Biggest failure in a reds shirt that you were desperate to succeed?

I didn't think it was his pace, but his fitness. A couple of sprints and he was knackered. I don't mean he was unfit like I'm unfit, or unprofessional, just didn't have the natural stamina required at professional level. There's no way he could play the way we're playing now. He'd last 10 minutes.

 

Some good ones listed above.

Ivan Toney?

Korey Smith looked a world beater in his first couple of games too & did nowt.

Both doing OK now.

Lumsden, Jennings & Digby would be my top votes though. Where are they now?

 

Mossto, Hristov as others have said and also Marcus Pedersen

 

It can be and certainly it is at the highest level. Thiam has far more issues than a lack of pace.

 

What about Ales Krizan and Peter Markstedt?

Both made just a handful of appearance in the premiership season 1997/98 but hardly featured once back in division one. Krizan was with the club until May 2000 but made only one further appearance in the next two seasons after relegation from the premiership (he did suffer a broken leg at start of 1998/99 season which didn’t help). I remember Markstedt had an excellent debut against Liverpool at Anfield in the 1-0 victory but didn’t do much much noteworthy after that, he left the club in 1999.

 

He was far from being a failure in my eyes, I was more disillusioned with Macken in that era.

 

Had to be Dale for me unfortunately. After teaching him in Liverpool I was over the moon when he signed for us. Remember him scoring an incredible overhead kick for my school team in a cup competition. He stood out from the crowd at that age - shame it didn't work out for him.

 

Hristov for me. Although that was partly due to me being a teenager and getting massively overexcited that we’d got promoted and started splashing the cash on big money overseas signings. In my head we’d signed the next Klinsman and he turned out to be just bang average. Although that sort of disappointment set me up quite well for the next two and a half decades of supporting Barnsley.

We could probably have another thread on players we had who we wanted to be decent but weren’t, but then went on to be more than decent after leaving us - Wood, Rodriguez, Armstrong, Toney all spring to mind.

 

Player who came with masses of premier league pedigree but also a large mass, I give you Mido.

 

Did you get the hump?

 

Rumour has it he exerted his own gravitational field and socks, shin pads, and discarded energy bar wrappers could often be seen slowly orbiting him in the changing room before kick off.

 

Jon Walters

 

Jennings is non-league but more and more into his new role of coaching kids.
He posted something last week about an operation and 'big decisions to make' but that post seems to be no longer there.

 

Ivan toney wasn't nearly as bad as people like to make out he was 19 at the time and actually scored some important goals for us.

 

Ryan Williams.
Was delighted when we turned his loan into a permanent, I even think we awarded him the No.10 shirt. But his injury problems just stopped him dead.
The club stuck by him, rehabilitated him and he’s rebuilt his career at Rotherham, then Portsmouth.

 

Paddy McCourt.

Most overrated player in BFC history

 

I'll add Garry O’Connor to the list.

That game against Leeds where he was superb. After that zero effort nor attitude.

 

Stuart Rimmer. Came from Walsall with a reputation as a prolific goal scorer, I was genuinely excited and looking forward to him bagging a few, unfortunately he couldn't hit a barn door from the inside.

 

Chris Wood for me. He's scored goals everywhere he's been other than Oakwell.

 

He was very good at Ipswich away that season.