Was he? Didn't know that. I was thinking more towards the end, just before we gave Wigan a nearly complete first team..
He was there in my days working at the football club. By far the best finisher we had at the club, by a country mile. He had it all, he was powerful, good Ariel threat, great finisher and pressed from the front better than anyone (although pressing wasn’t as prominent back then). I think we signed 16 players that summer, Davey was asked by a few of the lads if they could organise a few bonding days, he declined. He had this ridiculous saying that he referred to every time a player voiced an opinion… “football is a universal language”. He’d repeat it time and time again, even his best mate Ryan Kidd used to look like he wanted to slap him everytime he uttered it. Anyway the lads arranged a golf day one Sunday, I think it was after we had played Ipswich. The atmosphere in the camp on Monday morning was different, it was lifted, the tackles were flying in. They just seemed to move up a gear or two that session. Davey being Davey didn’t like it, he was the strangest man I ever met in football… after the game the lads sat down for some snap, SD it it his hand on Kim’s shoulder and they both walked out towards the exit. Before they’d even reached the laundry room on the left Kim picked a football up that was placed in the table next the Rimmos room and launched it toward Davey. I never managed to get all the facts of what was said, but I was told that Davey has blamed Kim for arranging this golf day and told him to find a new club…. He’d only been here a few weeks. Simon Davey saw any player who tried to motivate or self manage as a risk. Why? I’ve no idea. Davey needed all the help he could get in fairness. The players hated him, the back room hated him and by god Rimmo couldn’t stand him haha! He was the most dull man I’d ever met in my life, and a terrible motivator. Kim was never given a fair crack at it because he was blamed for organising a golf day. Hence why I mentioned him. Andy Johnson was exactly the same, the way Davey treat him was a shambles and he was one of the funniest blokes I’d ever met. Great senior the the dressing room.
I had the displeasure of meeting Davey on an open day. I might as well have been s41t on the bottom of his shoe. I asked him a reasonable question re our player of the year award. (Hoyland reds) let's just say his response was returned in kind. Arrogant git.
I don’t think Mr Davey was a very popular man anywhere. I remember going for a few post-match pints in, my then local, Ardsley House, with my Barnsley shirt on. There was an great Argentinian (I think) guy who worked on the bar who hated him in his time staying there. Apparently he used to often get blind drunk and **** the bed. Edit; it blanked out my diluted spelling so, for clarity, that was ‘wee’ and not ‘poo’.
You could start a counter thread to this by listing all the players that have pinched a wage off BFC & I will start the ball rolling by naming Oulare at the top of the list closely followed by Phil Gridlet & Peter Sands , this list could be endless !!
Mallan I agree with. Not sure what you mean with Mowatt mate? Adeboyejo was given plenty of chances & offered a new contract. Kane's still here also? Shouts for McGeehan isn't a bad one either. And in hindsight you'd have to say Clark, but it's completely understandable why he went
Could add Luke Steele to the list as well. Another good servant to the club, pretty sure he would have stayed had he had an offer on the table. Didn't they tell him he was out of the age bracket or summat?
Istvan Ferenczi, Kane Hemmings, George Williams, Mallan, would have liked to have got Marcus Pedersen for a while longer too, can't remember if we tried to get him properly or not, but I thought he had some potential about him, he did really well when he played in Norway after us