TheBrownBottle Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 1 minute ago, Viana said: Ha, I'd wager I'm older than you. There's definitely some recency bias in mine, but in all honesty, I wasn't able to see games as regularly in the 90s/early 00s outside of highlights on MOTD or what was on telly. I don't have strong memories of the likes of Marcelino/Pistone/Maric. I've read they were shite, but I didn't see it myself, so I'm not going to profess I did. Could probably have thrown the likes of Luque or Bramble in there, but I tried to pick players I genuinely thought to be poor footballers and not those that had a poor spell with us. I suspect any Mag whose memories stretch back to the late ‘70s would have a very different XI. Mine stretches to the mid-late ‘80s and I’m not sure if there’d be many post-‘92. Fumaca was everyone’s favourite joke, but didn’t play enough times to cement his place. Pretty much any XI which could be named over the last 30 years would beat the worst side fielded from ‘88-‘92. Bad signings, on the other, would be pretty much entirely post-‘92 … Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 (edited) That 08/09 midfield is the worst I've seen like. The defence was actually pretty dam good they were just constantly exposed Edited August 25, 2023 by Kid Icarus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfGosforth Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 3 minutes ago, gbandit said: Think Alan Smith was one of the worst players I remember for us. Genuinely was awful. Rivière is the worst striker that I can recall in my lifetime. Obertan was an appalling footballer, perhaps had the worst technique I can think of from a winger that has played for us Pingel and McDonald were the worst I saw. I only recall Pingel scoring once and it went in off his lug against Liverpool of all teams. McDonald was a big useless lump as well though I saw him notch a header at Sheff Wed in a 2-1 win. Dave Mitchell was canny useless as well but I think the Ashley era strikers were almost as bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Prontonise Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 Silvio Maric says high in midfield. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 I wonder if Boumsong would have been good under Robson instead of Souness. Stranger things have happened Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viana Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 6 minutes ago, gbandit said: Think Alan Smith was one of the worst players I remember for us. Genuinely was awful. Rivière is the worst striker that I can recall in my lifetime. Obertan was an appalling footballer, perhaps had the worst technique I can think of from a winger that has played for us Alan Smith isn't a bad shout to replace Hendrick in mine actually. Only ever looked relevant at Championship level and even that was via big slide tackles. I'd feel bad throwing him in just because the leg break clearly did him over. Colback is more an emotive one just because I felt like I always saw him move into traffic when a teammate had the ball. He was the opposite of making himself available and never took responsibility. Hendrick just felt amorphous. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrownBottle Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 4 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said: Pingel and McDonald were the worst I saw. I only recall Pingel scoring once and it went in off his lug against Liverpool of all teams. McDonald was a big useless lump as well though I saw him notch a header at Sheff Wed in a 2-1 win. Dave Mitchell was canny useless as well but I think the Ashley era strikers were almost as bad. Frank Pingel was absolutely fucking horrific. Ball just seemed to bounce off him. I’ve never seen a more lost-looking player on a football pitch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 2 minutes ago, Viana said: Alan Smith isn't a bad shout to replace Hendrick in mine actually. Only ever looked relevant at Championship level and even that was via big slide tackles. I'd feel bad throwing him in just because the leg break clearly did him over. Colback is more an emotive one just because I felt like I always saw him move into traffic when a teammate had the ball. He was the opposite of making himself available and never took responsibility. Hendrick just felt amorphous. Has there ever been a bigger downgrade for us than Cabaye to Colback? I remember people on here (understandably) swearing blind that he was going to be backup and we'd get a proper replacement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Prontonise Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 Facundo Ferreyra and Luuk de jong say hi for upfront. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfGosforth Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said: Frank Pingel was absolutely fucking horrific. Ball just seemed to bounce off him. I’ve never seen a more lost-looking player on a football pitch. Wish there was a "love post" option. Pingel was just the worst. Throughout the 80s, we generally had decent strikers, even very good ones at times. Even George Reilly and Tony Cunningham were tryers, gave their best, just lacked talent. Pingel though...what the fuck were they thinking? I think he was a Jim Smith signing but could have been a ghastly Mcfaul or Colin Suggett-sanctioned buy a bit earlier. What a season 88/89 was Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elma Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 11 minutes ago, gbandit said: Think Alan Smith was one of the worst players I remember for us. Genuinely was awful. Rivière is the worst striker that I can recall in my lifetime. Obertan was an appalling footballer, perhaps had the worst technique I can think of from a winger that has played for us He wasn't great, but I know someone at the club who said he was an excellent professional, always helping out the kids teams etc. He also took a significant pay cut to leave as he didn't want to sit on the bench. He was never the same after that horrific injury, and we stupidly agreed to pay him something like 60k a week, but we've had some wasters and I don't think he was one of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteV Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 13 minutes ago, gbandit said: Think Alan Smith was one of the worst players I remember for us. Genuinely was awful. Rivière is the worst striker that I can recall in my lifetime. Obertan was an appalling footballer, perhaps had the worst technique I can think of from a winger that has played for us Agree on Riviere. He had nothing. Wasn’t good at anything. And the audacity of that celebration against QPR after the state of the ‘goal’. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPL Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 Just now, SteV said: Agree on Riviere. He had nothing. Wasn’t good at anything. And the audacity of that celebration against QPR after the state of the ‘goal’. It's bad when you are better at flips than kicks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfGosforth Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 1 minute ago, SteV said: Agree on Riviere. He had nothing. Wasn’t good at anything. And the audacity of that celebration against QPR after the state of the ‘goal’. He was garbage but he could run. Believe it or not, we've had strikers who couldn't even do that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbandit Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 1 minute ago, Elma said: He wasn't great, but I know someone at the club who said he was an excellent professional, always helping out the kids teams etc. He also took a significant pay cut to leave as he didn't want to sit on the bench. He was never the same after that horrific injury, and we stupidly agreed to pay him something like 60k a week, but we've had some wasters and I don't think he was one of them. I agree that his attitude was much better than many we’ve had. He wasn’t toxic or anything so that shouldn’t be discounted but he just wasn’t able to play anywhere near the level he needed to when he was with us. A perfect example of us signing a cast off who was finished by the time he came here Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mag3.14 Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 22 minutes ago, Viana said: Ha, I'd wager I'm older than you. There's definitely some recency bias in mine, but in all honesty, I wasn't able to see games as regularly in the 90s/early 00s outside of highlights on MOTD or what was on telly. I don't have strong memories of the likes of Marcelino/Pistone/Maric. I've read they were shite, but I saw flashes, so I'm not going to profess I had enough evidence to outweigh the more recent picks. Could probably have thrown the likes of Luque or Bramble in there, but I tried to pick players I genuinely thought to be poor footballers and not those that had a poor spell with us. Fair enough not being able to remember much about Marcelino, spent most of his time here injured due to a "broken" little finger Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteV Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 2 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said: He was garbage but he could run. Believe it or not, we've had strikers who couldn't even do that. Unfortunately not with the ball. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Prontonise Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 (edited) 3 minutes ago, gbandit said: I agree that his attitude was much better than many we’ve had. He wasn’t toxic or anything so that shouldn’t be discounted but he just wasn’t able to play anywhere near the level he needed to when he was with us. A perfect example of us signing a cast off who was finished by the time he came here Geremi was similar for being past it etc. Only difference was somehow King Kev manged to get like 8 good games from him in a midfield 3. Miracles do happen. His ball for Owen Vs the mackems was amazing. Edited August 25, 2023 by El Prontonise Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viana Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 Just now, Kid Icarus said: Has there ever been a bigger downgrade for us than Cabaye to Colback? I remember people on here (understandably) swearing blind that he was going to be backup and we'd get a proper replacement Denial is the first stage of grief The thing I couldn't really fathom about the Colback deal is what they expected from him for 60k a week. I was privy to a lot of the Sunderland games at the time through work and at his peak he'd been slightly above mediocre. So much so they kept switching him between midfield and left back. I know talent ID is very hard, but the Ginger Pirlo patter was another thing that baffled me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfGosforth Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 1 minute ago, SteV said: Unfortunately not with the ball. Fair Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobsonsWonderland Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 (edited) Paul Dalglish... Surely even his dad was embarrassed to play him just a year after taking over from Keegan Edited August 25, 2023 by RobsonsWonderland Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 16 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said: I wonder if Boumsong would have been good under Robson instead of Souness. Stranger things have happened He wanted him originally (so did Houllier at Liverpool) but for some reason chose Rangers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrownBottle Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 10 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said: Wish there was a "love post" option. Pingel was just the worst. Throughout the 80s, we generally had decent strikers, even very good ones at times. Even George Reilly and Tony Cunningham were tryers, gave their best, just lacked talent. Pingel though...what the fuck were they thinking? I think he was a Jim Smith signing but could have been a ghastly Mcfaul or Colin Suggett-sanctioned buy a bit earlier. What a season 88/89 was Yep, even in the doldrums of the old second division after relegation in 88/89 we had good centre forwards - NUFC generally does. Makes the worst ones look ten times worse - if Pingel had been a centre half, he might only be in the worst five … Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfGosforth Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 4 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said: Yep, even in the doldrums of the old second division after relegation in 88/89 we had good centre forwards - NUFC generally does. Makes the worst ones look ten times worse - if Pingel had been a centre half, he might only be in the worst five … Even give me someone like Billy Whitehurst over a pea-hearted git like Pingel. At least Billy dismembered the odd CB and put the keeper in the net with the ball a few times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrownBottle Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 3 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said: Even give me someone like Billy Whitehurst over a pea-hearted git like Pingel. At least Billy dismembered the odd CB and put the keeper in the net with the ball a few times. Billy Shitehurst was the first NUFC no.9 I ever saw. All uphill from there Pingel is almost impossible to put into words. I’m not even sure grainy VHS tape from that season would really cover it, as TV footage never really shows a player’s performance in the way that watching in the flesh does. He was hopeless on the ball, but he may actually be the worst footballer in history off the ball. Poor fucker was absolutely clueless Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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