Where does Carroll rank in worst ever signings?

[Snowflake Royal]

Didn't we once do a shittest first 11? There are some real gems from the past

Previously written Disappointment XI

Or: Just because you're Division 2 doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. I'll put the team name at the end, just so we can all play a guessing game as we go along.

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

RB: Greg Halford - came in for big money (over £2 million!), didn't fit, went to Sunderland where he pissed off Roy Keane. There is a story in the secret footballer that rather closely matches his time at my club.

CB: Daniel Carrico - won the UEFA cup while with us. Was on loan at Seville at the time. HIs ... checks notes ... 87 minutes for us ... 87 minutes? Brilliant.

CB: Martin Keown - hindsight possibly puts this as "he was a bit past his best", but defenders are meant to age gracefully, right? He came in as our promotion bid was faltering, we were 4th but struggling for wins. We finished 7th. He played 5 games of a possible 16. Cheers.

LB: Wayne Bridge - defenders are meant to age gracefully, right?

RM: Emerse Fae - close to a club record signing. Got malaria, refused to play in a reserve game. If I have it correct, we never won a single game with him in the side.

CM: Neale Cooper - probably the earliest one here. Remember my Dad saying he'd been a stalwart in Scotland, European success, played with Ferguson, was part of that Graeme Souness Rangers team for a time. All he brought south was the thuggery. Vanished after two months, turned out he went on to play 100 odd times for Dunfermline. Right.

CM: Ray Houghton - and only a few years on from being a regular that Ron Atkinson Villa side of the early nineties and scoring famous world cup goals. I mean, this is a player, this is a man with pedigree. Passed the ball sideways. Pointed a bit. Sad.

LM: Royston Drenthe - I am not even going to dignify how this one worked out with a complete

ST: Pavel Pogrebnyak - I mean, we've shelled out on quality here. Did OK in a struggling relegation season and stuck around the next season. Should have torn the Championship a new hole. Did not.

ST: Mass Sarr - as we moved to our new ground, we brought in what seemed like a new squad. Heading it up was Mass Sarr. Liberian International. Played for Monaco. Scored a lot in Croatia. Someone once made a statue of him but the feet were all wrong. Remember, those heady pre-internet days where rumours were proper rumours? Anyway, the local press all but made up a story about his having a personal witch doctor, he got caught drink driving and scored 3 goals in the old 3rd division.

Subs bench: Anton Ferdinand, Yakubu, Nicky Shorey in 2012 or Dave Kitson in 2009, Danny Guthrie, Tiago Ilori

So there, my Reading FC biggest disappointments. The biggest mismatches between hype/expectation and what we actually got. Some even played quite well at times, but you were always left thinking it could have been so much better.

Nice work.

[Orion1871]

Didn't we once do a shittest first 11? There are some real gems from the past

Previously written Disappointment XI

Or: Just because you're Division 2 doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. I'll put the team name at the end, just so we can all play a guessing game as we go along.

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

RB: Greg Halford - came in for big money (over £2 million!), didn't fit, went to Sunderland where he pissed off Roy Keane. There is a story in the secret footballer that rather closely matches his time at my club.

CB: Daniel Carrico - won the UEFA cup while with us. Was on loan at Seville at the time. HIs ... checks notes ... 87 minutes for us ... 87 minutes? Brilliant.

CB: Martin Keown - hindsight possibly puts this as "he was a bit past his best", but defenders are meant to age gracefully, right? He came in as our promotion bid was faltering, we were 4th but struggling for wins. We finished 7th. He played 5 games of a possible 16. Cheers.

LB: Wayne Bridge - defenders are meant to age gracefully, right?

RM: Emerse Fae - close to a club record signing. Got malaria, refused to play in a reserve game. If I have it correct, we never won a single game with him in the side.

CM: Neale Cooper - probably the earliest one here. Remember my Dad saying he'd been a stalwart in Scotland, European success, played with Ferguson, was part of that Graeme Souness Rangers team for a time. All he brought south was the thuggery. Vanished after two months, turned out he went on to play 100 odd times for Dunfermline. Right.

CM: Ray Houghton - and only a few years on from being a regular that Ron Atkinson Villa side of the early nineties and scoring famous world cup goals. I mean, this is a player, this is a man with pedigree. Passed the ball sideways. Pointed a bit. Sad.

LM: Royston Drenthe - I am not even going to dignify how this one worked out with a complete

ST: Pavel Pogrebnyak - I mean, we've shelled out on quality here. Did OK in a struggling relegation season and stuck around the next season. Should have torn the Championship a new hole. Did not.

ST: Mass Sarr - as we moved to our new ground, we brought in what seemed like a new squad. Heading it up was Mass Sarr. Liberian International. Played for Monaco. Scored a lot in Croatia. Someone once made a statue of him but the feet were all wrong. Remember, those heady pre-internet days where rumours were proper rumours? Anyway, the local press all but made up a story about his having a personal witch doctor, he got caught drink driving and scored 3 goals in the old 3rd division.

Subs bench: Anton Ferdinand, Yakubu, Nicky Shorey in 2012 or Dave Kitson in 2009, Danny Guthrie, Tiago Ilori

So there, my Reading FC biggest disappointments. The biggest mismatches between hype/expectation and what we actually got. Some even played quite well at times, but you were always left thinking it could have been so much better.

Bridge was doing pretty well until he got injured and never played for us again.

[Sutekh]

Didn't we once do a shittest first 11? There are some real gems from the past

Previously written Disappointment XI

Or: Just because you're Division 2 doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. I'll put the team name at the end, just so we can all play a guessing game as we go along.

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

RB: Greg Halford - came in for big money (over £2 million!), didn't fit, went to Sunderland where he pissed off Roy Keane. There is a story in the secret footballer that rather closely matches his time at my club.

CB: Daniel Carrico - won the UEFA cup while with us. Was on loan at Seville at the time. HIs ... checks notes ... 87 minutes for us ... 87 minutes? Brilliant.

CB: Martin Keown - hindsight possibly puts this as "he was a bit past his best", but defenders are meant to age gracefully, right? He came in as our promotion bid was faltering, we were 4th but struggling for wins. We finished 7th. He played 5 games of a possible 16. Cheers.

LB: Wayne Bridge - defenders are meant to age gracefully, right?

RM: Emerse Fae - close to a club record signing. Got malaria, refused to play in a reserve game. If I have it correct, we never won a single game with him in the side.

CM: Neale Cooper - probably the earliest one here. Remember my Dad saying he'd been a stalwart in Scotland, European success, played with Ferguson, was part of that Graeme Souness Rangers team for a time. All he brought south was the thuggery. Vanished after two months, turned out he went on to play 100 odd times for Dunfermline. Right.

CM: Ray Houghton - and only a few years on from being a regular that Ron Atkinson Villa side of the early nineties and scoring famous world cup goals. I mean, this is a player, this is a man with pedigree. Passed the ball sideways. Pointed a bit. Sad.

LM: Royston Drenthe - I am not even going to dignify how this one worked out with a complete

ST: Pavel Pogrebnyak - I mean, we've shelled out on quality here. Did OK in a struggling relegation season and stuck around the next season. Should have torn the Championship a new hole. Did not.

ST: Mass Sarr - as we moved to our new ground, we brought in what seemed like a new squad. Heading it up was Mass Sarr. Liberian International. Played for Monaco. Scored a lot in Croatia. Someone once made a statue of him but the feet were all wrong. Remember, those heady pre-internet days where rumours were proper rumours? Anyway, the local press all but made up a story about his having a personal witch doctor, he got caught drink driving and scored 3 goals in the old 3rd division.

Subs bench: Anton Ferdinand, Yakubu, Nicky Shorey in 2012 or Dave Kitson in 2009, Danny Guthrie, Tiago Ilori

So there, my Reading FC biggest disappointments. The biggest mismatches between hype/expectation and what we actually got. Some even played quite well at times, but you were always left thinking it could have been so much better.

Nice work.

And Mass Sarr was, supposedly, related to George Weah I believe

[stealthpapes]

Didn't we once do a shittest first 11? There are some real gems from the past

Previously written Disappointment XI

Or: Just because you're Division 2 doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. I'll put the team name at the end, just so we can all play a guessing game as we go along.

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

RB: Greg Halford - came in for big money (over £2 million!), didn't fit, went to Sunderland where he pissed off Roy Keane. There is a story in the secret footballer that rather closely matches his time at my club.

CB: Daniel Carrico - won the UEFA cup while with us. Was on loan at Seville at the time. HIs ... checks notes ... 87 minutes for us ... 87 minutes? Brilliant.

CB: Martin Keown - hindsight possibly puts this as "he was a bit past his best", but defenders are meant to age gracefully, right? He came in as our promotion bid was faltering, we were 4th but struggling for wins. We finished 7th. He played 5 games of a possible 16. Cheers.

LB: Wayne Bridge - defenders are meant to age gracefully, right?

RM: Emerse Fae - close to a club record signing. Got malaria, refused to play in a reserve game. If I have it correct, we never won a single game with him in the side.

CM: Neale Cooper - probably the earliest one here. Remember my Dad saying he'd been a stalwart in Scotland, European success, played with Ferguson, was part of that Graeme Souness Rangers team for a time. All he brought south was the thuggery. Vanished after two months, turned out he went on to play 100 odd times for Dunfermline. Right.

CM: Ray Houghton - and only a few years on from being a regular that Ron Atkinson Villa side of the early nineties and scoring famous world cup goals. I mean, this is a player, this is a man with pedigree. Passed the ball sideways. Pointed a bit. Sad.

LM: Royston Drenthe - I am not even going to dignify how this one worked out with a complete

ST: Pavel Pogrebnyak - I mean, we've shelled out on quality here. Did OK in a struggling relegation season and stuck around the next season. Should have torn the Championship a new hole. Did not.

ST: Mass Sarr - as we moved to our new ground, we brought in what seemed like a new squad. Heading it up was Mass Sarr. Liberian International. Played for Monaco. Scored a lot in Croatia. Someone once made a statue of him but the feet were all wrong. Remember, those heady pre-internet days where rumours were proper rumours? Anyway, the local press all but made up a story about his having a personal witch doctor, he got caught drink driving and scored 3 goals in the old 3rd division.

Subs bench: Anton Ferdinand, Yakubu, Nicky Shorey in 2012 or Dave Kitson in 2009, Danny Guthrie, Tiago Ilori

So there, my Reading FC biggest disappointments. The biggest mismatches between hype/expectation and what we actually got. Some even played quite well at times, but you were always left thinking it could have been so much better.

Bridge was doing pretty well until he got injured and never played for us again.

Think that was the hardest one, tbf.
Shorey's return was arguably worse but he remains legitimately one of the greats.

Ian Harte did do this:

[SCIAG]

Bridge and Anton Ferdinand both looked absolutely a class above, in terms of "talent" up there with anyone in their positions for us. Issue was that Bridge's body suddenly fell apart, and Ferdinand's was already falling apart when we signed him.

Les Ferdinand was much more of a disappointment for me. Decent link up play but just the one goal!

Spoiled for choice among the strikers really. I think Chris Martin wins. Obviously he was very sick at the time so can't hold it against him, but never produced the goods for us. Vydra and Grabban did good work outside the box, and Sharp was playing in a team with no creativity, but Martin just looked lost.

[Orion1871]

Previously written Disappointment XI

Or: Just because you're Division 2 doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. I'll put the team name at the end, just so we can all play a guessing game as we go along.

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

RB: Greg Halford - came in for big money (over £2 million!), didn't fit, went to Sunderland where he pissed off Roy Keane. There is a story in the secret footballer that rather closely matches his time at my club.

CB: Daniel Carrico - won the UEFA cup while with us. Was on loan at Seville at the time. HIs ... checks notes ... 87 minutes for us ... 87 minutes? Brilliant.

CB: Martin Keown - hindsight possibly puts this as "he was a bit past his best", but defenders are meant to age gracefully, right? He came in as our promotion bid was faltering, we were 4th but struggling for wins. We finished 7th. He played 5 games of a possible 16. Cheers.

LB: Wayne Bridge - defenders are meant to age gracefully, right?

RM: Emerse Fae - close to a club record signing. Got malaria, refused to play in a reserve game. If I have it correct, we never won a single game with him in the side.

CM: Neale Cooper - probably the earliest one here. Remember my Dad saying he'd been a stalwart in Scotland, European success, played with Ferguson, was part of that Graeme Souness Rangers team for a time. All he brought south was the thuggery. Vanished after two months, turned out he went on to play 100 odd times for Dunfermline. Right.

CM: Ray Houghton - and only a few years on from being a regular that Ron Atkinson Villa side of the early nineties and scoring famous world cup goals. I mean, this is a player, this is a man with pedigree. Passed the ball sideways. Pointed a bit. Sad.

LM: Royston Drenthe - I am not even going to dignify how this one worked out with a complete

ST: Pavel Pogrebnyak - I mean, we've shelled out on quality here. Did OK in a struggling relegation season and stuck around the next season. Should have torn the Championship a new hole. Did not.

ST: Mass Sarr - as we moved to our new ground, we brought in what seemed like a new squad. Heading it up was Mass Sarr. Liberian International. Played for Monaco. Scored a lot in Croatia. Someone once made a statue of him but the feet were all wrong. Remember, those heady pre-internet days where rumours were proper rumours? Anyway, the local press all but made up a story about his having a personal witch doctor, he got caught drink driving and scored 3 goals in the old 3rd division.

Subs bench: Anton Ferdinand, Yakubu, Nicky Shorey in 2012 or Dave Kitson in 2009, Danny Guthrie, Tiago Ilori

So there, my Reading FC biggest disappointments. The biggest mismatches between hype/expectation and what we actually got. Some even played quite well at times, but you were always left thinking it could have been so much better.

Nice work.

And Mass Sarr was, supposedly, related to George Weah I believe

You're mixing his story up with Ali Dia, the conman who managed to get on the pitch for Southampton. Sarr was friends with Weah, never claimed to be related to him.

[Franchise FC]

So, having read all this, Carroll is not in the top 50 (or is that bottom 50) considering the absolute shitshow we've had from time to time

[Clyde1998]

GK: Borislav Mihailov - rumour has it he saw the play off final in '95 and thought that was our home ground. Rumour also had it that he wore a hairpiece.

He had something going on:

[ReadingGlasses]

I thought Mihailov was pretty decent in the games he actually played. The problem was just that he didn't seem to want to play that often.