Leander Dendoncker

[Risso]

I think the worst player I've seen who played quite a few games was probably Aly Cissokho.

[WarszaVillan]

David Hunt was the worst I've seen, he couldn't play football.

[cdbearsfan]

Anyway, Dendoncker clearly doesn't belong anywhere near this discussion.

[pauliewalnuts]

Danny Drinkwater is the worst I've seen in 30 years.

I remember some dross in the mid to late 80s too, but too much to identify any one in particular.

[eamonn]

Bosko Balaban. £6m in 2001, 11 appearances, 2 starts, 0 goals. Looked like he'd never even seen a football before.

2 things I remember about Bosko.

We were playing away against Arsenal, and DoL had been critical about Doug's financial support. In an interview on Sky TV, Doug said DoL had been "economical with the truth" and pointed out that £6 million "Balapan"  was sitting in the stands.

A training ground routine where DoL was trying to get Bosko to cross the ball on the run from the wing and it didn't go well: "You've got to better than that Bosko".

Second attempt with the same result: "You're shit, Bosko".

I don't remember those two tales but do recall the one where Balaban turned-up for pre-season training to be met by Doug and the exchange apparently went something like:

- "Welcome back Mr Balaban"

- "I'm surprised you know my name, Mr Chairman"

- "The money I paid for you, I won't forget your name in a hurry...You seem to have put on weight over the summer"

- "So do you..."

[paul_e]

I think the worst player I've seen who played quite a few games was probably Aly Cissokho.

That's a fair shout, Hogan would be right up there as well.

[eamonn]

Yeah Mini Emi gave the ball away a few times but he also made some good incisive stuff, not least with his running off the ball. The Donck, however, was everything we wanted him to be yesterday.

Every time I see Dendoncker's name mentioned, I think of the Radcliffe and Maconie radio "jingle" - "You know what you wanna do with that, right? You wanna put a bangin' donk on it".

[Chris Smith]

I think the worst player I've seen who played quite a few games was probably Aly Cissokho.

That's a fair shout, Hogan would be right up there as well.

Agree on Hogan for us but somehow he’s started scoring for Small Heath this season, 9 in 20 is pretty decent.

[Risso]

Yeah Mini Emi gave the ball away a few times but he also made some good incisive stuff, not least with his running off the ball. The Donck, however, was everything we wanted him to be yesterday.

Every time I see Dendoncker's name mentioned, I think of the Radcliffe and Maconie radio "jingle" - "You know what you wanna do with that, right? You wanna put a bangin' donk on it".

It's the Shane Meadows short film Le Donk for me.

[Drummond]

Anyway, Dendoncker has been close to MotM for me recently. He's very good at just getting in there and breakling it up, similar, but better than Nakamba as he can pass it too.

[not3bad]

Oyvind Leonardson

[Rory]

Anyway, Dendoncker clearly doesn't belong anywhere near this discussion.

Agreed.

[Brend'Watkins]

When I think of footballers who we've signed over the years and who have turned out to be monumentally shit I look more at the people responsible for signing them than the player.  Is there any other industry in the world where deciding to part with millions of the company's pounds would be based on "He's played for Chelsea so he must be good"..."He's scored a few goals at a lesser level, he's just what we need"..."That You Tube clip playing for Lech Poznan shows he's got a decent shot on him"?  It's staggering. 
Maybe we are a bit better at it now but I still feel that research into future signings is one area where we need to invest in.

Anyway, Dendoncker has shown he's been decent thus far.

[Clark W Griswold]

Drinkwater is the only one ever where i made my mind up when we signed him, even before he'd kicked a ball that it was a big mistake and he was going to be utterly shite.
Although Richards and Lescott were free (i think) and i was quite happy at the time to see them come in, there can't be many over the years that have fucked the club over in such a big way.
In terms of quality, there were a number of bad ones during the 2011-2017 period, and for expensive mistake it's hard to see much past a Balaban or a McCormack.

[rooboy316]

We needed an upgrade on Nakamba. Seems like he is one.