Just been sat in a boring meeting daydreaming about the mighty Reds so thought I'd chuck this out there for debate. Only gone back as far as Clarkey because I don't really remember much before then. I'm sure some of our elder statesman (many of whom seem to reside in Dodorth and surrounds) will be able to tell us about Reverend Prreedy's best signing and seeing them play in 1642 against the landed gentry. Danny Wilson Mark 2 Although it's early days it's hard to see Danny topping the purchase of Hourihane already the star of the team. Inventive, subtle and an eye for goal. David Flitcroft Although on the radar under Hill it was Flicker who finally convinced COG to sign and we got an excellent season and funding for the rebuild out of him. Shame he spruiked so much away on giving his mates contracts but you can't have everything. Keith 'he's not the messiah he's a very naughty boy' Hill Unfortunately for us for every Ricardo Vaz Te there were innumerate Mido's and Tommy Kennedy. But you can't fault Keith for taking on the problem child and getting him firing and focused. Still if I were Vaz Te and my boss had preferred Matty Done to me I might hold a grudge. Mark Robins Mark's principle recruitng strategy was chucking money at loan players but Jason Shackell whatever his personality defects is a quality player. Simon Davey Probably signed the best players we have seen at Oakwell since Danny first time round as well as Miguel Msotto... For me Heinz Mueller tops the last though I feel like a traitor to Luke for saying so. Andy Ritchie Not exactly given much to play with but Brian Howard stepped effortlessly into the role of midfield supremo. A quality player with an eye for goal. Shame greed ruined his career. Paul Hart The impact of Bobby Hassell on the club was huge but for me the beauty of watching Stephen McPhail shades it for me. Quality player in a leGue full of thugs. Not so much Big Bad Barry Conlon though. Gudjon Thordarson Signings were made more out of desperation to make the numbers up than out of any planning but both Jacob Burns and Sasa Ilic had their moments. Glyn Hodges Is a ****. Steve Parkin Nice bloke. god awful manager. I suppose Chris Lumsdon had his moments few and far between but he had them. Nigel Spackman Funniest thing on Football Heave t'other night was blunts fans calling for a return to the heady days of Spackman. Clueless. Hopeless. Signed Dean Gorre though who was an absolutely fantastic player. Shame about the injuries. Dave Bassett Liked giving his ageing mates jobs like Robin Tub of Lard but also signed one of the few great forwards we have had in the last 20 years in Shipperley. Great striker lacked mobility but knew where the net was. John Hendrie Terrible Shame he got the job when he did. Clearly not ready to be a manager at the time and decimated a quality side. Still signed Craig Hignett and for that we can forgive a lot. Danny Wilson Many top quality signings (and Peter Shirtliff) but for me Arjan De Zeeuw stands towering above them all. Composed. Brave. A genius. Viv Anderson He came he saw he legged it to Middlesboring to hold Brian Robsons coat in the intervening period he brought Danny Wilson with him and the rest is history Mad Mel Machin Probably one of best performers in the transfer market on limited funds. He signed Taggart and Fleming but most of all he signed Neil Redfearn and for that we will always be grateful. Alan Clarke Mark 2 In his second spell when we were so skint that you could pay a 100 quid to sit on the bench with Al we had some right ***** up front. willy Ferry, Ian Chandler occasionally even Gwyn Thomas was pressed into service but then we signed the footballing god that was David Norman Currie half gypsy half 70s porn star he captivated right from the start. Bobby Collins Finished 11th. At one stage lost once in 23 matches and was sacked at the end of it. The 80s really were another planet. Oh aye and he signed Clive Baker and Paul Futcher and I just can't separate the 2 blokes who then kept us in the division dual handedly for 3/4 years. Norman Hunter Now Norman completely reversed his playing style by playing open attractive football. The best I've seen at Oakwell. I'm not sure signing players was a great strength of his - Jimmy Mann and a Don Souter spring to mind but I'm going To go with Larry May a good whole hearted player that we sold to Wednesday for a profit and he was ***** for them. Huzzah! Alan Clarke Mark 1 Completely changed the club in less than a couple of years and signed the footballing genius that was Ronnie Glavin for 40k a complete masterstroke... Course I could be wrong with about 90% of this.
What an excellent post. I find myself sitting here thinking about the managers and players. Also find myself agreeing in the main with all you've said except the Danny signing for me first time round, has to be Super John Hendrie. When he arrived he just added that little bit we needed to get us promotion
Hendrie certainly had an impact but maybe due to his age couldn't carry that through go fhe premiershit the way that Arry did
Danny MKII - Sam Winnall/Conor Hourihane/Luke Berry. Flicker - Jason Scotland. Keith - Vaz. Robins - Jim O'Brien. Davey - Foster. Ritchie - Howard. Hart - Bobby H. Gudjon - Burns. Parkin - Lumsdon. Spackman - Errrrm, errrr, I'll say Rankin just for 'that' goal a year or so later. Bassett - Shipperley. Hendrie - Hignett. Danny MKI - Barnard. Anderson - Bullock. Machin - O'Connell.
To be a bit of a pedantic ****... Spaceman initially signed lumbsdon Parkin turned the move permanent. Spaceman also signed gorre...
To be pedantic back...I thought I had Spackman signing Gorre...and it would have to be the manager who signed em permanently I guess.
Great post Agree with most suggestions but for me Danny's best signings were either Arjan or Darren Sheridan plucked from almost obscurity.
It just shows how time can affect your memory because I thought that Norman Hunter signed Clive Baker.
Pedantic at me for what? I nivver mentioned Gorré. Rankin was a Spackman signing wasn't he? And as bad as he was, I was there when he scored int last minute at Tranmere which was a great day out and the day he scored 'that' goal. But the fact I had to stretch to Rankin tells you more about Spacker's recruiting skills to be fair.