Heskey or Cascarino?

[ez]

Heskey. I was expecting better from Cascarino after his goalscoring for Millwall. Big disapointment. Heskey, well we knew he was crap before he joined us.

[eastie]

What a shock, another thread to bash Heskey.

He doesn't even get close to being the worst striker (or signing) i've seen play for Villa. I wish every Villa signing in my Villa time had shown the same attitude as Heskey has, we'd have probably done a lot better over the last 30 years.

And if theyd shown his ability we would probably class tamworth as our blue square neighbours  by now.

[robbyfvillain]

Sorry Can't agree that Tony Hateley was anything other than an overpriced carthorse.   Not for nothing did we dub him Douglas Bader.   Great in the air, useless on the ground. 

I recall as if it were yesterday the wave of incredulity that we managed to sell him for the same price as we paid for him.

Trouble is we bought him for 23k and sold him 3yrs later for 100k.

He was useless on the ground but had the hardest headers I have ever seen. He also scored 17,20 and 27 league goals in successive seasons. Bit unfair to link him falling bear and miss a lot.

[Leighton]

The disaster that turned out to be Tony Cascarino was entirely my fault. When we signed him I also was extremely excited. One of the first things I did was to load up Emlyn Hughes International Soccer on my Commodore 64 and re-edit the star striker in my team to be renamed Cascarino. He scored shitloads of goals, at least eight per game. I cannot help but feel that I ruined the balance in the universe between reality and computer games.

Actually, blame me for us not winning the league that season. It’s my entire fault...

[Salsa Party Animal]

Think both are shite. Shame we didn't go for Mary "Alan Shearer" Poppins instead.
 

[eamonn]

Shearer would have been too young to make much of an impact at the time (though didn't he score a hat-trick on his debut for Southampton against Arsenal in the late 80's?).

[TheBarneyArmy]

Sasa Curcic

[Mister E]

In terms of the context, Cantscorino was the biggest disappointment.
In terms of being difficult to justify, it has to be Emile.
In terms of worst absolute signings, then it is Balaban and Curcic tied in first place.

[brontebilly]

Allback was shite too. Never saw Balaban in a Villa shirt. Can someone let me know why he was never given a chance after being signed? Seem to recall him playing in the CL and for Croatia after his Villa misadventure. Gilles de Bilde was crap too. Who could forget Marlon Harewood either?

Castoroilbottle was before my time in a Villa shirt but in an Irish shirt he was always a trier but with little ability.

Heskey though is absolutely pathetic. Agree MON changed around the side to accommodate Ivanhoe and our results suffered. The last thing we wanted then was a useless British big man centre forward at the end of his career on big wages. It's the last thing we need now too.

[adrenachrome]

SGT wanted Sherry Num instead of the Casca dude, according to several knowledgeable chaps on this board.

I have to agree with PeterWithesShin on Bambi's contribution and attitude since his arrival. Managers, AM being the latest in along line, consistently pick him because he follows their instructions.

It is also interesting to note that Bambi's most vitriolic critic was probably JG when he was our manager. He pretty much called him a cheat.

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't think Allback ever had a fair crack. IIRC the only time he started a batch of consecutive games he scored 4 in 7 and those goals kept us up.

[Legion]

Didn't Allback's goal keep us up on the last day of the season a few years age?

[kippaxvilla2]

   

  Cascarino............cost us the championship that season.I'm convinced if we had bought Le Tiss, or Harford instead then we would have won the League that year.

Wasn't the story something like GT wanting both him and Sheringham and was told no, went for Sheringham and was told by Reg Burr he could have Cas?  Truth is, Cas was nothing without Sheringham.

The best thing I ever saw Cas do was the reverse pass lay off for Chris Price to run onto and score the winner against the Arse at Highbury after we had been pummelled virtually for 90 minutes.

[Pete3206]

As I remember, the Cascarino rumours ran through most of the 89-90 season until we signed him. Should have stuck with Ian Olney.

Cascarino/Price at Arsenal. What a fantastic night!

[Pete3206]

Didn't Allback's goal keep us up on the last day of the season a few years age?

Against Sunderland? I think we were OK with the draw anyway weren't we?