From Despair To Where?Snowflake Royal Lita, Asaba and Convey are all a mixed bag.
Lita was quality in 106, and a small spurt in the first prem season, but he never really performed consistently and ended up failing.
Convey - FDTW has summed up perfectly.
Asaba actually did ok in a poor team, and was only here 1 season, but didn’t meet the heights his price tag really required.
Not outright failures, but also not complete and unequivical successes fully justifying their status as record signings.
I think with Convey he took a year to settle, and in his third season, we didn't miss him because Hunt really stepped up and Seol came in and was massive. I thought Seol, for all his faults, was a huge player. We were a hard working, well organised side and he just threw in a huge dose of flair into the mix.
Seol, of course, was a record signing in his own right.
Other record signings who come to mind...
Matt Mills - ~£2m
Adrian Mariappa - ~£3m
Tiago Ilori - ~£3.75m
Of whom, Mills was a mixed bag, Mariappa was a good player in a shambolic side, and Ilori was a huge disappointment.
But tbh it doesn't feel right to call Convey a "qualified" success. For me personally, if I was picking the greatest Reading team in my lifetime it would have Convey in it. Like, sorry to Gilkesy and McAnuff but Convey was on another level. (I think the only way he doesn't make it is if I both decide I want Gylfi and I want 4-4-2, which means Gylfi going out to the left) I don't think we can ask much more of a record signing than getting us promoted and arguably being our best ever player in his position. With apologies to those who remember Gordon Cumming.