Most Gutted you've Been About a player leaving

gmckennasell said:
Mark Lillis , a city fan from manchester who gave 100% every game , i think we sold him to derby because the club was basically skint , he was only with us for one season but i rated him as player.
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I couldn't believe it when we sold Lillis - especially in a swap for Trevor Christie. I remmeber the announcement by Brian Clarke on Picc Radio like it was yesterday. We were much poorer for not having him. Good player.

-- Thu Aug 08, 2013 11:37 am --

AucklandBlue said:
Kinkladze; my footballing hero growing up and after that final game v Stoke I thought I'd never see us back in the top tier never mind win anything.

SWP, I was working in Greece that summer and I remember thinking we could never compete with the Sky 4.

Cole, I was genuinely gutted when he left as I didn't know where our goals were going to come from. It turned out I was right to be as that season under Pearce was horrible.

One from left field now, Peter Beagrie. What a top bloke, he was always fantastic with the kids when we turned up to watch training he'd stick around for ages talking to everyone, signing autographs and posing for pictures, decent player too who still loves City.
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Nice to hear that about Beags. Loved watching him, Walshy, Uwe and Quinny play for City. All were treated badly by Ball and getting rid of them made us a much worse team.

-- Thu Aug 08, 2013 11:40 am --

Ric said:
hallstreetblue said:
gmckennasell said:
Mark Lillis , a city fan from manchester who gave 100% every game , i think we sold him to derby because the club was basically skint , he was only with us for one season but i rated him as player.
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Knew what it was like to stand on the kippax and ALWAYS went over to applaud the fans. Knew what it meant to them. Top bloke.
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My nephew has been an apprentice at Huddersfield Town for the last two years, and Lillis has been his manager. Top bloke by all accounts, and still very much a Blue.
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I've only ever heard good things about Mark Lillis. I'd happily add him to my list of players I was most gutted to see leave. Loved his heart, passion, strength, skill and ability to bring other players into the the game. Sadly too many of the rest didn't step up to (old) 1st Division level. Lillis certainly did. Very best of luck to him.
 
Mr Ed (The Stables) said:
For me the most upset I've been was when we sold Peter Barnes and Gary Owen to WBA in the late 70's. I still haven't got over it and it is best part of 35 years ago.
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Before my time by a couple of years and I would have been gutted (the decision made no sense from what I have read and heard).
I do remember the great reception and "One Gary Owen" chant from the Kippax whenever Gary Owen returned with WBA.

Even Peter Barnes got an easy ride when he returned with the dirties in 85/86.
 
The most upsetting time for me was when Big Mal came back for his second spell ... we had a really excellent team already that just needed a few tweaks, but from the moment he arrived, he just seemed intent on selling all the best and most popular players (Brian Kidd, Dave Watson, Gary Owen, Peter Barnes, Asa Hartford, etc) and replacing them with young lads from the lower divisions ... completely wrecked the team.

No surpise then that results nosedived - we went from finishing 2nd in 1978 to being literally bottom after 10 or 12 games in 1980, if memory serves.

We also sold great players cheaply and bought inadequate replacements at enormous cost, effectively wrecking the club financially for many years to come. Not sure we really recovered until the Sheikh arrived, to be honest.

It was heart-breaking at the time; all my favourites left (and went on to be great at their next clubs; remember Owen and Barnes coming back to City with WBA and destroying us; 3-1 home defeat and Barnes scored twice if memory serves) ... while I remember all the United fans I knew laughing their heads off week after week, and rubbing their hands in glee as we sold international after international and replaced them with people from Preston North End's reserves. They couldn't believe what Mal was doing to City, and that no-one seemed able or prepared to stop or question him.

Just seemed that Mal's ego and desire to prove everyone else wrong was blinding him to the fact that he was destroying the club. Very very sad.

Apologies if I am misremembering some if it - it was a long time ago now - but I still feel queasy in my stomach just thinking about it !
 
Blue Theatre said:
Apologies if I am misremembering some if it - it was a long time ago now - but I still feel queasy in my stomach just thinking about it !
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Nope, you're spot on with it. We all loved Big Mal, but think we knew even back then that something was wrong. On the bright side, it shows just what a remarkable job John Bond did with the remnants.
 
lionheart said:
Strangely enough I was pretty upset when Jerome Boateng left as I genuinely thought that he had great potential. Nigel came a very close second.
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A champions league & German treble winner. Makes me wonder why we didn't keep him. I'm pretty sure he wanted to go back to Germany
 
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