Samaras - Utter shithouse. "He shows flashes" some pricks would say. What they meant was, once every couple of games he does something that is not totally shit. Scouted by Graham Carr but more probably scouted by his son imo. His (full?) debut (well, I think it was his debut) at Everton was one of the shitest efforts I've ever seen. He was obviously shite. He didn't have the basics but people were desperate to convince themselves that he looked decent. He didn't. I was ready to throw myself off that wooden stand. He was and is shite.
Negouai - I mention him, and he was shit, mainly because this was another example of people desperate to see something in a player that just wasn't there. I watched his debut against Portsmouth in a pub on my own. I'd been abroad for a few months and get back to find people saying they had just signed the new Vieira. He was desperate and obviously a donkey. Yet the commentators and every City fan I spoke to that week were going on as if he had had a stormer. He has never had a stormer in his life. This Benarbia looks a decent player though.
Creaney - Fat and swapped for a crowd favourite. Only decent things I remember him doing are a goal against Leeds and a quality free kick against Charlton. Awful.
Bradbury - Another one people spent months trying to convince themselves that he 'showed signs'. No he didn't. Just remembered. Saw some Pompey fans in a queue on holiday that summer. They said that Bradbury was shit and City had been robbed. They latter said they were joking. They weren't.
Bob Taylor - How the fuck did he score all those goals for Gillingham? Fat.
Charvet - Bloke with a tash in front of me in the temporary stand between the Kippax and Platt Lane rumbled this bloke after 5 minutes of his debut. He had seen enough and spent the next 85 minutes absolutely slaughtering Charvet. This is on his debut and the bloke's venom was tremendous. After half an hour of him standing up on his own, shouting dog's abuse at him, telling everyone that he the shittest player he had ever seen and trying to get the rest of the crowd to join in, I was thinking "Steady on, give him a chance." Turns out that he was like some moustashioed football visionary. His mouth was foul though. Gave me a laugh during what was most likely a hiding.
Brannan - Every discussion needs to mention him. Poster boy for shit buys at that time.
Vuoso - Saw him play in a friendly at Rochdale. Didn't really notice him as I was more interested in the debut of Kenny Carr. Thought he was anonymous and that's it. Person I was with spent the rest of the night telling me he was the shittest player he'd ever seen. Another one worth listening to.
Beesley, Wassall, Rodgers, Heaney, Russell - Loads of shit under Clark. These lot all merge into one for me. Anonymous journeymen. I thought Russell was going to score a hat full. Nope.
David Brightwell - I loved Brian Horton, but he must have been off his head the night that he picked this donkey to play against Kanchelskis. Everyone knew what was going to happen. And it did. But Brian wouldn't change a winning team - I think they had just beaten Norwich at Maine Road (and maybe someone else). Terry Phelen - fast as fuck - had been injured but was fit and would have at least given Kanchelskis a race. He got a hat trick and should have had ten. EVERYONE knew it would happen.
Rick Holden - For fuck's sake. Slower than Richard Jobson at 40. Comedy winger.
Loads more too.
Kanchelskis and Beardsley are too examples that turned up here on loan after being good players and were shite. Played as if they had sent the celebrity look-a-likes.
Oh yeah, Nigel Clough too. The original bastard, content to pick up his wages. City were getting humped at home to someone like Oxford or Port Vale in a weeknight game in what is now the Championship. A bloke comes in steaming out of his skull and takes the seat next to someone I kind of know. Well, he didn't take the seat, he asked what score it was, got told that it was one nil to them, decide that this was all bollocks and ran on. Went towards Dibble to give him some shit, decided he was a bit too tall and turned round to seek out Clough and proceeded to give him both barrels before being dragged off. Great stuff.