Players that we were linked with that as fans we said we didn't want, that turned out to be good for other clubs.

[Walshy5]

I'll start with 2 off the top of my head. Damsgaard for Brentford. Bowen for West Ham.

 

[teblin]

Rumour has it Bowen had all but signed? Some issue with rudkin?

[SafewayFox]

33 minutes ago, Walshy5 said:

I'll start with 2 off the top of my head. Damsgaard for Brentford. Bowen for West Ham.

 

I definitely wanted Bowen but like @teblin posted, there were rumours about Rudkin.

 

From memory, I swear he was deemed “too slow” 

[Harpenden Fox]

7 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

I definitely wanted Bowen but like @teblin posted, there were rumours about Rudkin.

 

From memory, I swear he was deemed “too slow” 

Bowen , or Rudkin?

[PhillippaT]

Just now, Harpenden Fox said:

Bowen , or Rudkin?

Yes. 

 

 

  

[LCFCJohn]

8 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

I definitely wanted Bowen but like @teblin posted, there were rumours about Rudkin.

 

From memory, I swear he was deemed “too slow” 

I thought Bowen was not pursued as the club don’t feel he had the right character/attitude.

 

Naturally I’m forever grateful we stuck to only going for the good eggs like Faes, Vestergaard, Winks etc!

[SafewayFox]

1 minute ago, LCFCJohn said:

I thought Bowen was not pursued as the club don’t feel he had the right character/attitude.

 

Naturally I’m forever grateful we stuck to only going for the good eggs like Faes, Vestergaard, Winks etc!

You may be right, but we were heavily linked with him and could have sworn that it wasn’t just his “attitude” but his lack of pace as a winger.

 

I remember wanting him and can’t even fathom who we got instead. Ghezzal?

[brookfox]

4 minutes ago, Harpenden Fox said:

Bowen , or Rudkin?

Jon’s well known for operating fast in the boardroom and slow in the bedroom. Or was it the other way around, I can’t remember 🤔

[Nalis]

The thread title reads like an Arctic Monkeys album

[tomtom]

This thread should be the longest in Foxestalk history 

[PhillippaT]

1 hour ago, Nalis said:

The thread title reads like an Arctic Monkeys album

Is the track list in chronological order, or order of potential ability we lost out on?

[sm1]

Manuel Akanji. So many posters saying he was shit. Then he ends up at Man City and becomes an integral part of them winning every club trophy going.

[RonnieTodger]

Catchy title 

[Foxes1]

Lee Chapman was once linked to be looking at houses in Oadby,

Oh I just read the title and it says 'Turned out to be good for other clubs'.

[jayfox26]

If only we signed Veretout instead of Kante

[The whole world smiles]

I remember fans literally having a melt down when we were linked to Akanji.

[HybridFox]

Not signing Lookman up permanently with some thinking "we could do better". Thought he did well for us in his stint here and excelled at Atalanta. Looked like he wanted to stay and might have kept us up the following year with that added option

Edited 28 October 2025 by HybridFox

[slymunn]

3 hours ago, SafewayFox said:

You may be right, but we were heavily linked with him and could have sworn that it wasn’t just his “attitude” but his lack of pace as a winger.

 

I remember wanting him and can’t even fathom who we got instead. Ghezzal?

Ayoze Perez I believe

[DoveValleyFox]

Johann Cruyff had the odd good game for other clubs and Holland.

[Soar Fox]

9 minutes ago, The whole world smiles said:

I remember fans literally having a melt down when we were linked to Akanji.

 just had a read back through that thread. Everyone going on about how awful he is and how much they don’t want him. Then signs for Man City and it’s all “well he’s perfect for them” 

[sdb]

3 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

I thought Bowen was not pursued as the club don’t feel he had the right character/attitude.

 

Naturally I’m forever grateful we stuck to only going for the good eggs like Faes, Vestergaard, Winks etc!

Maybe he was the "one we missed" that led to us stopping scouting properly. Something drastic changed around about that time. 

[SafewayFox]

38 minutes ago, sdb said:

Maybe he was the "one we missed" that led to us stopping scouting properly. Something drastic changed around about that time. 

Congerton and Rodgers got too much power? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Finnegan]

1 hour ago, sm1 said:

Manuel Akanji. So many posters saying he was shit. Then he ends up at Man City and becomes an integral part of them winning every club trophy going.

 

I stand by what I said about Manuel Akanji and will die on this hill. 

 

It's actually a really good example of how people's binary understanding of footballers is problematic. 

 

It's the same as people who think letting Kramaric go was embarrassing or a mistake. 

 

Every footballer has a different skill set, every footballer has different strengths and weaknesses. What Man City want out of a defender is different to what we wanted and needed out of a defender. Akanji had a serious track record of being error prone and poor as an actual centre back and he'd have been a disaster here in the same way Faes has been. 

 

But he's an excellent technical footballer that fit nicely in to a dominant Man City side, where 75% ball possession, Kyle Walker's pace and Ruben Dias' defensive excellence could cover any errors. 

 

Same reason they won countless league titles with a goal keeper that's an extremely mid tier shot stopper who would have been awful for us. 

 

Bowen IS a good example for the thread. He would have been very good here. He'd have fit in the team nicely, would have been a massive upgrade on Perez and cost half as much. 

 

[murphy]

I think that the majority of us did want Bowen.

 

But this thread is the wrong way around. Usually it is posters saying the opposite, celebrating a signing that you can see will be a dud from a mile off,  such as Carranza or Vestergaard when we had aspirations of CL football.    

 

I'm quite sure that if we signed Alison Hammond to play up front we would hear the usual chorus of 'give her time', 'she hasn't kicked a ball for us yet' etc.

[Manwell Pablo]

Any kind of discussion of this nature just makes me think Harry Kane.  

 

He was largely unimpressive here but it's always made me laugh how much some of our fans have stuck to their guns and still called him shit despite him clearly being a world class striker and England's highest goal scorer.