Mel Machin had an eye for talented players, yes or no?

I know they were many a dull game under Machin, but looking back at some of the players he brought to the club it wasn't all bad.
Neil Redfearn
Gerry Taggart
John Beresford
Carl Tiler (youth system)
Mark Robinson
David Currie

 

Yes, on the whole

we had some good times under mel 'till the latter day 8 defenders malarky.

 

Are you sure on all those

I thought it was Currie's 2nd spell under MM - Clarke bought him originally.
Also, it was deffo Clarke who brought Beresford to the club.
Robinson? Can't remember for sure but thought he pre-dated Machin as well.

 

Machin was a classic hit and miss manager for every good un theres a bad un.

Thus players like Rammell, Fleming and Taggart were countered by Whitehead, Gridelet and Williams.

BTW Beresford, Tiler and Currie weren't Machin signings though he made a few bob for us when selling them.

 

when he sold Tiler then blasted the cash on 6 signings...

John Pearson (christ)
Deiniol Graham (bl**dy hell)
Lee Lee Lee Butler (fair enough)
Charlie Bishop (panic!)

who were the other 2 that summer? Was one Fleming? Can't remember. He was class tho.

But he had money to spend (about £700k he spent) and we were sh*te. I seem to remember all 6 were pretty bad (ok, cept Butler). The 9-0-1 formation, with Brendan as the 1, was pure genius tho. Happy days.

Currie and Redders were signed after pre-season. Different pre-seasons at that (I think).

oh yeah, and Mad Mel's 4-2-4, with Saville, Rammell, Pearson and Liddell up front. Genius can never be said enough when mentioning Melvin. Oh no.

 

A lot of the Tiler money was used towards the East Stand

As I understood it then we had to match what the Football trust gave towards the stand.

 

RE: when he sold Tiler then blasted the cash on 6 signings...

Dunno about the others from the Tiler cash.
Fleming came early on, about when Taggart came, from the Man City connection.

 

Other two..

Steve Davis and Gareth Williams

 

Steve Davis in the De Zew mould methinks

read the game well, good distribution, shame about his injury

 

RE: Steve Davis in the De Zew mould methinks

Always liked John Spencer til that day at QPR

 

mad mel machin god i hated that negative b*stard with a passion. he did ok,  for the first 18 months or so, but with the sale of aggie and tiler, mel was given a huge sum of money  to improve a decent side,all that was needed was to replace the above mentioned players and sign a proven goalscorer,but what did he do? he flooded the squad with players who were average at best and at worst they were f**king awful,oh and we got a striker, his name.....john pearson ffs </p>

lee butler....decent keeper,but better than baker? i dont think so. </p>

neil redfearn...only turned in to the legend we all remember after machin left,under machin used as a defensive midfeilder.</p>

gerry taggart...machins best signing.</p>

beresford...left before machin arrived.</p>

carl tiler.....already played first team games when machin arrived.</p>

mark robinson....mel turned robinson from useless winger in to a cracking fullback.</p>

david currie....mel arrives at the club,tells currie he looks like a gypo and tells him to get his hair cut,a few weeks later sells currie to forest,18 months later,mel squanders a fortune on mostly piss poor players,we have a poor start to the 91/92 season where we fail to win in the  opening half a dozen games,the team are not playing badly,but new striking sensation pearson fails to hit the ground running and the team are struggling for goals,mel panicks and resigns currie to solve the goalscoring problem and............................sticks him on the wing.</p>

 

NO
Was only any good at picking the ones he'd worked with b4. The skill is in picking those you have not worked with and them slotting in.
In one year he wasted more money then most managers had seen, bringing in 6 or so players when 3 good un's would have done. Total toss pot and boring to boot - akin to PHart.

 

Didn't Mel Machin sign Phil "The Ghost" Gridlet for almost a record fee at that time?

 

Record fee for a non league player

 

William scored a crackin hat-trick against Southend

were his first goals, mind you we had had him for 2 seasons then. Stan the man had scored for Southend too!

 

I'm certain Beresford, Currie and Robinson plyed under Alan Clarke.

 

They did

Beresford was sold to Portsmouth before Machin even arrived.
Mark Robinson signed in 87, two years before Machin was our manager.
Currie also came well before Machin arrived. Machin sold him to Forest then bought him back from Oldham.

 

Machin didn't tell Currie to get his hair cut

he had it cut before his last home game when he signed for Forest. What was their managers name? Maybe he had something to do with it?