Pound for pound

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

£100k a week is a myth- it was £125k' date=' confirmed by the club in a press briefing.[/quote']

 

Any chance of a link, mate?

[christhered]

Surprised Heskey isnt in there, £11 million is a hell of a lot of money even nowadays.

[DooooodekNo5]

The managers culpable of signing all the usual suspects can at least say there was mitigating circumstances, Kenny can say he was simply investing the Torres money on the most exciting young striker in England, Ged can say Diouf was African player of the year, Rafa can say Aquilani was a desperate purchase by a desperate man, he can say Keane should have worked but just didn't. He can offer no such excuses for Degen, injury prone average defender who turned out to be an injured constantly shite defender. Degen makes the top 3 for me, joined by Downing who a blind man could see was a coward with average ability.

 

My number 1 spot goes to Paul Konchesky, anyone who had seen him play knew he was shit, for a manager to see him every day for 2 years and still sign is unforgivable, to throw in 2 up and coming youngsters and release a capable left back as well as paying a hefty wedge for a player nearly 30 is worthy of criminal charges.

 

1) Konchesky

2) Degen

3) Downing

 

Was wondering when someone was going to name Konchesky , i know a lot of our other transfer fees dwarf his but this was a truly abysmal waste of money and potentially good young players , aswell as wages , didn't he get a 4 year contract ? utterly pathetic braindead 'buisness'.

 

Top 4 , can't decide the order as they are all heinous criminal pieces of buisness.

 

Carroll

Aquilani

Downing

Konchesky

 

75 odd million there in tranfser fees and fuck knows how many 10s of millions in wages.

[Il Fenomeno]

Any chance of a link, mate?

 

Was typical newpaper spin mate. They added the fee (£17m) onto his wages and said he was costing the club £125000 a week. Not that he was getting 125k a week in wage.

 

Think it was a Bascombe article (telegraph).

 

And its got to be Carroll, because he was our record signing. And contributed fuck all to the team, took 10 months to get fit and looked so out of place in a footballing side it was painful.

[Unrighteous]

Was typical newpaper spin mate. They added the fee (£17m) onto his wages and said he was costing the club £125000 a week. Not that he was getting 125k a week in wage.

 

Think it was a Bascombe article (telegraph).

 

And its got to be Carroll, because he was our record signing. And contributed fuck all to the team, took 10 months to get fit and looked so out of place in a footballing side it was painful.

 

Unlike Aquilani, Carroll actually helped us challenge for trophies. Aquilani didn't do, literally, anything.

[Il Fenomeno]

Unlike Aquilani, Carroll actually helped us challenge for trophies. Aquilani didn't do, literally, anything.

 

No, lets get this right. We got to the Carling cup final inspite of Carroll, not because of him.

 

He missed a penalty against Chelsea, he missed a 1v1 Man City and his performance against Cardiff was appalling.

 

As for the FA cup he got the winner in the semi, fair enough, but Aquilani also scored a semi final goal and had it not been for Glen Johnson's defending we would've been in the Europa final. Would you also have decided that Aquilani had "helped us challenge for trophies"?

 

Nope, because 1 decent goal and performance does not equate to helping a team challenge for a trophy, and that is the case with Carroll.

[Section_31]

Konchesky was shite but it was pennies compared to what we've spunked out in the past. Keane and Aquilani for me differ in the fact they had some kind of pedigree and, in fairness, they're not bad players. Carroll can't trap a ball.

[redfromtubebar]

Undoubtedly Carroll.

 

If we'd have gone for the right striker (Falcao, Aguero, etc) then we would probably have made the Top 4 last season and Kenny may still be in a job.

 

Instead we spunked £35m on an average striker and then compounded it by bringing in duds (Downing, Adam, Henderson, Enrique) to build the team around him.

 

That's about £85m right there. A total joke.

 

The first and probably last time under FSG that we'll ever be in a position to spend big money and we completely fucking blew it and became a laughing stock instead.

[Bjornebye]

carroll will come back and be boss. mark my words.

 

aquilani hands down. fuck it.

[RobbieOR]

He was brought in to replace the brain behind that 2nd place finish

 

Why, was he brought in to manage the team?

[Unrighteous]

Konchesky was shite but it was pennies compared to what we've spunked out in the past. Keane and Aquilani for me differ in the fact they had some kind of pedigree and, in fairness, they're not bad players. Carroll can't trap a ball.

 

... Ridiculous statement.

[Kevin D]

With 87 ballots cast, I am ready to declare victory for "big" Andy Carroll.

[Russ Atmosphere]

... Ridiculous statement.

 

Pics/video or it didn't happen.

[JesseRawlins]

Aquilani has to be the worst simply because we got absolutely nothing from him! No good performance,

He should never have been bought full stop.

 

Portsmouth

 

but I agree that he should never have been bought

[clangers]

Aquilani for me, there's probably not a huge difference in financial terms between the loss we'll take for Aquilani or Carrol when it's all settled but Aquilani has made no contribution whatsoever.

 

Could we not just have an extra option on the poll stating our transfer policy circa 2008-present?

 

Our transfer activity has been truly and consistently appalling for the last 4-5 years. The back end of Rafa's reign followed by Hodgson and then the disaster of Kenny/Commolli's splurge. Aquilani, Cole, Poulsen, Keane, Carrol, Downing, Henderson, Adam.... Is it any wonder were knocking around the bottom half of the Premiership hoping that a talented but inexperienced manager can turn things around?

[Jairzinho]

With 87 ballots cast, I am ready to declare victory for "big" Andy Carroll.

 

[njackets]

Aquilani for me, there's probably not a huge difference in financial terms between the loss we'll take for Aquilani or Carrol when it's all settled but Aquilani has made no contribution whatsoever.

 

Could we not just have an extra option on the poll stating our transfer policy circa 2008-present?

 

Our transfer activity has been truly and consistently appalling for the last 4-5 years. The back end of Rafa's reign followed by Hodgson and then the disaster of Kenny/Commolli's splurge. Aquilani, Cole, Poulsen, Keane, Carrol, Downing, Henderson, Adam.... Is it any wonder were knocking around the bottom half of the Premiership hoping that a talented but inexperienced manager can turn things around?

You've made a very good point with your last paragraph, its very like the fall from grace experienced when Souness took over and the car crash of signings that followed under his reign.

[mike23]

Gone for Aqualini. Genuinely couldn't understand the thinking behind signing him. A player who'd had an appalling injury record for the past 3 seasons who was injured at the time we signed him when we needed a quality midfielder to come in from the start to replace Alonso. Frustratingly he did look to have some ability and there were a few decent performances in the second half of that season but 3 different managers since Rafa all seemed to have taken a look at him and not even wanted to give him a chance and there must be a reason for that.

You can make a case for Carroll obviously because of the price tag and if Downing doesn't improve before he leaves then he'll certainly be a contender - still can't believe a player in his position managed to go an entire season without contributing a single league goal or assist. There are too many contenders sadly. Doubt this topic on any other club's forum would have so many legitimate contenders.

[moof]

... Ridiculous statement.

 

Let's be honest, for 90% of the season he couldn't.

 

Went for Carroll, he had the potential to be a beast but watching him amble around the field for the entire season was fucking embarrassing.

 

He really let Kenny down, fucking big time. To not even make an effort is pretty unforgivable.

[Unrighteous]

He really let Kenny down, fucking big time. To not even make an effort is pretty unforgivable.

 

I can't argue with that at all.

[JohnnyH]

£100k a week is a myth- it was £125k, confirmed by the club in a press briefing.

 

Wow. He was our highest paid player of al time! Fair play to him and his agent. *pulls mong face*

[JohnnyH]

This thread is quite funny.

 

A whole bunch of us here getting into arguments over which truly atrocious signing was the biggest truly atrocious signing. The amount of different variables that are coming into this to form peoples arguments (with a healthy smattering of bullshit and myth to make each player seem worse or better) with the most significant of course, as to who signed him, who he was supposed to replace, as opposed to just looking at cost and what he achieved for us. I’m as guilty as anyone else of it, but it is funny nonetheless.

 

To explain my reasoning a bit more for picking Carroll. Basically, they both achieved absolutely fuck all with us. We can prattle on about Carroll’s goal in a semi-final of the FA Cup, and then have someone else prattle on about Aquilanis in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup. We can congratulate Carroll for a goal in the FA Cup final where we almost won, but I’d rather just forget that FA Cup final like I have the 1996, and 1988 finals. However, we argue just as much that we were playing 10 men for the vast majority of Carroll’s 18 months with us and he actually cost us games he was so bad. The facts are they were both absolute abject failures at this club.

 

If we are comparing who did more from solely the football side of things, then I suppose it would have to be Carroll who did better when you take into account a few games. His strolling around for 12 months and the way he absolutely took the piss out of the fans and the manager is, for me, an absolute disgrace, and why I rate him as our worst ever, but I understand some of our fans, while of course annoyed by this, are able to look past it. I can’t, and I think he’s an embarrassment for acting like that.

 

However, this thread asks “Pound for Pound”, so when the money side comes into it, then, for me it’s an absolute no brainer. Even if we get this fabled £17m back from West Ham, we still lose £18m on the Carroll deal. i.e £1m more then we paid in total for Aquilani. Despite what some are saying, we absolutely did not pay Aquilani to leave. All in all we probably pocketed about £3m. Carroll earns £80k a week. Aquilani earned £60-65k a week. Right now we’ve lost £35m on Carroll compared to about £14m on Aquilani, each for about the same fuck all input to the club. As it stands, anyone picking anyone else over Carroll is doing for reasons other then was asked by the thread starter. There might, MIGHT, be a conversation to be had if we get £17m for Carroll (yes, I’m laughing just as hard typing that as you are reading it), but only then. I can only imagine people aren’t having a proper think about the figure £35m. It’s £35m. i.e., over twice what we paid for Aquilani. Close to twice what we paid for Torres. 4 times what we paid for Crouch (a much much better player). We can weigh it off what we got for Torres if we want, but that just papering over the truths. We still paid the money.

 

One thing we can all agree on though is both we’re truly, astronomically awful signings when it comes down to it.

[John McClane]

This thread saddens me.

 

Are the Keane haters not harsh, as we recouped most of the money back after only 6 months. Sure Benitez got his stick for buying him but Redknapp bought him back and as far as I know has done fuck all since.

 

We should have sold Aquillani years ago but were outwitted by Serie A clubs, twice.

 

I reckon we will get a nice fee for Carroll, clubs of WHU have so much to lose if relegated this season so can afford to pay for him. He will be good for 15-20 goal return for them this season. - Then we can get money and move on (to buy more over priced crap).

[beejay]

I've gone for Paul Stewart. Very expensive at the time and was so bad it was funny to watch. If it's the pound for pound worst signing then it has to be him the fat blimp.

 

Some of the others on Kevin's list could/can actually play football even if they were/are dogs for us. Stewart was inexecrable, I think he was playing non-league 2 years after leaving us, which was fair enough because that was his level.

[captainharris]

How much of the Aquilani transfer was down to us needing a central midfielder, had almost no cash available whatsoever but were able to negotaite a fee due to Roma still oweing us some money for Riise. I wonder just how much was to do with 'cashflow' rather than actually thinking he was a decent talent?