Disappointing XI

[Sly]

We’ve signed some great players, we’ve also signed some dross.

 

We’ve also signed some players that have had loads of hype, an amazing YouTube compilation and it just hasn’t worked for them here at all.

 

What’s your “Disappointing XI”? 
 

Mine:

 

GK : “Casino” Jimmy Nielsen 

CB : Nicolas Priet

CB : Matt Mills

CB : Matthew Upson

LM : Dem Gray

CM : Bartosz Kaputska

CM : Adrien Silva

CM : Dennis Wise

RM : Hossein Kaebi

ST : Islam Slimani

ST : Adi Akinbiyi

[Poco]

GK Ricardo (brilliant for Portugal, liability for us)

CB Keown (claim for captaincy of this XI strengthened after reading Micky Adams' autobiography) 

CB Mills (woeful)

CB Howey (I thought he was great Newcastle and Man City - complete bombscare for us)

RWB Kaebi (I'd imagine he will feature in most people's XIs)

CM Silva (should've been so much better)

CM Inler (a little unfortunate to arrive when he did)

CM Wise (I genuinely liked him at Chelsea but just wasn't Prem quality by the time he signed for us)

LWB Musa (*that* goal vs Barcelona!)

CF Slimani (started well but the fact we struggled to give him away says a lot) 

CF Beckford (I thought he'd fire us to promotion...)

[Spudulike]

I think that I'd put several in front of Slimani such as Dudley Campbell, Mark DeVries, Steve Moran, Roger Davies. 

 

... and the ex-Chelsea toe rag is way beyond disappointing. Just mentioning the name makes me feel bilious. 

[OLD norfox]

And Junior Lewis 

 

[willie-bell-in-rothley]

37 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

I think that I'd put several in front of Slimani such as Dudley Campbell, Mark DeVries, Steve Moran, Roger Davies. 

 

... and the ex-Chelsea toe rag is way beyond disappointing. Just mentioning the name makes me feel bilious. 

hahaha Roger Davies, what about George Armstrong, Lammie Robertson, Geoff Salmons, Alan Waddle, nearly a full team under the worst manager 

[ronnup]

Gareth Williams. I was constantly being convinced that he was a prem quality midfielder and would kick on, and he just never did. He barely played. 

[TrentFox]

Boris Johnson

Jeremy Corbyn 

My ex-wife

Creator of Mrs Brown’s Boys

Gavin Williamson

Adrien Silva 

Jose Mourinho

Bloke who should’ve fixed my Sky

Roger Moore as Bond

Joe Lycett after his first sketch

Myself

[Poco]

35 minutes ago, OLD norfox said:

And Junior Lewis 

 

I don't think anyone will disagree that Lewis is one of our worst ever players but we weren't expecting much from him; he came from Gillingham reserves.

 

I read the OP as being XI players you were excited that we signed but disappointed with how they played. 

Edited 6 February 2021 by Poco

[Nick]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

We’ve signed some great players, we’ve also signed some dross.

 

We’ve also signed some players that have had loads of hype, an amazing YouTube compilation and it just hasn’t worked for them here at all.

 

What’s your “Disappointing XI”? 
 

Mine:

 

GK : “Casino” Jimmy Nielsen 

CB : Nicolas Priet

CB : Matt Mills

CB : Matthew Upson

LM : Dem Gray

CM : Bartosz Kaputska

CM : Adrien Silva

CM : Dennis Wise

RM : Hossein Kaebi

ST : Islam Slimani

ST : Adi Akinbiyi

 

 

WTF is this SLY? It's like the early hours of the morning, we're sitting like 3rd in the league and this is what you're worried about?

 

PUT THE PIANO WIRE DOWN!

 

 

 

 

[Spudulike]

29 minutes ago, ronnup said:

Gareth Williams. I was constantly being convinced that he was a prem quality midfielder and would kick on, and he just never did. He barely played. 

NottsF fan boys had a habit of talking up their young players in those days. They thought most of that crop, Williams included, had massive transfer value when in reality they really were at best below average. I think Hart was the manager at the time who got himself a reputation for producing young talent. I think that Wes was the only one to be successful and had to leave that dump to achieve it. 

[Bert]

Zieler

 

Hernandez 

Mills

Keown 

 

 

Gray

Lingard

Silva

Powell

 

Kane

Slimani

Musa

 

 

[1972 Fox]

10 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

NottsF fan boys had a habit of talking up their young players in those days. They thought most of that crop, Williams included, had massive transfer value when in reality they really were at best below average. I think Hart was the manager at the time who got himself a reputation for producing young talent. I think that Wes was the only one to be successful and had to leave that dump to achieve it. 

In those days? Jack Colback was hailed as the Ginger Pirlo when they signed him. 

[The Blur]

2 hours ago, Poco said:

GK Ricardo (brilliant for Portugal, liability for us)

CB Keown (claim for captaincy of this XI strengthened after reading Micky Adams' autobiography) 

CB Mills (woeful)

CB Howey (I thought he was great Newcastle and Man City - complete bombscare for us)

RWB Kaebi (I'd imagine he will feature in most people's XIs)

CM Silva (should've been so much better)

CM Inler (a little unfortunate to arrive when he did)

CM Wise (I genuinely liked him at Chelsea but just wasn't Prem quality by the time he signed for us)

LWB Musa (*that* goal vs Barcelona!)

CF Slimani (started well but the fact we struggled to give him away says a lot) 

CF Beckford (I thought he'd fire us to promotion...)

 

What did Adams said about Keown in his autobiography?

[HighPeakFox]

3 minutes ago, The Blur said:

What did Adams say about Keown in his autobiography?

Spent a lot of time saying words to the effect of 'we didn't do it like that at Arsenal' and generally whingeing.

[gerblod]

Been watching City since the early sixties and the only player, until this recent upsurge, who I can recall being utterly disappointed with is Akinbyi - although, weirdly, I had a downer on Mike Stringfellow and Howard Riley's antics just made me laugh.

I hated Mclintock for pissing off to the Arsenal and Alan Clarke for going to Leeds after just one season here. Boy, was I naïve then.

Apart from the times when we did have extra-special squads (Gillies, Bloomfield and MON), I've generally accepted second-best as normal. So I conclude that I see City through blue-coloured specs.

 

Now, if you'd asked for a most disappointing manager XI I could easily reel it off a list and probably some subs too. There were some who were just crap, some who weren't 100% committed and those who promised a great deal and left hidden under a raincoat by the back door. They know who they are 😠.

[dayday]

Rab C Douglas

Roman Bednar

Carl Cort

Ricky Hill

Dion Dublin

Jimmy Quinn

Mark Blake

Zeljko Kalac

Mark Robins

Keith Gillespie 

Mo Sylla

[kyleolly]

Henderson

 

Stearman

N’gotty

McAuley

Mattock

 

Bell

Worley

Oakley

 

Hayles

Howard

Hume

 

 

 

 

[Sampson]

Adrien Silva has to be up there.

 

Thought he was going to be quality and propel us to the next level.

 

Mark Bright is another one. Thought he was going to be even better  than Lineker after his first couple of games, but he turned out to be shite. Went on to have a good career after us though at Palace and Sheff Wednesday.

Edited 6 February 2021 by Sampson

[davieG]

12 minutes ago, kyleolly said:

Henderson

 

Stearman

N’gotty

McAuley

Mattock

 

Bell

Worley

Oakley

 

Hayles

Howard

Hume

 

 

 

 

Blimeh! If they're your most disappointing players you haven't watched us much. 

[majaco]

From the thread title, I thought a Chinese player we were targetting had decided to join West Ham or Everton insteed of us.

[majaco]

20 minutes ago, kyleolly said:

Henderson

 

Stearman

N’gotty

McAuley

Mattock

 

Bell

Worley

Oakley

 

Hayles

Howard

Hume

 

 

 

 

Martin Henderson in goal?  He was disappointing enough as a centre forward.

[Philkeavo]

1 hour ago, TrentFox said:

Boris Johnson

Jeremy Corbyn 

My ex-wife

Creator of Mrs Brown’s Boys

Gavin Williamson

Adrien Silva 

Jose Mourinho

Bloke who should’ve fixed my Sky

Roger Moore as Bond

Joe Lycett after his first sketch

Myself

‘Creator of Mrs Brown’s Boys’ fecking hate it ha ha ha

[ronnup]

1 hour ago, Bert said:

Zieler

 

Hernandez 

Mills

Keown 

 

 

Gray

Lingard

Silva

Powell

 

Kane

Slimani

Musa

 

 

 

Beckford?

[ScrumpyJack]

Zieler

 

Marc Edworthy

Ryan Bennett

Matt 'Son-in-Law' Mills

Konchesky

 

Ahmed Musa

Kapustka

Nobhead Solano

Diabate

 

Waghorn

Mark de Vries

DJ Campbell

 

Manager: Martin Allen

Edited 6 February 2021 by ScrumpyJack

[SpacedX]

Zeljko 'Spider' Kalac Still recall the realisation setting in amongst our cerebrally challenged fanbase that being 22 foot tall doesn't necessarily equate to being a good goalkeeper. I remember seeing him hopelessly flailing around on the dance floor in Kyrstals nightclub and thinking, I've paid to watch him do that on a Saturday. Still wincing from that Richard Sneekes goal that he somehow contravened all know physical laws to concede against Bolton...so is Mark McGhee who was frankly aghast. Deployed to great comic effect in the penalty shoot out against Palace at Wembley.

Nicky Mohan Rapidly transpired that he was a very sub standard footballer.

Brian Carey "He's a Republic of Ireland International and ex-Man United footballer - he must be good" Sadly it turned out not to be the case.

Luis Hernández Showed some promise, but never really established himself in the side.

Martin Keown He was still supposed to be good, they told us.

Gökhan İnler  He's bold, he's bald, he's brilliant, he's been there...he's the next Cambiasso. Err...no he isn't. Oh well, at least he claimed to like Leicestershire- (never settled in our football team though).

Adrien Silva In order for there to be disappointment, there has to be expectation and hype...and there was a lot of it. His underwhelming introduction to English football came against....Fleetwood - the cognitive dissonance amongst the travelling City fans was hilarious. Will be more remembered for that infamous fourteen seconds, which is coincidentally about equal the amount of decent football he ever player in the Premier League.

Steve Corica Supposedly a technically brilliant attacking midfielder. Martin O'Neill didn't think so, particularly when the audacious Aussie inadvisably asked the gaffer for a pay rise having been here about a week  His decision making on the pitch wasn't much better.

Mark Bright  After his brace against a freshly 'Linkered' Everton in the 85-86 season opener at Filbo, he actually looked like a worthy successor...he wasn't. Bloody brilliant at Palace though. 

Andrej Kramarić Was lead to believe that he was a 'Wizard on the Pitch'. The only spell I can really recall was that extended one on the subs bench

Tommy Christensen Kramar-esque build up over his arrival - although we never actually signed him and he played for all of about about thirty seconds

 

Subs:

Ron Robert Zieler (although I still struggle to comprehend that we actually signed Mark Grew)

Frank Sinclair A Jamaican International at Centreback? Surely not? When was that going to happen again? It wasn't so much Frank that was disappointing, he was actually player of the season 2002 - it was the timing of his signing which coincided with the beginning of one of the darkest periods in our history. A great servant to this club imo - although most prefer to recall this which is why he's on this list...

 

Matt Jones A huge prospect, spent most of his time on the bench...the treatment bench that is

Tony Sealy - and his next to useless partnership with Steve Moran.

Tommy English We traded Melrose for him ffs...so everyone thought he must be good. Coventry City knew better.

Rachid Ghezzal The pretend Mahrez

Trevor Benjamin  The pretend Heskey. 40 goals in two seasons and 1.3million quid - which added up to 12 goals in four seasons for us. 

 

Cengiz Ünder? 

 

 

Edited 6 February 2021 by Line-X