If trying to determine the four best Premiership signings seemed difficult enough, attempting to whittle the worst signings down to four proved far too great a challenge, so a bonus fifth had to be included. The initial temptation was simply to take the approach ‘everything associated with Dowie’, but though in jest, that proved to be far more accurate than i first expected !
So with honourable mentions for Neil Redfearn, Karim Bagheri, Jesper Blomquist, Chris Bart-Williams, El Khalej, Marcus Bent, Simon Walton and Omar Pouso, these are my five worst Premiership signings:
5. Cory Gibbs
Some would say it is unjust to include a player who didn’t put a foot wrong for the club, but the truth was that Gibbs didn’t put a foot anywhere other than on the physio’s treatment table. The USA international defender spent over two years with the club after signing with Feyenoord and did not make a single appearance in that time. He did manage to score though during his time in England, and is now married to former Mis-Teeq singer Zena McNally who he met whilst injured. Since leaving Charlton, Gibbs has since resurrected his career in the MLS, featuring for Colorado Rapids, New England Revolution and Chicago Fire.
4. Francis Jeffers
One of the few Curbishley got wrong. Previously known as ‘the fox in the box’, Jeffers went on to become ‘the sub in the pub’ during his ill-fated move to Charlton. Having failed to impress on his big move to Arsenal, Alan Curbishley paid £2.6m for a player he described as ‘hungry’. Little did Curbishley know at the time that he was in fact ‘thirsty’, as Jeffers spent more time in South London pubs and clubs than he did appearing on the pitch, and famously after being stretchered off during a game duly emerged on the dancefloor of The Venue nightclub just a few hours later. Two years with the club heralded just 3 goals from 20 appearances, and Jeffers has failed throughout his career to come close to reaching the potential he originally showed as a youngster at Everton.
3. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Some signings looked doomed from the start while others simply just don’t work out. On paper, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink looked a solid signing having scored 18 goals for Middlesbrough in the previous 2005-06 season, and not scored less than 15 goals a season since 1996, averaging 22 goals a season over a ten year period. But like an expert City Trader, Middlesbrough knew when to close a position and Charlton acquired a player who was a shadow of his former self. His goals dried up, scoring just 4 in 29 games, while his backside was expanding more rapidly than Starbucks in the 90s. A high wage earner, Jimmy Floyd Piggybank proved an expensive mistake as Charlton were relegated from the Premiership.
2. Djimi Traore
Yet another Dowie disaster. Traore arrived at Charlton following a £2m move from Liverpool in the fateful summer of 2006. Whilst supporters concentrated in advance of the season that he was a Champions League winner, evidence once the season began quickly suggested we should have concentrated on his calamity own goal for Liverpool in the cup versus Burnley. Sent off during the first half of his debut at Upton Park, things failed to improve for Traore as the season progressed and Charlton regressed. He was offloaded after just 11 appearances and five months with the club to the tune of a million pound loss.
1. Amdy Faye
Amdy Faye arrived at Charlton a poor player and left a shadow of his former self. Nicknamed ‘the warrior’, this fan turned into ‘the worrier’ every time Faye got near the ball as the fundamental skills of being able to trap a ball and pass it to a team mate proved alien to the one-time Senegalese international. Faye was known as a ‘defensive midfielder,’ which was a polite reference to his scoring prowess of one goal in the last eight years, rather than praising his protective foil. The madness of Iain Dowie paying £2m should have been enough of an excuse for his immediate dismissal. Earning £1m a year, trying to offload Faye following the inevitable relegation proved as difficult as trying to sell a house with subsidence, no roof, with a psychopath drummer for a next-door neighbour. Nothing short of an extremely costly disaster, the carelessness of Faye’s signing and the lack of lessons learned are the epitome of why Charlton went from a settled Premiership team to a League One also-ran in just a handful of seasons. Faye is currently a free agent.
Comments
Simon Walton
you will be damned to hell for including Cory Gibbs especially when you had already mentioned Neil Redfern who I would have put at number one on the basis of him being a record signing at the time.
Otherwise another well written piece.
I imagine this will be quite a long thread : - )
M Bent
El Khalej
J Floyd Hasselbaink
F Jeffers
A Faye
Felt a bit sorry for Traore - his two bookings at West Ham were a bit harsh, esp the second as he was trying to get up off the grownd and the boy Bowyer kicked the ball at him !!
Assuming you actually have to play a game (or two !), then my worst five would have to be:
JFH
M Bent
El Khalej
Rohmedahl (such much talent wasted)
Hughes
Marcus Bent has to be in there in my view. He was without a doubt Curbs' worst signing in all respects. All I can say in his (Curbs) defence is that he was playing an effective 4-5-1, The fulcrum of that, Bartlett, got injured and Curbs had to pay through the nose in a January window to get someone in who (theoretcally) could do the job as he had very effectively against us in the FA Cup for Leicester not so long before.
Cory Gibbs is a harsh inclusion purely because the fact he was a walking medical casebook is the fault of our medical team at the time not picking up on his injuries properly rather than his being injured in my view.
I would also argue that including Jeffers is harsh. Yes he is an unedifying, jug eared twat but he was a victim of the inadequacies of our midfield at that time. Murphy seemed unable to play in a 4-4-2 as he was too lightweight / unfit which meant that, to accommodate Murphy, Curbs had to play 4-5-1 which was not Jeffers' game at all. £2.6 million, whilst a lot of money in Charlton terms, was small beer at the time for Premiership strikers and thus, in my view, a justifiable punt by Curbs on, at the time, what was still a youngish player at 23 or thereabouts.
I dont about top five bu numbers 1 and 2 on my list are:
Alan Pardew
Iain Dowie
Iain Dowie.
Redfearn was disappointing but rather than be a detriment to the team he just didn't have the positive impact we' expected.
Agree with Faye as number one, especially when you take cost into account, on that basis might move Traore down to no. 4 since we offloaded quickly.
Perhaps the next top 4 could be the opinion dividers - Kish, Ambrose etc.?
1. Dowie
2. Traore
3. JFH
4.M.Bent
5. Pouso
Faye
Traore (can't understand that one - not even one of those 'well he was decent at Liverpool' cos he was shit at Liverpool too. Who remembers when he fell over the ball at Anfield to let Bartlett score? Simply awful. Traore should be a contender for worst player to ever get a Champions League medal)
Marcus Bent
Also think Danny Murphy deserves a mention just for being so disloyal.
Can't understand Bryan Hughes' name cropping up though, he was decent, even if he did seem to perform better in the cup than the league.
Also never knew the Venue thing about Jeffers -what a prat
Marcus Bent is #1 worst prem signing a goal on debut, very few thereafter and did far more scoring off the pitch. I think he even admitted as much that the lifestyle of living in London was a distraction from his football and it showed.
I agree with M Bent & Gibbs, but Jeffers arrived on a deal that would be extended according to the games he played with us paying Arsenal stage payments. For someone who had the opportunity to resurrect his career, earn good money it was ideal, but he preferred to spend his no doubt handsome wages on clubbing.
El Kharouri
Murphy
Traore
El Khalej
Faye
Harsh on Jeffers as Curbs went 4-5-1 that year and no way Jeffers liver could have coped with that workload. Gibbs was just a joke on the physio side but there were far worse players than him.
Murphy was supposed to be the player that turned us into a 'big' club but I thought he was crap.
Cant believe AFKA didnt put Rommedahl in though!!
Rommedahl - besides scoring at Palace what did he do? At international level he looks a handful, electric pace and can play just off the main striker and that gave him the edge, but international football lacks the physicality of English football. In the premiership he was too light-weight, couldn't tackle and had to be played out wide where his pace could on occasions leave international class players tackling fresh air. Unfortunately having gotten past them he had no power or accuracy to get over crosses. How many corners did he take that were wasted because of poor delivery?
Has to be in the top five worst ever prem footballers (at least those who played more than a handful of games), not just in our top five.
Not sure how we can include Redfearn in this at all. He was signed as barnsleys leading goalscorer having played as an attacking midfielder sitting just behind the strikers.
So curbishley made him our record signing & played him as a holding/defensive midfielder ?