Marlon Harewood - Made in China

[robbo1874]

Saw his debut in the away friendly in Toronto in July 2007 and couldn't believe how bad his first touch was. I was actually surprised as my abiding memory of him at that point was sitting in the local pub in September 2005 watching him play a blinder for West Ham against us, and scoring a hat-trick by the 49th minute; at that point I left the pub having being wound up the whole game by a West Ham fan - I'd have hit him if I'd stayed any longer!

I'll never forget his celebration after scoring his first goal for us (with his backside) in August 2007 away to Wrexham in the Cup, particularly as we were already 4-0 up when he scored; at least it showed he cared.

went to that game at Upton Park where he scored 3 against us. Didnt care at all, as had just come from the Oval after England won the ashes. 2nd most pissed I’ve ever been at the football. (QPR for Hendrie’s debut was first).

[SoccerHQ]

I always like him when he was at West Ham.

Wouldn't have signed him either but as a cheap back up striker to Carew and Gabby I could understand it. Will always fondly remember that out of nowhere overhead kick v Liverpool and he also scored a few others in big wins in 07/08.

Hardly played the next two seasons.

Edit: Surprised he's still playing btw, we signed him when he was around 27 so fair play.

[SoccerHQ]

He was shit.  Really, really shit.

Quite right. No dewy-eyed revisionism. He was a shockingly bad buy in the first place, but if he was going to work at all (big if) he had to start regularly as he was a confidence player - but he didn't because he was shit.

His signing was the first indication that the era of Lerner and O'Neil would not be everything we hoped it would be.  Having said that he seems a decent bloke so good luck to him.

It just showed the limitation of MON's thinking. What we needed was another top class addition to Carew and Gabby (considering Carew was injury prone) and as a few have said Defoe would've made total sense (Portsmouth signed him in January 2008 so he was available from Spurs at that time).

Or if you're happy with Carew and Gabby as first choice then sign a Benteke type prospect from abroad who can start as a back up and hopefully develop.

Instead we signed Harewood and then Heskey the next season.

Didn't Harewood actually have a really good scoring season for West Ham in the premierr league shortly before we signed him?

Edit: Just seen the OP date posted! Weird thread to bump up from 2011.