Players We Signed That Seemed Unfathomable. 1977 to the present day.

[hilts_coolerking]

John Fashanu was my shout out loud ‘noooo!’ moment.

Yeah, I remember BFR getting stick about going to the WC with ITV and him saying "I'm going out there to scout some of the best players in the world".

Then came back with Fashanu.

John FashaRnu.

[Risso]

The Fashanu signing just seemed to be so that Big John could be closer to the Central Studios so that he could film Gladiators more easily.

[Rory]

A friend of mine lived on the same road as Fashanu. He said Fash used to go running in bright neon with a headtorch and threatened to report one of his neighbours to the police for having a 'racist' dog.

[sid1964]

Steve Stone - absolute rubbish

[dcdavecollett]

Steve Stone was a decent player for us, whether played as a wing back, winger or central midfielder. He played regularly for the side that got to the Wembley final in 2000.

Not my idea of a rubbish player.

[john2710]

Mark Kinsella, we were linked heavily with Matt Holland, who chose to stay at Charlton for family reasons. So we signed Kinsella off them instead. He was fucking atrocious.

[Gareth]

The summer we signed Zat Knight & Harewood….remember at the start of that summer saying the two players I didn’t want were Knight & Harewood :-) if I remember correctly Knight signed a new contract at Fulham at the start of the summer & I thought we’d dodged the bullet…then a couple of weeks later he rocked up via a trip to the cop shop?

[eamonn]

Mark Kinsella, we were linked heavily with Matt Holland, who chose to stay at Charlton for family reasons. So we signed Kinsella off them instead. He was fucking atrocious.

I caught Matt Holland off-guard on a football phone-in on Irish radio in 2012, asking him how close he was to joining 10 years prior. He gave the same reason - family, if I recall correctly.

I also naively suggested to the presenter that Financial Fair Play might lead to Villa's strategy of young and hungry eventually bearing fruit. (We'd just beaten Man City in the League Cup and you know how Villa wins can suddenly make our hopes and dreams attainable). The host replied, with the zinger "Hmm, Financial Fair Play is a bit like Communism. Great idea in theory but..."

[steffo]

Stephen Ireland & Micah Richards.

[Exeter 77]

Terry Bullivant is another player Ron Saunders bought signed in the late 70s but he rarely featured. I can't remember whether he has injury problems or not.

[dave.woodhall]

Matt Holland's wife owned a stud farm and was earning more than he did.
 

[Chico Hamilton III]

Terry Bullivant is another player Ron Saunders bought signed in the late 70s but he rarely featured. I can't remember whether he has injury problems or not.

Didn’t we sign Terry Donovan at the same time?

Edit- to answer my own question, no. It was a few months later

[dave.woodhall]

Bullivant and Donovan were the sort of players most top-flight managers sign at some stage. They either work out or they leave without much cost.

[trinityoap]

Just looked up Donovan's scoring record for us.11 goals in 24 games.

[dcdavecollett]

Donovan scored a stack of goals for the reserves as well.