Top 3 Transfer Mistakes

[Pigeonho]

In my life time City have signed some garbage, so this is too easy or maybe too difficult to call.
We have had a lot of players who didn't justify their wages, their fee or the hype, they could all be considered, but we have signed some truly woeful players that score high on all three.

My stand out top three were not the biggest signings, or on the highest wages, but were so bad for the club it actually hurt...

1, Danny Mills, this man had a truly cancerous effect on the club. Drained us for wages for years and was and continue to be an utter knob head.

2. Replacing Coton with Immell. Do I need to say more.

3. Joint. Samaras and Bradbury. While Samaras was not the worst player, although he was pretty bad his fee at the time was so far out of reach, so unrealistic and unnecessary he could have bankrupted us. I felt sorry for the lad, he was played out of position too often, and he was expected to be the next Shearer thanks to the fee Pearce paid for him.
Bradbury for very much the same reason, too expensive at the wrong time. The fact that he couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo didn't help...

Those saying names like Robinho (our league top scorer & reason we signed many more talented players), Balotelli are simply insane or attention seeking!

Or it could just be their opinion?

 

[Marvin]

Steve Daley, Kevin Reeves and Lee Bradbury.

Serious money in those days

 

[schfc6]

In my life time City have signed some garbage, so this is too easy or maybe too difficult to call.
We have had a lot of players who didn't justify their wages, their fee or the hype, they could all be considered, but we have signed some truly woeful players that score high on all three.

My stand out top three were not the biggest signings, or on the highest wages, but were so bad for the club it actually hurt...

1, Danny Mills, this man had a truly cancerous effect on the club. Drained us for wages for years and was and continue to be an utter knob head.

2. Replacing Coton with Immell. Do I need to say more.

3. Joint. Samaras and Bradbury. While Samaras was not the worst player, although he was pretty bad his fee at the time was so far out of reach, so unrealistic and unnecessary he could have bankrupted us. I felt sorry for the lad, he was played out of position too often, and he was expected to be the next Shearer thanks to the fee Pearce paid for him.
Bradbury for very much the same reason, too expensive at the wrong time. The fact that he couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo didn't help...

Those saying names like Robinho (our league top scorer & reason we signed many more talented players), Balotelli are simply insane or attention seeking!

Or it could just be their opinion?

Your honest opinion is that Robinho, City's top scorer, scoring more league goals than Tevez, Aguero or Dzeko last season is amongst the our worst three signings of all time? You saying you didn't jump out of your seat when we signed him late transfer dealing day? When he scored that free kick of his debut against Chelsea? When he scooped the ball into the net over the advancing keeper against Arsenal? Some of the best moments I can remember.

I'd be willing to bet that Bradbury, Mills, Immel, Lee Peacock, Megson, Heath, Scott Hiley the list is endless never got you off your seat, never made you feel the way Robinho did on occasion.

Am I wrong?

 

[Pigeonho]

In my life time City have signed some garbage, so this is too easy or maybe too difficult to call.
We have had a lot of players who didn't justify their wages, their fee or the hype, they could all be considered, but we have signed some truly woeful players that score high on all three.

My stand out top three were not the biggest signings, or on the highest wages, but were so bad for the club it actually hurt...

1, Danny Mills, this man had a truly cancerous effect on the club. Drained us for wages for years and was and continue to be an utter knob head.

2. Replacing Coton with Immell. Do I need to say more.

3. Joint. Samaras and Bradbury. While Samaras was not the worst player, although he was pretty bad his fee at the time was so far out of reach, so unrealistic and unnecessary he could have bankrupted us. I felt sorry for the lad, he was played out of position too often, and he was expected to be the next Shearer thanks to the fee Pearce paid for him.
Bradbury for very much the same reason, too expensive at the wrong time. The fact that he couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo didn't help...

Those saying names like Robinho (our league top scorer & reason we signed many more talented players), Balotelli are simply insane or attention seeking!

Or it could just be their opinion?

Your honest opinion is that Robinho, City's top scorer, scoring more league goals than Tevez, Aguero or Dzeko last season is amongst the our worst three signings of all time? You saying you didn't jump out of your seat when we signed him late transfer dealing day? When he scored that free kick of his debut against Chelsea? When he scooped the ball into the net over the advancing keeper against Arsenal? Some of the best moments I can remember.

I'd be willing to bet that Bradbury, Mills, Immel, Lee Peacock, Megson, Heath, Scott Hiley the list is endless never got you off your seat, never made you feel the way Robinho did on occasion.

Am I wrong?

You're looking at it too simple. Of course I was absolutely off the wall bonkers when we signed Robinho, but most people say the same thing - that he was a good signing to announce ourselves. That's all well and good, but I think we would still be where we are now even if we hadn't signed him. He was bought for non-footballing reasons and for £32.5m, he didn't do anywhere near enough on the pitch. Oh, he has the tag of a sub being subbed too. I dare say if you put him in this team he would be much better, which is why I said that rather than being a 'bad' signing, he was more a wrong signing for that time/team.

 

[jimharri]

really, balotelli? i mean really? Hell we even earned money on him!
And he did bag important goals for us, and other then that he really made sure everybody knew of Manchester city ;)

Yep; just because you make money on a player does not necessarily mean the transfer wasn't a mistake. And yes; he scored a few important goals for us. But the amount of hype around him (which he never really lived up to) and the amount of baggage that came with him; well, what we got from him didn't (for me) justify the transfer. No doubt I'll get heaps of ridicule on here for that opinion. I can't help the way I feel; sorry.

Well, his important goals pretty much won us 2011/12 premier league.
Remember those late goals? for example the one against spurs at home? won us a penalty in overtime and succesfully converted it. Those 3 points were vital and this is just 1 example

Impossible to narrow it down to one player. I've seen people saying Kolarov won us the league with the late equalizing free kick against Sunderland, for example. Or Vinnie with his winner against the vermin that actually put us back at the top of the league in the run in. Nonsense, of course. But I'm just showing that you can't narrow the league win down to one game.

 

[Matty]

I think, in order to be disappointed, you needed to first have some level of expectation in a signing that just never materialised. Roque Santa Cruz, for example, was very pricey, however everyone could see exactly what was going to happen before we signed him (constantly injured, huge flop), Hughes signed him anyway, and we got exactly what we knew we were getting. I'm not sure, therefore, you could call him a disappointment. I never expected him to be anything other than a failure, and he was, so no real disappointment involved.

Lee Bradbury was very expensive (at the time) and he indeed was hugely disappointing. £3m back in 1997 (a then record signing) yet just 6 goals in his one and only full season with us, we sold him for half that soon after.

Jo, now there was a disappointment. Another multi-million pound signing, but this time he was a Brazillian, with a decent goalscoring record in Russia, and he looked the part, big, physical, skilled on the ball, pacey. He ended up being none of those things, aside from big!

The other is Giorgios Samaras. Youtube had us believing we'd signed a skillful player capable of opening up Premiership defences at will, he was just 21 yet had scored 30 goals in 110 games in Holland. Hardly prolific, but certainly a hot prospect. He was dreadful. 12 goals in 65 appearances, never more than 4 goals in a league season, all of that for the princely sum of £6m. Pearce knew absolutely nothing about attacking play!

 

[leopold]

Martin " £10 million Buster" Phillips

Bernardo Corradi

David Seaman

+1 for outside the box vote of Corradi... he did what? If I could draw a box around white space on the forums he would be attached to it...

Seconded. I suspect he was brought in to help make Samaras look good. I watched a training session at Eastlands back in the day and Corradi couldn't even hit an empty net from five yards out! And as for that dive in the Derby that got him sent off... Although it did give us some post match interview entertainment from Psycho.

Add to that Crocky Santa Cruz and Rodney "I just cost you a league title" Marsh. With Jo as an honourable mention. Or do I mean dishonourable?

Or I might switch Jo for Alan Ball. Not a player, granted, but it's the only time we've ever signed someone that I genuinely found unbelievable to the point of wanting to hurl the telly at the wall.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Or it could just be their opinion?

Your honest opinion is that Robinho, City's top scorer, scoring more league goals than Tevez, Aguero or Dzeko last season is amongst the our worst three signings of all time? You saying you didn't jump out of your seat when we signed him late transfer dealing day? When he scored that free kick of his debut against Chelsea? When he scooped the ball into the net over the advancing keeper against Arsenal? Some of the best moments I can remember.

I'd be willing to bet that Bradbury, Mills, Immel, Lee Peacock, Megson, Heath, Scott Hiley the list is endless never got you off your seat, never made you feel the way Robinho did on occasion.

Am I wrong?

You're looking at it too simple. Of course I was absolutely off the wall bonkers when we signed Robinho, but most people say the same thing - that he was a good signing to announce ourselves. That's all well and good, but I think we would still be where we are now even if we hadn't signed him. He was bought for non-footballing reasons and for £32.5m, he didn't do anywhere near enough on the pitch. Oh, he has the tag of a sub being subbed too. I dare say if you put him in this team he would be much better, which is why I said that rather than being a 'bad' signing, he was more a wrong signing for that time/team.

Are you aware that Robinho scored 14 in 31 games in his first season? He started his second season poorly, but he was nowhere near match fit, rushed back from ankle surgery far too quickly because Hughesless was an idiot.

Far from being the worst signing in our history, you could argue he was the most important signing in the modern era of the club. You say that the other players would have signed for us anyway, but someone had to be the first! Do you think Tevez, Yaya and Silva would have signed because they were desperate to play with Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bridge?!

The day he signed was the first day in my life I actually believed City would win the league again. The whole mood of the club changed, the fans, the media, the general public, and I'm sure the way that other players viewed the club.

You're forgetting how highly rated Robinho was at the time. Certainly more highly rated than Tevez. I remember there was an article in the paper discussing who was better out of him and Ronaldo! Obviously he's not fulfilled his potential, but the point is he helped create a sea-change in the way the club was viewed that has helped us on the road to being one of the most attractive clubs in Europe.

I don't think any of our other signings has quite the same impact in terms of changing people's opinion of the club. I hate the term "marquee signing" as that is not what a football team is about. But the Robinho signing from a strategic point of view was probably the best signing we could have realistically made at the time. And irrespective of all that, in his first season he was an absolute joy to watch.

 

[swblue7]

Steve Daley
Santa Cruz

Could fill a book with other contenders

 

[simonk]

Bob Taylor
Lee Bradbury
Gergios Samaras

all shite and all expensive when we didnt have much to spend

there are worse players but these 3 were terrible mistakes