Where does Carroll rank in worst ever signings?

[Sutekh]

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

.....................Virginia
Gurney, Khumalo, Kromheer, Bodin
Brooker, Evers, Meyler, Crawford
...............Brayson, Savage


Can't believe Van der Kwaak no longer has his place.

Marcus Williams sub left back?

The full backs is always questionable I find in a worst XI. The rest of the team largely picks itself but always felt Gurney was better than given credit for and Boden was decent in an otherwise cr@p squad. Think I'd certainly put Marcus Williams in long before Bodin, then there's Steve Swales....

[Snowflake Royal]

My stand out memory of Brayson was when someone in the midfield launched a long pass through for him to run on to, and despite having a couple of seconds to watch the ball and time his run, he managed to run in front of the ball so that it hit him in the back and bounced back off in the wrong direction. He stood there looking totally confused about what had happened.

At least he was a relatively cheap signing though. I'd put more expensive signings far higher up the worst signings list.

For me the stand out two are Fae and Aluko. Fae because the team was crying out for a replacement for Sidwell, put a lot of money in Fae to be that player, and he literally didn't turn up. Had that team managed a halfway decent signing instead then history could have been very different. And Aluko because he was one of the biggest examples of a catastrophic series of signings which put the club in its current crisis.

£100k is a lot at the bottom end of tier two at the turn of the century.

Our transfer record was only £800k when he joined.

[Snowflake Royal]

.....................Virginia
Gurney, Khumalo, Kromheer, Bodin
Brooker, Evers, Meyler, Crawford
...............Brayson, Savage


Can't believe Van der Kwaak no longer has his place.

Marcus Williams sub left back?

The full backs is always questionable I find in a worst XI. The rest of the team largely picks itself but always felt Gurney was better than given credit for and Boden was decent in an otherwise cr@p squad. Think I'd certainly put Marcus Williams in long before Bodin, then there's Steve Swales....

Bodin was so bad no one on our team told the ref he'd sent the wrong player off.

Had some issues with RB and second striker, not nailed on contenders. Swales was ok

[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.

[From Despair To Where?]

My stand out memory of Brayson was when someone in the midfield launched a long pass through for him to run on to, and despite having a couple of seconds to watch the ball and time his run, he managed to run in front of the ball so that it hit him in the back and bounced back off in the wrong direction. He stood there looking totally confused about what had happened.

At least he was a relatively cheap signing though. I'd put more expensive signings far higher up the worst signings list.

For me the stand out two are Fae and Aluko. Fae because the team was crying out for a replacement for Sidwell, put a lot of money in Fae to be that player, and he literally didn't turn up. Had that team managed a halfway decent signing instead then history could have been very different. And Aluko because he was one of the biggest examples of a catastrophic series of signings which put the club in its current crisis.

The other thing with Fae is apparently we'd been in for him the year before but he'd just had an absolutely blinding season and didn't want to leave. Nantes then promptly got relegated with Fae in particular copping tons of criticism for a series of gutless performances and a serious attitude problem and we hadn't been paying attention, snapping him up for a "bargain" £2.5m.


The thing with Boden is that the team was so poor, he didn't stand out as particularly dreadful. I mean, this was a team with Swales, Booty, Legg and Bowen in it

[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.