years as our number one. Given we had a pretty decent defence at times he was covered a lot more than expected, but who knows how much better we would have done had there been a decent keeper behind the defence?

Cost – 6 – I could be wrong but this is the only money ever spent on a keeper in Venkys tenure. That it was blown on this waste-of space really shows how much of a missed opportunity it was. That we spent anything on him at all also shows that we overspent.

Total Score: 23/30

 

Alan Fettis

Inability - 9 - I mean he was pretty terrible. Only the recent antics of Walton and Steele make me appreciate there are more depth that can be plumbed in goal keeping. 

Impact - 5 - whenever he played, we were at a disadvantage. Hard to rate as technically he was brought in as a third-choice keeper due to an injury crisis, so the quality that could have been brought in that situation was more limited. That said he did play because of the injury crisis and cost us a fair amount of goals (practically every shot.) However, given we had Filan and Flowers in net for part of the season and whenever either was vaguely fit they played instead of him, and he only played a handful of games -a one season blunder - it's hard to go over a 5 on this. 

Cost - 4 - don't think he cost too much but it was more than a division two level keeper should cost, and especially seeing as for we could have got a loan of better quality fairly easily.

Total Score: 18/30

 

Leon Best

Inability – 5, He wasn’t a terrible player, in fact he was ok, an average Championship journeyman. However, he mainly couldn’t be bothered and so was poor be choice and lack of effort rather than being a poor player. Not that he was anything special mind.

Impact – 7 – his attitude alienated fans and management alike and sometimes it was like playing with 10 players. That said when he did put a shift in, he was pretty solid, which prevents it being higher than it is. He also had a terrible injury which also means he was unable to offer us anything, even when he did nothing. That said, if getting injured prompted the signing of Rhodes, then it was Best’s most significant positivecontribution.

Cost – 9 – obscene contact that needed paying off. Only the fact that it didn’t prevent us signing Rhodes stops this being a 10. But my word he didn’t half contribute to the debt and FFP issues.

Total Score 21/30

 

Myles Anderson

Inability - 11 I know it's a score out of 10 but someone who shouldn't be a footballer whatsoever, in any league (not good enough for Barrow) is a spectacularly special case. It's beyond a parody and like the Southampton-Souness incident when someone conned their way into pretending to be George Weah's nephew or something. Top marks plus for this. 

Impact - 5. On the team itself none, as funnily enough not even K**n would play him. In terms of the culture it set, it being used for propaganda, blatant corruption and a test of how far the boundaries could be pushed, full marks. So for off field issues I'd knock it up to 5. 

Cost - 3. I bet he was on a decent contract but even so for a premiership club with their income and given the financial irregularities and gross overspending elsewhere this was a drop in the ocean. 

Total Score: 19/30

 

Chris Brown

Inability – 9 – maybe he roughed up defences and held up the ball but I can’t remember seeing it. No goals either, and didn’t look like it either. A woeful player who was somehow powerful and yet still didn’t cause defenders problems.

Impact – 6 – not first choice, for which we should be forever grateful, but did stop Gestede or King from playing at times which meant he did more harm to us by playing then he did the opposition. The no goals is a particularly noteworthy achievement given we’ve had a range of terrible strikers who’ve managed to score for us (Goodwillie and Stokes springing to mind).  

Cost – 4 – decent wages no doubt and a waste of them at that, but realistically on a free as a squad player he wasn’t a terrible piece of business, and just a poor buy.  

Total Score: 19/30

 

Bradley Orr

Inability – 7 – a championship level full back. He wasn’t a total liability and devoid of talent though which many of the players in this list are, but certainly playing for us was a level above his ability, which is lower championship.

Influence – 9 - Not a patch at all on Salgado who he was replacing. In fact a huge downgrade which cannot have helped the team. Bonus points given for the interview and the impact this had on public perception and in alienating the fans.

Cost – 7 – rumoured not an exorbitant fee (I think?) but still way too much for a reserve championship defender. I mean how does that work? We pay for a player they don’t want. Madness… Anyhow his contract needed paying off again causing an opportunity cost and adding to the debt.

 

 

Ben Bereton

Inability – 8 – genuinely other than being able to run a bit at people, and even that not brilliantly and only on occasions. Not sure what his other/actual strengths are and comfortably looks at least a level below what we are.

Impact - 6 – 2 goals in 2 seasons, often looking like a lost child who’d accidentally wandered onto the pitch when he plays. When the best he does is look as if he may have potential, it really is a poor do. He really doesn’t look like a footballer. Would be higher if he played more but our 5+ other strikers and numerous false 9s – an appellation that surely applies to Bereton in a different sense – and a couple of goals saves him from a higher score.

Cost – 10 – in a cash strapped era, blowing all our budget on one player really cost us. Nowhere near a £7 million player even in today’s crazy market, and stopped us strengthening. Also could be argued it forced us to direct money onto a striker again the following season, further costing the club. Man alive, this would have been a bad buy at £700,000.

Total Score: 24/30

 

 And of course, the number 1 culprit:

Danny Murphy

Inability – 8 – there were two Murphys: BR and AR. BR, Before Rovers he seemed a solid midfielder who could pass the ball well and popped up with a few goals. AR, At Rovers was a different matter altogether. A kind person might say he was tidy on the ball when not under pressure, but creatively, defensively and athletically he looked pretty dire. In fact athletically was perversely impressive he looked so far off the pace.

Impact – 9 – not one meaningful game is quite an impressive stat. Rather than nice passing, games simply passed him by.  Bonus points are awarded on this count for two reasons: firstly, as captain he set the tone and had a huge influence, which unfortunately was negative. Secondly, he put in two or three strong nominations for worst ever performance in the history of Rovers. I genuinely have never seen such none effort outside of the deliberate sabotage from Duffy (vs Cardiff?) and to put in two or three performances where he almost literally stood in the centre circle and did nothing, is something I have never witnessed or seen from any other sort of player.  

Cost – 9 - saved by 10 for being a free transfer, he was on an exorbitant transfer fee that added hugely to the debt and needed paying off. He was also hugely restrictive in terms of opportunity costs as for that kind of money we could have had one or two excellent midfield signings, or a whole team of solid championship pros. We also probably went for him as a leader, preventing someone else from leading the team, someone with a bit of passion, so it was a waste of an influential position too.

Total Score: 26/30

 

Get it’s subjective but these are a few of my thoughts on the topic. Am sure others may rate these players and others differently, and time certainly heals wounds – especially pre Venkys ones. There’s a school of thought that post Venkys ones shouldn’t count, especially the chaotic first years, as worst signing suggests something has gone wrong, where as much of our transfer dealings in my opinion were deliberate verging on malpractice and corruption (well, that’s what it seems like). Perhaps these years should be omitted for these reasons. Regardless, these years, give a number of candidates including our winner and some strong (or should that be weak?) also rans.

Decided to use my (ahem) formula on a few candidates for worst player ever. Each category out of 10. These are just the ones in my living memory and there are many duffers I’ve left off because the impact, i.e. number of games they played and cost are too low to make worth considering. If it’s solely on criteria 1 – how bad they are – then that’s a different ball game. But often, especially when we were a normal club, the cost and influence was minimal, a low risk experiment that did little harm to the club; for example, Fowler under Hughes, or Diawara under Souness. Low risk, minimum impact, no worries they didn’t work out.

 

I’ve done a few of the chancers I’ve seen in a Blue and White shirt. I’ll admit the King Kenny years (and Hartford’s first season) were met with young and not very discerning eyes so there are no inclusions from this time. Sadly however, these eyes were made somewhat more discerning by Rovers mixed fortunes. Here are a few who’ve stuck out in my memory, I am sure there are more though and others will come to me.

 

Christopher Walton

Inability – 8 - he seems a bit more comfortable in the air (sometimes!) then some we’ve had but kicking, shot stopping, and reactions, were all sketchy at times and his command of the area was erratic too.

Impact – 7 – a promising middle of the season was sandwiched between a poor first half of the season with a string of unimpressive displays, and then after the restart, he literally attempted to throw away any chance of playoffs missing virtually everything that came at him. In fact such a poor run of games haven’t been seen by any bad keeper at Rovers before. Two thirds of the season as a liability, with a number of mistakes leading to dropped and lost points that could have been the difference between playoffs and also rans. It was only one season though!

Cost – 6 – hard to say. On the plus side he was a loan, meaning we aren’t lumbered with him. On the negative side it means that we don’t have a keeper for next season and replaced a promising prospect with a loan, which is a very costly switch.

Total Score: 21/30

 

Darren Peacock

Inability - 8 - totally not Premier League class, turning circle of an oil tanker, touch of an elephant. Whether Premier League or Championship opposition, he always looked uncomfortable. Legs had gone too. 

Impact - 8 - replacing Hendry a rock at centre back with him was always going to be a huge mistake and asking for trouble. It was a huge downgrade and really weakened the team. Can't go higher than an 8 though as we had money to buy more centre backs (and did, and provided another candidate for this list) so we weren't stuck with him as first choice for the whole of his time with us, but he still played a lot more than he should have.

Cost - 3 - will have been on a good amount of money but given he was a free, this wasn't one of Roy's disaster buys financially.      

Total Score: 19/30

 

Christian Dailly

Inability – 6 It’s not that he was a total duffer, he wasn’t terrible; it’s just he wasn’t very good. Certainly, nowhere near £5 million plus worth of good. In the championship he was decent, in the premier league he fluctuated between weak and ok. The term jack of all trades master of none could have been written for him.

Impact – 6 – he didn’t replace Hendry either, albeit Roy playing him all over the defence really didn’t help his cause and is a mitigating factor. In the championship/division 1 he was bog standard, and if not pushing us towards promotion, wasn’t a prime culprit for us treading water in the first division. So, no positive contribution, but less negative contribution than some candidates.

Cost – 8 – massively, massively overpriced. Cost three times what we sold him for which sold him for which is pretty much his epitaph, he was about a third of the player we needed. Doesn’t get a 9 or 10 as there was plenty of money still to be spent that season so it wasn’t that restrictive.

Total Score: 20/30

 

Jason Steele

Inability – 9 –worst keeper I have ever seen, only saved from a 10 by the rare good game that he had (all two or three of them) and that he didn’t do as many calamity errors as certain keepers. Couldn’t kick, made errors, poor in the air, bad at saving shots, and kicking was terrible. Not sure there was anything that remotely hinted at being a Championship level keeper…

Impact – 7 – two (three?) years as our number one. Given we had a pretty decent defence at times he was covered a lot more than expected, but who knows how much better we would have done had there been a decent keeper behind the defence?

Cost – 6 – I could be wrong but this is the only money ever spent on a keeper in Venkys tenure. That it was blown on this waste-of space really shows how much of a missed opportunity it was. That we spent anything on him at all also shows that we overspent.

Total Score: 23/30

 

Alan Fettis

Inability - 9 - I mean he was pretty terrible. Only the recent antics of Walton and Steele make me appreciate there are more depth that can be plumbed in goal keeping. 

Impact - 5 - whenever he played, we were at a disadvantage. Hard to rate as technically he was brought in as a third-choice keeper due to an injury crisis, so the quality that could have been brought in that situation was more limited. That said he did play because of the injury crisis and cost us a fair amount of goals (practically every shot.) However, given we had Filan and Flowers in net for part of the season and whenever either was vaguely fit they played instead of him, and he only played a handful of games -a one season blunder - it's hard to go over a 5 on this. 

Cost - 4 - don't think he cost too much but it was more than a division two level keeper should cost, and especially seeing as for we could have got a loan of better quality fairly easily.

Total Score: 18/30

 

Leon Best

Inability – 5, He wasn’t a terrible player, in fact he was ok, an average Championship journeyman. However, he mainly couldn’t be bothered and so was poor be choice and lack of effort rather than being a poor player. Not that he was anything special mind.

Impact – 7 – his attitude alienated fans and management alike and sometimes it was like playing with 10 players. That said when he did put a shift in, he was pretty solid, which prevents it being higher than it is. He also had a terrible injury which also means he was unable to offer us anything, even when he did nothing. That said, if getting injured prompted the signing of Rhodes, then it was Best’s most significant positivecontribution.

Cost – 9 – obscene contact that needed paying off. Only the fact that it didn’t prevent us signing Rhodes stops this being a 10. But my word he didn’t half contribute to the debt and FFP issues.

Total Score 21/30

 

Myles Anderson

Inability - 11 I know it's a score out of 10 but someone who shouldn't be a footballer whatsoever, in any league (not good enough for Barrow) is a spectacularly special case. It's beyond a parody and like the Southampton-Souness incident when someone conned their way into pretending to be George Weah's nephew or something. Top marks plus for this. 

Impact - 5. On the team itself none, as funnily enough not even K**n would play him. In terms of the culture it set, it being used for propaganda, blatant corruption and a test of how far the boundaries could be pushed, full marks. So for off field issues I'd knock it up to 5. 

Cost - 3. I bet he was on a decent contract but even so for a premiership club with their income and given the financial irregularities and gross overspending elsewhere this was a drop in the ocean. 

Total Score: 19/30

 

Chris Brown

Inability – 9 – maybe he roughed up defences and held up the ball but I can’t remember seeing it. No goals either, and didn’t look like it either. A woeful player who was somehow powerful and yet still didn’t cause defenders problems.

Impact – 6 – not first choice, for which we should be forever grateful, but did stop Gestede or King from playing at times which meant he did more harm to us by playing then he did the opposition. The no goals is a particularly noteworthy achievement given we’ve had a range of terrible strikers who’ve managed to score for us (Goodwillie and Stokes springing to mind).  

Cost – 4 – decent wages no doubt and a waste of them at that, but realistically on a free as a squad player he wasn’t a terrible piece of business, and just a poor buy.  

Total Score: 19/30

 

Bradley Orr

Inability – 7 – a championship level full back. He wasn’t a total liability and devoid of talent though which many of the players in this list are, but certainly playing for us was a level above his ability, which is lower championship.

Influence – 9 - Not a patch at all on Salgado who he was replacing. In fact a huge downgrade which cannot have helped the team. Bonus points given for the interview and the impact this had on public perception and in alienating the fans.

Cost – 7 – rumoured not an exorbitant fee (I think?) but still way too much for a reserve championship defender. I mean how does that work? We pay for a player they don’t want. Madness… Anyhow his contract needed paying off again causing an opportunity cost and adding to the debt.

 

 

Ben Bereton

Inability – 8 – genuinely other than being able to run a bit at people, and even that not brilliantly and only on occasions. Not sure what his other/actual strengths are and comfortably looks at least a level below what we are.

Impact - 6 – 2 goals in 2 seasons, often looking like a lost child who’d accidentally wandered onto the pitch when he plays. When the best he does is look as if he may have potential, it really is a poor do. He really doesn’t look like a footballer. Would be higher if he played more but our 5+ other strikers and numerous false 9s – an appellation that surely applies to Bereton in a different sense – and a couple of goals saves him from a higher score.

Cost – 10 – in a cash strapped era, blowing all our budget on one player really cost us. Nowhere near a £7 million player even in today’s crazy market, and stopped us strengthening. Also could be argued it forced us to direct money onto a striker again the following season, further costing the club. Man alive, this would have been a bad buy at £700,000.

Total Score: 24/30

 

 And of course, the number 1 culprit:

Danny Murphy

Inability – 8 – there were two Murphys: BR and AR. BR, Before Rovers he seemed a solid midfielder who could pass the ball well and popped up with a few goals. AR, At Rovers was a different matter altogether. A kind person might say he was tidy on the ball when not under pressure, but creatively, defensively and athletically he looked pretty dire. In fact athletically was perversely impressive he looked so far off the pace.

Impact – 9 – not one meaningful game is quite an impressive stat. Rather than nice passing, games simply passed him by.  Bonus points are awarded on this count for two reasons: firstly, as captain he set the tone and had a huge influence, which unfortunately was negative. Secondly, he put in two or three strong nominations for worst ever performance in the history of Rovers. I genuinely have never seen such none effort outside of the deliberate sabotage from Duffy (vs Cardiff?) and to put in two or three performances where he almost literally stood in the centre circle and did nothing, is something I have never witnessed or seen from any other sort of player.  

Cost – 9 - saved by 10 for being a free transfer, he was on an exorbitant transfer fee that added hugely to the debt and needed paying off. He was also hugely restrictive in terms of opportunity costs as for that kind of money we could have had one or two excellent midfield signings, or a whole team of solid championship pros. We also probably went for him as a leader, preventing someone else from leading the team, someone with a bit of passion, so it was a waste of an influential position too.

Total Score: 26/30

 

Get it’s subjective but these are a few of my thoughts on the topic. Am sure others may rate these players and others differently, and time certainly heals wounds – especially pre Venkys ones. There’s a school of thought that post Venkys ones shouldn’t count, especially the chaotic first years, as worst signing suggests something has gone wrong, where as much of our transfer dealings in my opinion were deliberate verging on malpractice and corruption (well, that’s what it seems like). Perhaps these years should be omitted for these reasons. Regardless, these years, give a number of candidates including our winner and some strong (or should that be weak?) also rans.

[JacknOry]

Thats some post lol (wont quote it).

The most amazing thing about Steele (and yes, he worse even worse than Walton), is that we sold him for 500k.

[Commondore]

On 12/08/2020 at 20:36, Boroblue said:

Martin dahlin Everton away was a shocker. Id been to  a wedding and convinced people to come to watch. We sat in the obscured view area  at goodison all I can say is thank the Lord. It was appalling 

He was however very good in the famous 3-4 loss to Chelsea in the late 90's.