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Not just the worst player.

Heading the list must be . . . David Peach (paid £150,000 for him in the 70s)

Shaun close

Thread closed!

Bertie motherfucking Brayley

I'll see your Shaun Close and raise a Jason (Lord Lucan) Drysdale

Joey Beuachamp

I know its spelt wrong, and hopefully, if he reads it, he'll be pissed off about it

Drysdale

Bad player, but a signing made worse as it was McCunt's attempt to appease the fans after the sale of Fjortoft

I'd forgotten about Drysdale.

Wot about Roy Greenwood?

I think Peach nails it. We went for Mickey Channon and ended up with an alcoholic sack of shite.

Kim heiselberg

Who the hell was he?

He sounds like either a beer or the father of modern printing

Commazzi

One of colin todds lot. Lasted 45 minutes

David James ;)

Lawrie Sanchez, Frank McIlvenney

One more for Drysdale - the worst 300k we ever spent.

juan cobian. 3 year contract, utter shit

Shaun Taylor being replaced by Mark fucking Seagraves takes some beating.


But I'm old enough to remember Peach, and for me that beats everything else.

the first name that came to my mind - Heiselberg spent the Walsall match hoofing it at every opportunity towards Graz, who was being marked by Andy Tilson

This

Marko Tuomela (sp?), was he actually a Finnish international?

Mark Robertson.

Paul Heald...now there was one really shit keeper.

Darren Dykes

Has to be Drysdale. Recently sold Shaun Taylor, decent amount of money spent of him as well.

Jon Sheffield

Most of the overpaid hasbeens we signed in the Prem season!

At first I thought you were saying he was aiming for somewhere in Austria.

It's a curio that many a manager has been undone by the humble left back...for the first 16 or 17 years of my Town watching we had John Trollope, so you never gave it much thought.  However Bob Smith, McMahon and T*dd all acquired duffers.  Danny Wilson, in the last but one season had roughly 4 left backs...two of whom Rose and Sheehan, were inept, another was a centre half, and Callum who wasn't trusted, who between them helped create a terrible side.

Of further interest, was the news this week that Charlie Mulgrew, won Scottish FotY...he more or less did for Malpas, who was convinced of his signature, lost out at the last minute, and so got Yinka instead :(

Could the great Andy King spot a left back?...well Nicho, had the odd game where he looked OK, but eventually Daisy played there even though he wasn't a left back at all.

PdC has been chopping and changing all season...in fact the only manager who has really had an eye for a left back is Lou, who got Nicky Coleman on loan, and signed Zippy and Phil King.

Let's hope Jay McEveley, doesn't turn out to be a stumer.

Permanent....

Peach, Drysdale, Greenwood, Shakes, Cobian, Close, Thorpe, Findlay, Beswetherick, Elkins, Whalley, Holcroft, Tuomela, Heiselberg, Howe, O'Brien. Rose

Loans.....
Webb, McAvennie, McCammon, Warner, Tanner, Obika, Fenn, Slabber, Sperring, Buttigieg, Tyler, Beswetherick, Hutchinson

God we have had soem shit over the years. Lots more to add to that when I can recall them.

Craig Taylor. At least I think that was his name.

Sheehan was a good player IMO, he was a cunt no doubt, but a good player

Ah Peter Holcroft. The scouse crackhead.

Sanchez, Kilcline, Ruddock...the names keep coming

Leon Clarke

Glenn Cockerill and Colin Barrett of about the same time as well. Cockerill was bought to replace Ray McHale, which he did, but badly......then there was Andy Rollings, Russell Lewis (who, amazingly, played over 200 times for Swindon), John Templeman, Nigel Gray. Anyone remember Mark Carter being signed on loan? 5 games of utter cack. Early 80s (until the coming of Lou) really was the most depressing time to be a Town fan.

Ian Muir has to be the worst ever loan signing.

Has to be David Peach for anyone old enough to remember him... bought with some of the money from Don Rogers sale, which made him doubly crap at the time.

How has Milan Misun not been mentioned?

Vincent Pericard, Jason Drysdale and Joey fucking Beauchamp.

1. He didn't play.

2. Nobody is sure whether he actually signed.

3. He doesn't exist.

1. He didn't even play makes it a terrible terrible signing.

2. Did he sign?

3. Does he exist?

The money must have been lurking down the back of the Boardroom sofa then, as there was about 8 years between those two events.

in the 7 years ive been a fan we've signed some bollocks, casal was dreadful also although it was a loan signing moses ashikodi was an embarrassment

Loan signing. N'Diaye.

Kyle Lightbourne, Bobby Howe...etc I'd be here all night!

Casal's positioning made me grimace.

Slabber.
Claude.
Anzite.

I did see the last two play

A few of the early signings this season should get a mention :

Comazzi
Lanzano
Atiku
Clarke

Same season..... Jim Whitley!

Neale Fenn, saw him play about 20 mins at Palace before being subbed.

Bobby Howe is nowhere near our worst signing in my opinion.Top 3 Tom Jenkins,Neil fucking Ruddock and Jason Drysdale.

.....bubbling under;Terry Fenwick,Adrian Whitbread and Brian Kilcline.

Anthony.mcnamee

Tans-ridiculous!

We did swap Clarke for Benson though, so it wasn't all that bad.

Alex Smith.

I thought Eastoe was bought with the Rogers money?

I've also heard some bad things said about Dave Mackay, player/manager from the early seventies. Before my time.

It is Drysdale though:

Worst left-back to play for STFC
£500k
Fjortoft's 'replacement'

I think it was around £350K but another example of us selling our best striker on deadline day and not replace and we end up relegated (or miss the play offs) Shearer 92, Fjortoft 95, Fallon 06 and Austin in 2011. Drysdale did prove the don't blow your budget on a left back as whilst a great left back can add a lot to a team, money spent on a decent striker, influential midfielde or centre half gives you a better return

David peach was bought with the League Cup semi final money, i think

Ah, I wondered how long we could go before 'killer' Kilcline was mentioned. He should be on the list for that ridiculous ponytail alone.

Thomas Dossevi, now he was a lump of shite.  A striker that didn't know the offside rule.

That wanker Cureton

I see your Cureton, and I raise you a Tony Thorpe!

Gareth Whalley is a good shout. Injured waster. Did he even play?

What a wonderful trip down memory lane reading this thread has been.

I'd like to add Keith Scott who as someone has already mentioned played alongside Adrian Whitbread in our premier league season. No wonder we got relegated.

Surprised no one's mentioned Darren Bullock yet.  That was money well spent.

Loan signings, Colin Heath must be up there...

Jon Steveson, Lloyd Opara, Petr Mikolanda and Trevor fucking Benjamin.

Keith Scott at least scored some Premier League goals.

With that said, I remember standing on the Stratton Bank sometime towards the end of the Premier league season. Scott jumped for a high ball, mistimed it completely and ended up on his arse. An old bloke next to me chuckled and said "ol' Scotty. He's bollocks, isn't he?"

Neil 'lard arsed' Webb
followed by,
Dean 'run Forest run' Hooper...!!

As loans go:- Dominic Foley (Wolves), I can remember him scoring a glorious chip in his first game for us and that was it for the next 6 games.

eat shit n'diaye........helped keep Barnet up!

You mention David Peach, but what about Andy Rollings. Signed from Brighton the season after we signed Peach, along with Colin Barrett from Forest (another disaster), All from at the time League 1 clubs, these three were meant to shore up our leaky defence. Instead they helped us leak more goals

Anyone remeber Rollings own goal at Chester; headed a long punt forward over the advancing Jimmy Allan into the back of the net.

Biggest cheer was when he was sent off, and that was from Town fans.

I'll not hear a bad word about Jon Besewetherwick!

Keith Scott tried hard - just wasn't Premier League class.  We didn't have many players that season that were, unfortunately.  Anyway, Scott goes down in STFC history as the man who scored the goal that gave us our first ever top flight win.  It's just a shame we had to wait until late November for it.

Darren Bullock - I'd forgotten him - a proper psycho

Colin Barrett - agree with him, utter bollocks.

But I'll always fondly remember Keith Scott scoring at Anfield - one of my favourite games in the PL

Anyone remember our famous Scottish international goalkeeper Frank Haffey? What a fantastic signing by Bert Head that was.

Ha Bullock is a Worcester lad and lived down the road from me he is a proper head case , I think he is manager of one of the local Sunday league teams now.

Tony Hicks was the goalie at my first game - before the legend that is Peter Downsborough

Ben Hutchinson was proper gash

Martin Williams - despite a great goal at Kenilworth Road back in September 2000, he was still complete shite.

It's always worth mentioning Adrian Bakalli as his cameo was Ali Dia-esque.

Got to be Paolo with Toploader. Awful!!

Has Moses Ashikodi been mentioned at all?  If so, he was also complete shite.  I can remember a game, cannot remember the opposition, but it was a midweek game at the County Ground.  He came on around the 75th minute mark and was substitued off around the 85th minute mark for Malpas' tactical re-shuffle.  Genius.

Can I also mention Ibon Arrieta from the 07/08 season?  He did score a cracking goal against Brentford in that JPT game but apart from that the only other things of note he done whilst in a Town shirt was score the winner against Chippenham in a Wiltshire Premier Shield game and kick off when Dave Byrne hauled him off in a Reserve Game at the training ground. Unfortunatley for Ibon the changing rooms were locked and from my understanding, sulked on a crate for the remainder of the match.

Think he got two that day. Not the greatest player in the world admittedly but "worse ever signing"? Do me a favour.

Fair play, you've just picked a couple who do fit that billing.

Huddersfield at home. Replaced by Christian Roberts (which turned out to be his last appearance for Town).

That was a weird game. 3-2 win, cruising at 3-0, two pens conceded, two players sent-off and a low attendance too if I remember rightly.

Referee seemed dire yet the only two decisions he got right were the red cards.

In recent seasons I would put forward Lilian Nalis - great record at previous clubs but his legs had simply gone.

Nalis was unfortunate, I saw him several times with Plymouth the previous season and he looked great. I guess his fellow midfielders carried him through.

As usual with this type of thread people pick players they dislike rather than proper candidates. Martin Williams,bobby howe, Jim whitely 3 off the top of my head

Probably right, I couldnt stand Martin Williams.  I still stand by that he was shite though.

I liked him. Worked his nuts off in a shite side

Totally agree Arriba. Held the ball up well too given his size.

Bobby Howe is a joke too surely, he used to play sexy football.

Philippe Cuervo - always thought he would turn out decent.

Wrong!

Gareth Whalley for me...great player at Crewe and thought he would be a brilliant signing.

He was dire and just picked his pension fund up for a few years while with us.

I have just been reminded by a friend that without Williams' brace against Luton then we would have been relegated so I will stand down on my stance (he is still shit though  ;))

Cuervo was a brilliant player, just a shame that he broke his leg which ultimatley finished him at Town.  He was awesome in Fraser Digby's testimonial.

...but definitely not the worst player we've had.

Jason Drysdale was woeful from day one and has all the correct components for what I define a 'worst ever'.

* Signed for big money (for us) from a big club where he did not play.
* Had plenty of football league experience.
* Played enough games to allow us all to judge him.
* Post-Swindon downfall after leaving indicates that it wasn't in our heads either :)

He was only 28 when he left Town, he seemed so much older.

That ashikodi game against huddersfield, was that the one that billy paynter thought he was peter schmeichel?

Yes. Cracking save.

Cuervo was good before the injury.

Some of the suggestions are just average/poor players who clearly aren't our worst ever signings.

I suppose a lot of it just remembering players who have fallen off the radar.

Leigh Barnard anyone?

Cuervo doesn't belong on this list. He was a classy player

Now we're taking the micky. He was introduced into the Hall of Fame against Port Vale.

Per Mikalonda

To be fair, the thread does say 'Worst signings' but seems to have morphed into worst players.

If we paid £5m for someone and they broke their leg in the first game and never played again, that, to me, would be a 'worst signing'.

Leigh Barnard was a bit tongue in cheek - but he was called Leigh Barnyard at the time - mainly cos he couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo

260 odd games and part of our promotion sides tends to say he wasn't our worst signing or worst player ever though.

Plus i met him at the Vale game so he's now my mate.

+1 for Leigh K Barnard, absolutely awful footballer, could run for hours but had the skills of a geriatric elephant. Not the worst player ever for us but must be up there with them, a but like daisy Duke.

Also because an arrogant shit who was sacked from his job as a schoolboy coach at Pompey for hitting his players, thats not on Mr B.

Fair do's, i was merely a young wippersnapper standing on the Shrivvy Road when he was playing so my memories of him are hazey. I remember he wasn't a crowd favourite but jeez, harsh to be mentioned on this thread.

No idea what happened at Pompey but he's now teaching at a school in London apparently so can't have been too out of order.

Swindon Town Hall of Famer :)

Alberto Comazzi ... Maybe a bit harsh but seriously who thought we were getting a slightly shitter version of Allessandro Nesta?

Billy Tucker, Paul Gilchrist, Tony Galvin, Colin Prophett anyone?

Tell you who else was shite - Brian Marwood

Scored on his debut in a victory against Bristol City therefore cannot be considered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PQ0saMvXiXE

"Rosenior with a delightful finish" aka a tap in.

 ::)

Was Marwood's ONLY goal, though. And as he moved from us to Barnet probably tells the story.

BTW what a fantastic penalty taker Zippy was

Before my time, but scoring eight goals from defence in one season including one away at Arsenal in the League Cup doesn't seem to shabby.

Plus he's a good friend of my Dad :)

...of an ageing player who had played at the top level. He was only ever a short term solution to add experience, it worked.

Had he played within this era then he would've probably not needed to drop down.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Eric Sabin. This is the man who Andy King compared to Thierry Henry. :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/History/0,,10341~1840053,00.html

Was on the bank for that game with the wife and her city fan cousin.  Enjoyed it greatly.  City's kit was just horrific.  Lime green and purple.  Yum.

Many City fans are campaigning for those colours to be used for their next away kit.

Given our rural background, shouldn't that be Hall of Farmer?

If you want. I have strong agricultural links so I'm not totally convinced that I want Leigh Barnard in the Hall of Farmer though.

Indeed, Swindon town centre is awash with corn fields.

That reminds me - didn't we have a player once called Cornwell. He was shite, too

Bit of an albino wasn't he?

I think Fitz was knobbing JCs wife.

1 goals up and down to 9 men. That sub being subbed was never about Ashikodi and how he was playing. All about wasting time obviously.

He was shit though.

Andy Lonergan was terrible for us.

Some of the suggestions on here are now getting ridiculous....it's almost like lets look at a list of Town players...we never sold him for a mill, so he must be shit.

Quality control is important on the TEF...bad signings, firstly must have cost a substantial transfer fee, or a long term contarct, and singularly failed to produce, thereby using up scarce resources and stinking out the place by hanging around.

A fella who signed on a free, in the dog days of 80's Div 4....played 200 odd games in a rise up to Div 2, under class managers....cannot seriously be considered.

In the same way as Alberto Comazzi can't, as it was soon realised he was out of his depth, so he fucked off.

 :hmmm:

 :D

As I said before, it's really morphed into a remembrance of town players from days gone by who just happened not to be very good

The majority of players then....it's something you learn quickly as Town fan. I'd say most accept this inevitable fact, and that as long as they run round a bit and show some humility it's about as much as can be expected.  More surprisingly occasionally we get a decent player, and in this day and age if they hang about for the duration of 2 year contract then it makes them a legend.

The 'worst XI/player' discussion is a common trait amongst all football fans of all clubs. The Washbag has it's 'Hall of Shame' on its homepage but have to go in to the sitemap to find anything positive.

It's as if the supporters realise that football clubs are unable acknowledge it's lesser adored players (and why would they) so, damn it, the fanbases will.

Your criteria is quite correct.Therefore i'd make the following suggestions.

1.David Peach.(Ridiculous signing and McMenemy warned us that we would be wasting our Cup money).

2.Joey Beauchamp.(Enough said)

3.Andy Rollings.(Signed in exchange for kingpin McHale and totally destabilised the spine of the side).

Two of these signings cost the manager his job.

Beauchamp had some good games for Town.

Why-oh-why-oh-why Gorman signed him is beyond me though.

Well simply, because, after Arry paid a mill for him, he could be got at something of a cut price, because he had to go somewhere near Oxford. We had Whitbread, who Arry thought a Prem defender, and was so prepared to do swap, with a small cash adjustment from us.

Arry obviously thought Beauchamp was a decent player....but then again he thought the same about Marco Boogers.

Anyway it's churlish to slag of John Gorman...when he's just set for retirement after 44 years in the game.

Can I question a John Gorman signing next year then?  ::)

I don't think any manager, hopefully, signs a dud knowing he's a dud - blind optimism sure.

I think the time and money spent by supporters over a period of time almost obliges them to vent their spleen at the dross that has represented their clubs over the years.

Beauchamp would never have signed if Twitter was around back then ???

I've said it many times, Beauchamp's goal against Wolves was amazing and he was in no way our 'worst ever signing' but I'll always question why we went in for him in the first place given his legendary status at Oxford (which was very much in place back then).

I dunno, the waste of money, wages, the fact he was for the most part shite and an Oxford legend then went back and there scored past us - makes him a pretty shit signing.

Maybe not the worst - but easily the most hated ex-STFC player.

I'll always fondly remember Mark Walters 'doing' Beauchamp in the centre circle when the ball was nowhere around.

Real hatchet man him  :clap:

The game we kicked him all over the place probably would not happen nowadays. Brilliant stuff.

Quality game that was.

Poor Joey, the crybaby cunt

Scoring past your old side shouldn't necessarily affect your status, some of us had to witness the sight of Don Rogers, scoring for Palace at Selhurst Park for the Glaziers, when we lost 4-2 there in 73.

Bit harsh to judge him on one appearance.

thorpe, aaron brown, andy frampton was dog shit.

Charlie griffin was pretty wank, along with fola onion bargie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Z9M7I7Ilk

Around 2:20 looks like walters kicks mummys boy in the face

I must mention Gurnam Singh as ref.  Ref's get a lot of stick (some it justified), but Singh was magnificent in this game.  I seem to recall he generally good for us, too. 

All of those empty seats and that was The Championship.

Who was manager?

I know, I know.

It shows just what that fucker has to answer for.  We may be finally recovering...

People (mostly younger) don't realise how they ripped the fanbase apart. I couldn't go to games during this era (and afterwards) as my dad stopped going because of them.

I stopped going to games at this time, only went back after the scouse bastard had been sacked.

Paul Hart was fucking useless, but the dislike for him didn't come close to that for the scouse bastard

It's incredible to think that McMahon won one of our only FL titles and then got despised so quickly afterwards.

...and yet he did and it was all justified.

I didn't even last as long as the year he won the league

I'm not questioning your father thing, but the notion that people weren't at that derby because of McMahon is rubbish. we played them under Hoddle not 3 years before and only had 7000 odd, whereas there were 10,000 in 96.

Fact is we've had modest support for years...certainly since the high water mark of the 60's into pre Opec oil crisis 70's

Remember, he took us down to Div 2 in the first place.

That's fair enough.

Ultimately people go if the going is good and they don't when it's not.

I know, it was the beginning of the end when the club sold Fjortoft (for half of what they had turned down earlier in the season) on transfer deadline day & didn't replace him, effectively giving up on trying to stay up.

That, and giving Shaun Taylor to the shitheads.

But the worst thing about the chuckle brothers (McMoan & Kunt) was them telling fans of 20+ years they weren't wanted at the club as they had the audacity to suggest that the team were poor & the style of football shit.


Still, it's times like those & the Diamond Mike years that make you see just how fucking lucky we are at the moment.

Losing Fjortoft was an inevitability (just not for the price we got for him) but selling Shaun Taylor for 2 shillings and 6 pence was an absolute joke.

If they had kept Fjortoft till the end of the season we wouldn't have got much (if any) less and we would also have had a chance of staying up. However, if you were going to sell him at least sign a replacement. If the replacement turned out to be shit (ala Benyon), at least you tried.

It should be pointed out though, that in true STFC style, we manage to finish 4th bottom, in the season when 4 go down  from the Championship as they're reducing the size of the Prem.

2 both of which he cost us.

There are some parallels here insofar as Mcmahon had lined up Ian Marshall, but the deal fell through, becasue he couldn't sell his house or something....at the time I thought Marshall not much cop, but he subsequently did well. in the same way we'd lined up Joe Mason as the Austin replacement, but that went tits up, so Benyon was the fall back. Glenn Hoddle got in Terry Gibson when he was forced to sell Shearer, which proves it's not easy.

Of course, that's just our style.  However, 4th bottom seemed a long way off when McMahon took charge...

It wasn't all bad though.  Reading finished 2nd that year - but missed out on automatic promotion for the same reason and had to try their luck in the play offs.  They won their semi and then played Bolton in the final - and were minutes from winning when Bolton equalised...and then got turned over in extra time.  I almost felt sorry for them.

Is that the game where Jimmy Quinn missed a penalty for Reading?



No, just checked Quinn was the player manager & scored in ET, but is was Lovell that missed the penalty.
Should have realised, Quinn hardly ever missed penalties (the only one I remember was when he tried to place it rather than smashing it in)

One player from that game that should get a mention...Gary Elkins. He went on the Ruddock diet.

so what happened during this era?

Nothing, everything was super great.

The club treated its fans really well and the manager wasn't at all so far up his own backside it was freaky.

There were no problems (wait, wrong regime).

Jason Drysdale? A real waste of money but he did buy me some beers in the tavern (melksham)on a £1 a bottle Thursday many moons ago whilst at fgr.Also told me he was going to get back into full time pro game too as he was still good enough.Really ?

Jason's off my list now....I'm questioning Gary Elkins..

Agreed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Robinson_(footballer_born_1968)

Not the worse but £600,000!

Always put a shift in but was an awfull lot of money at the time.

Hadn't realised that he played over 300 matches for us.