Underwhelmed when they signed but turned out to be pretty good

[manchester blue]

Sterling. I thought he'd be a waste of money. He did much better than I thought he'd do but I'd sell him now if we can get anyone better. (Alvarez?)

Stones. I thought he'd be a waste of money. And for a long while he was but then he became awesome. Wouldn't sell him for bigger money now.

Walker. I thought he'd be a waste of money. And again he was terrible for a while. But for much longer he's been completely dependable and critical to how we play. I worry about how we replace him with anything even close to as good.

Rodri. I had hopes for him until he too looked a waste of money. But then he settled in and became a fantastic player for us.

The trend here is that I'm seldom right in the long run. . :-)

Or that with fantastic coating they have all become better players. You know, the opposite of what happens just over the border!

 

[manchester blue]

Tony Book.

I thought, why are City signing a 32 year old bricklayer who spent most of his career as a non-league part timer?

We all soon found out!

Did he build the Platt Lane?!

Edit - only joking great skipper and guy!

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

This thread is harder than the other one.

 

[manimanc]

Andy Morrison.

The rest is history.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Zabaleta.

 

[Maly]

Ali B

 

[LongsightM13]

Some great shouts already, particularly the likes of Book, McNab, Morrison and Rosler, all of whom would have made my list.
Some of the others mentioned I had a sneaky feeling would be good for us, eg Horlock.
I’ll add John Bond’s underwhelming signings of two unheralded and, lets face it, slightly peculiar-looking Scots from bang average Coventry City, and another from Bristol City.
But Tommy Hutchinson, Bobby McDonald and Gerry Gow turned out to be absolute bargains and were fundamental to our extreme turnaround in form, including our road to Wembley in 81.
All three probably left the club too early (albeit for different reasons) and continued to have decent careers.

 

[domalino]

Walker. I thought he'd be a waste of money. And again he was terrible for a while

Walker was never terrible, and certainly not at the beginning of his time here.

 

[Marvin]

Some great shouts already, particularly the likes of Book, McNab, Morrison and Rosler, all of whom would have made my list.
Some of the others mentioned I had a sneaky feeling would be good for us, eg Horlock.
I’ll add John Bond’s underwhelming signings of two unheralded and, lets face it, slightly peculiar-looking Scots from bang average Coventry City, and another from Bristol City.
But Tommy Hutchinson, Bobby McDonald and Gerry Gow turned out to be absolute bargains and were fundamental to our extreme turnaround in form, including our road to Wembley in 81.
All three probably left the club too early (albeit for different reasons) and continued to have decent careers.

Weren't Tommy Hutch, Gow and Bobby Mac at the end of their careers when they came to City?

 

[cibaman]

Bellamy's a decent shout.

David James, I didn't expect much for what I considered to being a middling career keeper at the time, he was decent.

Mpenza was surprisingly resourceful given the shit he played with.

I'd say a lot of our recent signings can fall into that category somewhat, because we haven't made the big name signings compared to our rivals. The likes of Dias when we were hyped about Koulibaly all summer, Plodri after the Jorginho debacle, FFS was hardly Messi, Cancelo seemed a bit of an unknown given he was moving about a lot, they've all stepped up beyond what I think most thought they were capable of.

We’d have been relegated in 03/04 without James