We had a fare few loan signings who came with decent reputations but didn't do it for us. Beardsley, Clough, and I remember a guy talking up Ronnie Mauge as a midfield maestro who was obviously too good for the lower leagues, and then I think he only got one game for us.
Ok, saying I was excited for any of there is a stretch, but in most cases I remember Chinese whispers about so and so being a secret weapon. Very rarely are they true, unlike the time my mate came into school telling me all about the German on trial who'd just hit 4 in a reserve match and wasn't even fully fit yet.
As a kid I thought we'd signed Ajax's hotshot Shota Arveladze as Kinky's Georgian mate, the guy we did get, Kavelashvili, wasn't too prolific.
Buster Phillips and Tony Scully, two wing wonders who hardly played and didn't rip up trees when they did.
Paul Ritchie, I think he'd just got rid of a half decent centre back (Prior?) and Ritchie was supposed to be harder, faster and younger. Didn't play much.
Steve McMahon. Wasn't terrible for us but I remember his famous long range shots, which often hit the back of the net for Liverpool, well I don't think he ever scored one for us or even kept one in the ground.
Craig Russell. Often scored for Sunderland I think it was, and was supposedly a guy who could run all day, didn't even looked like a footballer when he turned up at Maine Road.
Vuoso I was annoyed about for years. £5.5m in those days for a South American young striker, didn't see much of him either. Not like we had that kind of money in them days either.
Fernando. The octopus. Hmmm.
Negouai. Looked just what we needed, tenaciousa and got involved in everything, turned out to be bat poop
crazy.
Ousmane Dabo. Great reputation, now remembered at city for off the field events.
Trabelsi. Remember watching him either in Italy or for Tunisia and he looked great. In England a fart could have blown him over and he had no defensive capabilities.
Bianchi. Ok, Corradi was the older, cheaper option and I didn't expect much from that Italian (and wasn't surprised unfortunately) but Bianchi I thought would be a hit. Good reputation, other clubs chasing him, scored a few, big fee.. Needless to say we didn't get the deadly finishing tough in the air, off the ball maestro I thought we were.
Some guy called Toure, not Yaya. Alioune? A forward, supposedly faster than a speeding bullet, don't remember him ever playing.
Scott Sinclair. I thought he was better than what we saw. Maybe some payers just don't adapt to our rotation system.
Mangala and Bony. You'd think that a club of our stature would have extensive scouting operations in place, yet we managed to sign these two for millions and seemingly didn't check on whether they'd fit our style of play. Maybe proof that other factors are as responsible for being a success as talent itself is, Bony I thought was a bad move but Mangala...well, i thought that after deliberating for so long on a centre back wed have got it even almost right.
I'm torn on Jo. I think he had talent, we obviously thought we were getting the next adebayor without the attitude, to mould and shape. I wouldn't put him in the Joelinton and Alves crap Brazilian striker category, quite, but he certainly shouldn't have been the player we targeted at that time. Maybe he'd have been better with a partner up front, I remember he used to often start up front alone and he'd regularly get fed up and play left wing for half the game.
