Players you thought would be great but turned out to be...

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Callum Robinson has been a good Championship player for a decade and for some of that time, he wasn’t a bad Premier League one either He’s played just short of forty games for Ireland and is scoring at a rate of one in every four which isn’t bad - I’m not aware of any reputation he had for trouble marking as well.

Robinson was a good player until he came to Cardiff and, apart from showing he was a crap penalty taker, wasnt doing too badly last season before the injury which ended it for him.

He’s had a poor season this time around though no doubt about that and I don’t think he’s been putting the effort in either (again, I’m unaware of this being a criticism of him in the past). Supporters tend not to take the possibility of off field issues into account when judging players, so let’s include the possibility that there may be non footballing reasons for the fact that he’s barely made an impact this season, but there’s an elephant in the room which has to be mentioned - we have a manager that criticised him in public in the autumn, has rowed with him during matches, spoken vaguely of injuries and illness to Robinson that kept him out of the first team picture for months and now he’s dropped him for disciplinary reasons.

Maybe Robinson deserves the treatment he’s received from Erol Bulut, but I can’t help thinking he wouldn’t be appearing in this thread if we had a different manager.

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The point about (uncontrollable at least) off field factors is a good one, as I learned from listening to an interview with Mark Hudson.

That said, for a humble fan, it can often feel like excuses, when some those factors are largely brought upon the players by themselves.

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Originally Posted by Citizen's Nephew

...not so great (you thought I was going to say sh*t didn't you?)

This season: Tanner. I championed him after pre-season and his Swansea goal but I think he's pretty awful now. Got that one wrong. Spectacularly. Also noticed he has 'Bluebirds' on one boot and 'CCFC' on the other. Don't know why it does but I just think it's a bit naff.

Wintle: after his run at Blackpool and when he came back he looked like a new signing imo. Since then, I think he's terrible and his set-pieces are an embarrassment to football. I wrote ages ago that he should never, ever, ever take a corner again in the professional game. I think Taylor Swift should write a song about him.

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This could be a long thread…..

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Originally Posted by olderblue

Great point about the off field activities that players could be involved in?
I wonder how much clubs put into looking after their assets?
There’s always stories around over players who find themselves in financial difficulties because of gambling addictions etc
Wether it’s Gambling, excessive alcohol, drugs, laughing gas chasing other blokes wife’s there are lots of temptations for a lot of players, with a lethal combination of too much time and lots of money at an early age
It’s easy to see how some get involved in some of the things listed.
I doubt too many agents are particularly interested in these things, probably more interested in helping move the players on, on a regular basis?

I don’t know what the answer is, but in an industry that spends millions of pounds annually on new assets, I’d have a team of people who are experts in all sorts of fields from sports psychology to financial expertise at the club to help minimise these problems if it was my money involved!!!!

I guess doing a bit of due diligence on a player before signing him would help beforehand

For me Madine has to be the biggest waste of time and money in recent years

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Excellent post.

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Originally Posted by olderblue

Great point about the off field activities that players could be involved in?
I wonder how much clubs put into looking after their assets?
There’s always stories around over players who find themselves in financial difficulties because of gambling addictions etc
Wether it’s Gambling, excessive alcohol, drugs, laughing gas chasing other blokes wife’s there are lots of temptations for a lot of players, with a lethal combination of too much time and lots of money at an early age
It’s easy to see how some get involved in some of the things listed.
I doubt too many agents are particularly interested in these things, probably more interested in helping move the players on, on a regular basis?

I don’t know what the answer is, but in an industry that spends millions of pounds annually on new assets, I’d have a team of people who are experts in all sorts of fields from sports psychology to financial expertise at the club to help minimise these problems if it was my money involved!!!!

I guess doing a bit of due diligence on a player before signing him would help beforehand

For me Madine has to be the biggest waste of time and money in recent years

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Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

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Different thread or topic 🤔 know but always thought pilkington was hard done by with other managers other than Slade - never felt he let us down whenever he was asked to play

Madine though - gash 😂

The 17 foot German we signed for me tops the list - I was young and easily wooed - always something romantic about signing a foreign player that it is guaranteed that they will be good but alas a litany of players prove this romantic wrong

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

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Yes! Unbelievable……

Alan 'Fatty' Foggon.

Josh Murphy

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Originally Posted by 2b2bdoo

100% that’s it, never felt so underwhelmed watching someone.

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Turnbull. Unable to make the starting eleven after a £2M transfer

There have been dozens over the years for me, right from Nigel Rees who crossed the ball for THAT goal from Clarkie, through Tony Villars and onwards (or downwards or sideways if you were the player concerned) through to Joss Murphy. I've not really expected much from our squad apart from Colwill.

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Originally Posted by Nobody's Rep

Different thread or topic 🤔 know but always thought pilkington was hard done by with other managers other than Slade - never felt he let us down whenever he was asked to play

Madine though - gash 😂

The 17 foot German we signed for me tops the list - I was young and easily wooed - always something romantic about signing a foreign player that it is guaranteed that they will be good but alas a litany of players prove this romantic wrong

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If we are thinking of the same guy I remember that - I think it was Jorn Schwinkendorf or something like that. He was rubbish but I had the same excitement!

For me my choice is Koumas on his second visit, and Robbie Fowler. Although too decrepid for top league, I thought he might bag a few more here. I think service to him was poor, but his body was just knackered and he didn’t look after himself.

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Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

If we are thinking of the same guy I remember that - I think it was Jorn Schwinkendorf or something like that. He was rubbish but I had the same excitement!

For me my choice is Koumas on his second visit, and Robbie Fowler. Although too decrepid for top league, I thought he might bag a few more here. I think service to him was poor, but his body was just knackered and he didn’t look after himself.

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That's the chappy

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Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

If we are thinking of the same guy I remember that - I think it was Jorn Schwinkendorf or something like that. He was rubbish but I had the same excitement!

For me my choice is Koumas on his second visit, and Robbie Fowler. Although too decrepid for top league, I thought he might bag a few more here. I think service to him was poor, but his body was just knackered and he didn’t look after himself.

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Yeah, I too was very, very disappointed with Fowler. I thought he was a shoe-in for 18-20 goals for the coming season. Of the three "has-beens" we signed that summer, Hasslebank was by far the best. I can't seem to remember Trevor Sinclair doing that much.

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Originally Posted by Mr Soul '68

Yeah, I too was very, very disappointed with Fowler. I thought he was a shoe-in for 18-20 goals for the coming season. Of the three "has-beens" we signed that summer, Hasslebank was by far the best. I can't seem to remember Trevor Sinclair doing that much.

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Yep, Sinclair was injury prone if my memory serves me well. I agree - Jimmy Floyd at least put himself about and was serious about it. You got the impression he was giving 100%. I liked him - wish we had taken a punt on him for a coaching role.

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Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

Yep, Sinclair was injury prone if my memory serves me well. I agree - Jimmy Floyd at least put himself about and was serious about it. You got the impression he was giving 100%. I liked him - wish we had taken a punt on him for a coaching role.

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I’m not doubting you but I don’t remember Sinclair being that injury prone. JFH gave it a good go, that Wolves goal was wow. Fowler was such a dissapointment, he would have scored plenty but never fit.

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Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

Yep, Sinclair was injury prone if my memory serves me well. I agree - Jimmy Floyd at least put himself about and was serious about it. You got the impression he was giving 100%. I liked him - wish we had taken a punt on him for a coaching role.

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And of course Hasslebank smashed in that great goal (Canton End) when we beat Wolves in the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup. By far my favourite goal of his that he scored for us!

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Originally Posted by 2b2bdoo

I’m not doubting you but I don’t remember Sinclair being that injury prone. JFH gave it a good go, that Wolves goal was wow. Fowler was such a dissapointment, he would have scored plenty but never fit.

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I just looked and Fowler had 13 appearances compared to Sinclairs 21, not much in it at all. Funny how memories can be over time.

Tony Philliskirk(sp?) had a good debut, did everything but score.
After that, he did f all.

Whenever we have a new player I always assume and expect them to be good enough/decent players.

Some surpass my expectations (Ross McCormack, Cameron Jerome, Chops, Bothroyd, Super Kev etc etc), most meet expectations in that they are solid if not spectacular (for example Sawyers, Rino, Allsop more recently, none of whom were terrible but did a job for us) whereas far too many fall well below expectations (Ronnie Moore, Langley, Madine, Turnbull and prove to be huge disappointments)

The one's that spring to mind for me. Micky Burns, Kevin Campbell and Kurt Nogan.