The relegated team

Quoted from ginnywings

Wow!

I'd just sat down to eat my tea when I opened this thread and by the time I got to the end of the first post, I had put down my knife and fork, baked beans were spilling off my plate onto my lap, and my jaw had literally dropped, all without me being aware.

What were Holloway and the board thinking? I know he was a charlatan but surely even he knew that signing all those duff players and loanees was a recipe for disaster. Those three "strikers" he signed from lower leagues were nowhere near the standard required, and he gave one of them a 3 year deal FFS.

This is my 50th season supporting Town and they are without doubt the worst set of players I have ever seen, and they have had some competition for that accolade over the years.

It’s hard to describe that summer’s transfer business as anything but chaotic and utterly dysfunctional. Signing numerous players from several steps below your own division with the intention of playing them in the first team, alongside a raft of inexperienced loanees was just madness.

What’s madder than that though, and madder then the madman Holloway himself, is that that initial crop of players was NEVER in the League Two relegation zone. When Holloway left, we were a full six points clear of danger.

It’s uncomfortable to look back on it now, but we should have stayed up that season, we really should. If Hurst got anything wrong, it was doing too much in terms of squad transformation. 11 or 12 players in January, wasn’t it?

Easy with hindsight, but adding Eastwood, Menayese, Matete, Coke and possibly Lenny to what we had would probably have been enough. There were a number of players, such as Elliot Hewitt, who were initially frozen out by Hurst only to come back in and do a decent job.

What a crazy, frustrating season that was. I comfort myself with the fact that I didn’t have to witness it in the flesh.

Quoted from rancido

Surely that accolade goes to Serge Makofo.

Never THE worst ever. I still remember those 2 goals he scored at Bath back in 2011. As I mentioned before THE worst signing ever has to be Mickael-Antoine Currier.

Quoted from Les Brechin

Never THE worst ever. I still remember those 2 goals he scored at Bath back in 2011. As I mentioned before THE worst signing ever has to be Mickael-Antoine Currier.

Mark Flatts?

Quoted from Poojah

Mark Flatts?

Hmmm, on a par I reckon.  

Great work Jarmo, although not sure I wanted to have read that list!

Over the course of the season there was probably a team decent enough to stay up comfortably:

Eastwood, Hendrie, Hewitt, Meyanese, Clifton; Wright, Matete, Coke, Scannell, Hanson, LJL and then maybe cameo's from the likes of Windsor, Edwards, Spokes, Lamy, Morais.

But that team never came close to playing together with a few who were barely fit for the majority of the campaign.  The fact we had 3 left-backs during the season and I've still gone with Harry Clifton there says a lot, in fact if he was unavailable I'd have gone with Khouri ahead of Bunney, Habergham and Preston.

Awful squad, awful season.  No surprise that Matete has gone on to much bigger and better things.  

Eastwood nearly signed for Lincoln as an emergency loan before signing for Rochdale.  I seem to think he's out of contract with Sheff Utd this summer without making any inroads on their first team.  Wouldn't be surprised if he's firstly released there but also on Hurst's radar for the summer.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Eastwood nearly signed for Lincoln as an emergency loan before signing for Rochdale.  I seem to think he's out of contract with Sheff Utd this summer without making any inroads on their first team.  Wouldn't be surprised if he's firstly released there but also on Hurst's radar for the summer.

I’d be happy with that. Looked a very competent, well rounded keeper during his time here. He’ll be 26 in October and only has 20 odd appearances to his name; wherever he goes it really needs to be a number one berth.

Quoted from Les Brechin

As I mentioned before THE worst signing ever has to be Mickael-Antoine Currier.

I don't know if he just wasn't around long enough to make an impression on me or I've wiped away the horrible memories but I don't recall him playing for us at all. I somehow remember every game Mark Nicholls played on loan, probably because he came from Chelsea and scored goals in Europe so he was a massive let down after my Chelsea supporting mate bigged him up at school. Though looking on highlights I can find of that era, Mickael-Antoine Currier looked dire for us, he doesn't even look like a professional footballer with how clumsy and lost he looks. Watching him is like watching somebody who won a competition to play in the game.

Was another dire relegation season with a squad of wasters and mercenaries looking for a pay day. Nothing about that squad stood out to me, particularly in the last months of the season.

Quoted from Kris2

I don't know if he just wasn't around long enough to make an impression on me or I've wiped away the horrible memories but I don't recall him playing for us at all. I somehow remember every game Mark Nicholls played on loan, probably because he came from Chelsea and scored goals in Europe so he was a massive let down after my Chelsea supporting mate bigged him up at school. Though looking on highlights I can find of that era, Mickael-Antoine Currier looked dire for us, he doesn't even look like a professional footballer with how clumsy and lost he looks. Watching him is like watching somebody who won a competition to play in the game.

Was another dire relegation season with a squad of wasters and mercenaries looking for a pay day. Nothing about that squad stood out to me, particularly in the last months of the season.

He actually went on the have a fairly successfull career in Scotland. I think that might tell you what you need to know about the standard of football up there though!  

Quoted from Les Brechin

He actually went on the have a fairly successfull career in Scotland. I think that might tell you what you need to know about the standard of football up there though!  

A goal machine in Norway too apparently.

I know he left a little earlier than that, but our other resident Swede, Seb Ring is now playing for one of Poland's top sides - Wisla Krakow.

I can remember him really struggling to get in to the team by the end of his time here.