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Since we signed Peter Thorne
Here's a list of all the strikers who cost us more than we paid for Peter Thorne. Back in 2002 we paid £1.7m, which seemed like a fortune at the time for a 3rd tier club who had only won promotion a year before.
Chopra - scintillating in his first spell with us, was great until the final few months of his final season - 34 goals.
Velikonja - apparantly signed without Mackay's consent - 0 goals.
Maynard - showed great promise early on but suffered a bad injury - 2 goals.
Odemwingie - crap - 1 goal.
Cornelius - apparently one for the future - 0 goals.
Le Fondre - proven goalscorer in the Championship, never happened for him here - 3 goals.
Lambert - coming to the end of his career - 4 goals.
Madine - shite - 0 goals
Sala - sadly we will never know RIP
Glatzel - divides opinion - 10 goals
Vassell - does he exist? - 1 goal
Moore - the most promising striker we've signed for several seasons - 8 goals
Peter Thorne scored 38 goals for us. Chopra apart, our other £1.7m+ strikers have scored 29 goals between them, the vast majority by Glatzel and Moore.
Looking at it, our recruitment of strikers when we've paid decent money for them has been pretty shite.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
I may well be wrong, not sure what league one is like generally but £1.7m feels like it would be a lot for most 3rd tier teams even now, forget 18 years ago!
Moore is one of our best signings full stop in the last 10 years, given the timing and need. He could push on to cult status.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Moore is a right lump
Imagine chopra playing off him
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Der Kaiser
I may well be wrong, not sure what league one is like generally but £1.7m feels like it would be a lot for most 3rd tier teams even now, forget 18 years ago!
Absolutely. I can't say I follow League 1 at all, so have no idea of what teams are spending, but I'd be surprised if they're forking out a couple of million on one player.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
I reckon at £250,000 the mighty Steve Thompson was a bargain, he scored 16 ?
PS Thorne was a class act .
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
life on mars
I reckon at £250,000 the mighty Steve Thompson was a bargain, he scored 16 ?
PS Thorne was a class act .
Bothroyd cost 350k, as well. The best striker I've seen at the club.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Did Helgusson cost anything? What a warrior he was for us in a promotion season.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pedro de la Rosa
Bothroyd cost 350k, as well. The best striker I've seen at the club.
agree total value for money
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
life on mars
I reckon at £250,000 the mighty Steve Thompson was a bargain, he scored 16 ?
PS Thorne was a class act .
16 from nearly 100 appearances. Pretty crap.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
I thought Chops only cost around half a million?
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
198bore
I thought Chops only cost around half a million?
Not when we bought him back from Sunderland.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Bobby decordova Reid?
only him and Cornelius seem to have done anything of note since leaving us as well
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rjk
Bobby decordova Reid?
only him and Cornelius seem to have done anything of note since leaving us as well
Got the feeling we bought him as an attacking midfielder, hence I left him out. Good point about Cornelius. Malky got a lot of stick over signing him, but Malky always said he was one for the future. He was right, just that future wasn't with us.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
Got the feeling we bought him as an attacking midfielder, hence I left him out. Good point about Cornelius. Malky got a lot of stick over signing him, but Malky always said he was one for the future. He was right, just that future wasn't with us.
Mackay didn't say that when he signed him, he started saying that when it was clear he was way off the pace. Promoted sides don't break their transfer record on a project.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pedro de la Rosa
Mackay didn't say that when he signed him, he started saying that when it was clear he was way off the pace. Promoted sides don't break their transfer record on a project.
Correct.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pedro de la Rosa
Mackay didn't say that when he signed him, he started saying that when it was clear he was way off the pace. Promoted sides don't break their transfer record on a project.
True. I don't think it made much difference in the end, we were well off the pace most of that season, especially when Solskjaer turned up.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
I still think Velikonja could have been good if he'd been given a chance
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
While we are talking about strikers, who was the last player to score under the Ninian Park floodlights?
Just read this on Wiki when looking up a player.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BlueArmy 86
While we are talking about strikers, who was the last player to score under the Ninian Park floodlights?
Just read this on Wiki when looking up a player.
Eddie!
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Dave Jones signed Chopra, Bothroyd and McCormack for a combined sum of less than £1 million.
as well as some bad signings too.
nobody since can match that kind of success rate though.
was he better at spotting a striker? or did his team's play football that was more likely to let a striker thrive?
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rjk
Eddie!
Correct! Congratulations, you win a Xmas get away..oh wait
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rjk
Dave Jones signed Chopra, Bothroyd and McCormack for a combined sum of less than £1 million.
as well as some bad signings too.
nobody since can match that kind of success rate though.
was he better at spotting a striker? or did his team's play football that was more likely to let a striker thrive?
Or did he, and the board, trust his ability to manage difficult personalities moreso than modern managers are given chance to?
In Malky's first season he spoke about complying dossiers on players to reduce risk of it going wrong/increase odds of it going right. Watching careers of Bothroyd before he came and Chopra/McCormack after they left, they would all likely raise significant red flags.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Where is BDR?
Kenwynne Jones should arguably be here too - we swapped him for someone who cost a fair few quid.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rjk
Dave Jones signed Chopra, Bothroyd and McCormack for a combined sum of less than £1 million.
as well as some bad signings too.
nobody since can match that kind of success rate though.
was he better at spotting a striker? or did his team's play football that was more likely to let a striker thrive?
And Whitts for a few £000k.
Proper fire power back then.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
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Originally Posted by
Rjk
I still think Velikonja could have been good if he'd been given a chance
I don't know if that was tongue in cheek but I agree! I watched the U23's regularly when him and Healey were up front for them and their finishing made it worth the effort going to games.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Chopra scored 56 League goals for us, 6 in the Cups and 2 in the Play Offs. He cost us £500k and was sold a year later for £5m, came back to us for £4m and went to Ipswich for £1m, so we actually made money on him.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Thorne scored 45 in the League, 4 in the Cups and 1 in the Play Offs. So a pretty similar record to Chopra.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
life on mars
I reckon at £250,000 the mighty Steve Thompson was a bargain, he scored 16 ?
PS Thorne was a class act .
Jay Chopra best duo since alston and evans.We had Ross as well
If Tommohawk hadn,t fallen off the bannana he might well have come on for Jay in the play off final.
Jones hated him for that.I did as well
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
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Originally Posted by
surge
Or did he, and the board, trust his ability to manage difficult personalities moreso than modern managers are given chance to?
In Malky's first season he spoke about complying dossiers on players to reduce risk of it going wrong/increase odds of it going right. Watching careers of Bothroyd before he came and Chopra/McCormack after they left, they would all likely raise significant red flags.
I don't think Chopra was a problem when he signed first of all. One of my local taxi drivers was a Geordie and fanatical about the club. He was gutted when Chops was sold and thought he went too cheaply. While I'm not claiming he is representative of all Toon fans, there must have been others thinking the same.
Thinking of McCormack, his career hit the buffers at Cardiff partly because of Chopra being brought back. He had done well at Motherwell before joining us. He continued to score well for Leeds, Fulham and Villa, so he was hardly a player whose career nosedived after he left us. It is ironic, perhaps, that he did much better than the player who replaced him.
Bothroyd is Jones's big success (along with Whittingham). He always had the talent but never showed it. He did it for Jones. After his England cap he seemed to lose focus.
I often wonder how much of an input Ridsdale had at the time? Jones has regularly been praised as manager who found all of these bargains, but I think we owed plenty to Ridsdale's contacts as well. When Jones went to Sheffield Wednesday, he signed several of his former City transfers, showed little sign of getting those bargains and was sacked with the club in deep trouble.
Thinking along those lines, is our lack of football contacts and knowledge in the boardroom part of the reason for our less than impressive activity in the transfer market since the Riddler left? Malky signed some good players, then came Cornelius. Warnock was the next manager to do well initially in the transfer market, but his signings in the PL and following relegation weren't great. Harris has done pretty well so far.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
What about Frazier Campbell? Did ok for a bit didn’t he?
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rjk
I still think Velikonja could have been good if he'd been given a chance
On what basis, out of interest? (I never saw any of the 3 games that he played for us, so I can’t really comment)
Is it his goal scoring record at Maribor and Lierse?
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
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Originally Posted by
goats
What about Frazier Campbell? Did ok for a bit didn’t he?
:sherlock:
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
goats
What about Frazier Campbell? Did ok for a bit didn’t he?
He cost about a third of what we spent on Thorne, so wasn't in the list.
Good player but struggled in the Prem on his own up front. Scored 6 that season. Half were against Man City, one against Man Utd and one against Liverpool. Incredibly, he failed to score against the other weaker sides in the division bar Sunderland. If only he could have netted the odd goal against teams lower down the table.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
He cost about a third of what we spent on Thorne, so wasn't in the list.
Good player but struggled in the Prem on his own up front. Scored 6 that season. Half were against Man City, one against Man Utd and one against Liverpool. Incredibly, he failed to score against the other weaker sides in the division bar Sunderland. If only he could have netted the odd goal against teams lower down the table.
good signing for that kind of Money
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Shame we only made a small profit on Campbell. Paid £650k, sold for £950k. But we did cash in on Mutch that summer and he did absolutely nothing after leaving us. I think Jones and Mackay were canny in the transfer market, Solskjaer just went nuts, but did bring in Manga and Morrison after we went down. Slade had to work in the bargain basement, Trollope didn't do much. Warnock was great with frees but hopeless when spending money (or was it the 'transfer committee'?), Harris has done well I think. Moore has to be our best striker signing in years (based on his few games so far).
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
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Originally Posted by
Rjk
good signing for that kind of Money
Well worth his fee, yes.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
16 from nearly 100 appearances. Pretty crap.
Better value than Madine , Cornelius,Miller
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Miller did alright for £850k
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
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Originally Posted by
life on mars
Better value than Madine , Cornelius,Miller
Disagree with Kenny Miller, far better player and value, even with that cup final.
Comparing strikers as better value than Madine or Cornelius is hardly difficult. Even Isaac Vassell beats them.
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Re: Since we signed Peter Thorne
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
Disagree with Kenny Miller, far better player and value, even with that cup final.
Comparing strikers as better value than Madine or Cornelius is hardly difficult. Even Isaac Vassell beats them.
Cornelius is a funny one because part of his value is determined by how much of a loss we sold him at...but we only sold him at such a loss because he became a Malky shaped voodoo doll for Tan to stick pins in. If we hadn't talked him down so much, we probably could have sold him back to former club for a decent price as a more experienced player not quite ready for step-up in a similar way Chopra was sold back to us as.