Taken from League 2, who in turn stole it from somewhere else.... Paul Merson - Had a few good games then turned shit, then got us relegated to League 2. Thanks Paul
Jamie Cureton and Tony Thorpe. I couldn't believe our luck but what we ended up with was about 3 goals.
Steve Lomas. Really excited when his signing was announced. Dominated one pre season game then was so bad he was dubbed Slomas. Kelvin Jack. Scally took him on after the World Cup. Wasn't so much that he was bad just that he never played due to injury. Mark McCammon. Stimson's marque signing after Cammo played in most of Donny's promotion winning team. Was dire. For a target man his jumping was so bad you'd struggle to slide a fag paper under him except once, he jumped into the Aldershot keeper earning himself a red card. Then accused the club of being racist. No Mark, it wasn't because you were black you weren't played. It was because you were shoite. And lazy. Steven Hislop. Neale Cooper signed him from Scotland with "a reputation". We didn't realise that reputation was for being crap. Iwan Roberts. Another "end of his career" signing who, sadly, was past the end of his career.
Andreas Lipa. Dubbed the Beckham of Burslem. He didn't look like him and certainly didn't play like him. In fact we had the chance to sign Lee Trundle before his pomp and signed Lipa instead as it was one or the other. He turned out to be most famous for his Mrs being on Come Dine with me.
Not sure he qualifies as an exciting signing but our worst in living memory is the 'legend' known as Mark McCammon Something like 5 goals in three seasons and then sued the club for alledged racism, which he won but was later overturned. He still trousered 70k from the club for a breach of HR procedures As you can imagine, he's still very highly thought of.
Nope. The club were found guilty of failing to follow a proper HR procedure and investigate fully his claims. Cleared of being racist.
My apologies, that will teach me to check these things on wikipedia. Either way he was a terrible player, still remember him missing an open goal from all of a yard away at QPR years ago.
Actually, seeing the Orient badge, I remember when we got back up from League 2, and we played you fairly early on in the new season. We had a guy called Carlos Carneiro, who was supposed to be decent, he missed an open goal at your gaff, and I remember a London-based Saddler having a right rant at him. Ran to the bottom of the stand going "FACKIN HELL CARNEIRO YOU FACKING USELESS FACKING CAAANT!" He was shite though!
Where to start.... Well David James for one, having played in the world cup that summer was a massive disappointment. Nicky Hunt, signed from Bolton having had over 100 premier league appearances and made 7 appearances in 2 years for us all terrible as far as I remember. Probably many more but those 2 stick out.
Sam Parkin had a good pedigree but was an utter ****ing carthorse too. Oh - forgot to add Ryan Dickson. Best left back in this division my arse.
To be fair Hodge, I doubt anyone will trump these two, Calamity James, was the current England no1 when we signed him, although surprisingly he never played for England again, he was on megabucks and was the biggest let down. Nicky Hunt, signed the same day as the aforementioned David James, he played a handful of games, pocketing big bucks before leaving by mutual consent 18 months later. Special mentions to Damian Stewart and Peter Stuver also.
Hmm, where do I begin..... Stuart Balmer Wayne Gill Steve Whitehall Rodney Jack Ben Burgess Mark Arber Lee Barnard Michael Ricketts Keigan Parker Brett Ormerod Joe Colbeck Nick Blackman Jan Budtz Darren Byfield Michael Clegg Kenny Cooper Dean Crowe Chris Day Zander Diamond Delroy Facey John Gannon Joe Jacobson (in fact every player Dave Penney signed except Pawel Abbott) Billy Kenny Ritchie Jones Andrea Mancini Sam Mantom and this is just off the top of my head.....
Ricketts was OK when he was with us at the start of his career, then money went to him and he couldn't give a ****. Byfield scored our winning goal vs Reading in PO Final 2001, apart from that nothing special. Came back for a 2nd spell, more interested in tweeting about Arsenal. Sam Mantom, midfield maestro for us, will go onto bigger and better things!
