Worst there is no candidate better for that manure heap than Faye. Traore always tried, albeit tried at giving the ball away in awful areas, but did at least make the occasional tackle. Faye how was that man ever a top league footballer? When 'Appy 'Arry signs someone, then drops an excellent footballer like Gary O'Neil you know the money-go-round is on again. And as for buying a player that Souness rates, then we know two very dodgy scouting networks must be wrong? Or is that a healthy agent fee right?
Faye had one OK game in defence against Bolton if I remember rightly, and then quickly proceeded back to being the most atrocious midfielder I've ever seen in a CAFC shirt, foreign or not. How did such a physically impressive being, manage to barely make a tackle or fall over before he could get near to making one. As for him having an offensive game, I do not remember even a mistake. He just wasn't a footballer. Traore had the athleticism of a footballer, and very occasionally would make an excellent tackle; usually from an incident he'd made by giving the ball away in the first place. Faye had nothing but a ridiculously sized pay check.
Best I'd have to agree with Henry on Firmani. Fascinating career, few caps for Italy, played at Inter just inbetweeen their great 50'-60's eras. Leary suffered by staying with us, but as the stats shows did more for us without being a better player.
A player I saw with my own eyes, it has to be Di Canio. Jensen was wonderful, but could go missing. I think Di Canio was a top four player, without his temprement problems, when we got him he was declining but still clearly a cut above Jensen in terms of talent.
Traore was just useless but at least he didn't run away from the ball. ( some would say that was a bad thing) but Faye visibly went , where the ball wasn't and as a midfielder that's unforgivable. I remember one home game watching him run away every time the ball came close.
I still have my doubts whether Faye actually was a pro footballer or just an amateur African footballer sold for millions to to desperate premier league clubs by a fraudulent money grabbing agent .
Of course Faye was hopeless, lets not get this twisted that for some reason i think he was ok on some level, he wasn't he was atrocious. But Traore was a whole new level of useless, his sending off on the first day of the season against West Ham summed up how much of a liability he was. Faye may have ran away from the ball, but Traore went near it....hence why we let so many goals in.
Feeling like we might have a chance of fighting out that relegation battle after Faye's "goal", just for an evening makes Traore the worst in my opinion.
I guess I can't vote for Alex Song? I am sure he was the "best" in terms of talent. Otherwise Costa for me. Faye the worst, for reasons others have already stated. If you were talking " return on investment" it would surely have to go to Kishi.
All time our best overseas player has to be either Eddie Firmani or Stuart Leary but as I'm to young to see either of those play I suppose I have to pick a more recent player. I've whittled the list down to Fish, Hreidarsson and Jenson because I'm trying to follow the criteria. However I do not think any of those are worthy of the title. Touch choices. Ok I'm going with Leary because it has to be someone who is good enough and Charlton through and through.
Rommers wasn't used properly by curbs, but he had enough moments to show his worth. If dI canio can't be picked as best then can traore be picked for worse, he was only here for half a season!
For me it has to be Jensen as the best and Faye as the worst
Eddie Firmani - Was the first Charlton manager to have played in three separate spells for the club. Scored 89 goals in 177 matches. A very good return for an out and out striker, but Firmani played several of those games at left back. Broke the Football League transfer record when Sampadoria paid us £35k for him.
Stuart Leary - Played 403 games for Charlton. Has scored more League goals for us than any other player: 153. According to Colin Cameron, the best player he has seen wearing the clubs colours.
John Hewie - His 530 matches for the Addicks are only beaten by Messrs Bartram and Peacock. He is therefore the foreign player with the most appearances for the club. He also holds the record of playing in every position for us. (NB - not sure of the small print in the rules. He was born in South Africa, but played for Scotland. Does this count as overseas?)
Alan Simonsen - Certainly the best player by reputation when he arrived, but the rules say it's about their contribution to our club not anything before. I'm going along with the argument on the Simonsen thread that without him we might not have had such a spectacular crisis to come back from. He is integral to the modern history of Charlton in a way that no other player can be.
Claus Jensen - I think it's no co-incidence that we were relegated shortly after his departure. He was greatly underestimated when he was here, perhaps because he only scored 10 goals. But what goals he did get Arsenal, Blackburn. Absolutely brilliant strikes. He also gave us a certain flair in midfield that we couldn't replace when he went.
Worst Five
Jimmy Floyd Piggy Baink - This fat graceless Dutchman only scored 2 league goals for the Addicks and refused to celebrate either of them.
Djimi Traore - Sent off on his debut. It is a shame that they don't give a 1000 match ban for getting double yellow, then we'd have never have had to suffer this waster again. £1.75m we spent on him, that's the equivalent of £135k per match. Completely useless.
Viggo Jacobsen - Played just nine matches for us including defeats to Swansea, Luton, Orient, Wrexham, Birmingham and Shrewsbury. Charlton were relegated to the old Third Division and Viggo never played for us again despite being payed for a further 2 years. There was a cinema in Copenhagen that was designed by Viggo Jacobsen. I'd love to think that it was our Viggo, but I don't think so. It closed in 1980 whilst we were in the 3rd division.
Cory Gibbs - Made his impact by never playing for us. Spent the best part of three seasons with us injured. Then took the money and run. Has done pretty well for himself since, just a pity he couldn't hang around for a while once we'd payed his hospital bills.
Dennis Rommedahl - The biggest disappointment ever to play for Charlton. Never looked comfortable. Bombed down the wing and then stopped still like the proverbial headlit rabbit. His woeful time with us is made all the worse by the fact that he was brilliant for everyone else he played for.
Liked Rommedahl but he was always a second rate player.... which at the risk of having to duck behind the parapet could have been good enough for us. I'd certainly have had him in the team ahead of Thomas and Ambrose, and yes he'd have been off in many games after 60 mins and on in the others around 55 mins.
Obviously I'm not going to persuade anyone, but we made money back on Traore, not the whole amount but some. We may have made a little from Faye, in the form of a loan fee, but in the Scottish prem he managed to make himself look an absolute joke in that mickey mouse league. Most or our woes in the first half of 2006-2007 were from not clearing secondary ball, and that was mainly down to Faye not Traore. Yes Traore was bad, but he was willing to make a tackle, sometimes penalty making!
At Tottenham away Faye was the most imposing looking midfielder, I just remember a whole match of him barely closing down and if he did look like getting near someone he suddenly fell over. Both Traore and Faye came from the look-like modern athletic footballers should: Almost like an American sports-scout wants to sign a player if he has the perfect square-jaw and physique to boot. Traore tried and could make amazing saving tackles, sure we all groaned when he played for Liverpool in televised matches and was a one man give-em goals. I never wanted him at my club. But I was truly shocked at how nothing a player Faye was.
Anyone saying Traore was a terrible player for us I wholeheartedly agree. For me Faye should never have been in the prem or champ ever. There are countless champ players who would be much more effective in the prem, but just don't look-like the modern footballer. Faye is all that's wrong with many idiotic present day managers, and the modern-agent-scout-lawyer-manager merry-go-round.
That's fine Prague. I like Rommedahl, and for us never expected a talented offensive player to have a full 90 minutes. I rarely remember say JJ Okacha dominating whole matches. I said he was a second rate player, in that he was not a top tier week in week out champions league player. For Denmark he went missing past the group matches in major tournaments, like most of their team; against us in WC and Czech in the Euros. Would never be our worst foreign player, just proved himself not to be quite top tier at us.
Eddie Firmani - Was the first Charlton manager to have played in three separate spells for the club. Scored 89 goals in 177 matches. A very good return for an out and out striker, but Firmani played several of those games at left back. Broke the Football League transfer record when Sampadoria paid us £35k for him.
Stuart Leary - Played 403 games for Charlton. Has scored more League goals for us than any other player: 153. According to Colin Cameron, the best player he has seen wearing the clubs colours.
John Hewie - His 530 matches for the Addicks are only beaten by Messrs Bartram and Peacock. He is therefore the foreign player with the most appearances for the club. He also holds the record of playing in every position for us. (NB - not sure of the small print in the rules. He was born in South Africa, but played for Scotland. Does this count as overseas?)
Alan Simonsen - Certainly the best player by reputation when he arrived, but the rules say it's about their contribution to our club not anything before. I'm going along with the argument on the Simonsen thread that without him we might not have had such a spectacular crisis to come back from. He is integral to the modern history of Charlton in a way that no other player can be.
Claus Jensen - I think it's no co-incidence that we were relegated shortly after his departure. He was greatly underestimated when he was here, perhaps because he only scored 10 goals. But what goals he did get Arsenal, Blackburn. Absolutely brilliant strikes. He also gave us a certain flair in midfield that we couldn't replace when he went.
Worst Five
Jimmy Floyd Piggy Baink - This fat graceless Dutchman only scored 2 league goals for the Addicks and refused to celebrate either of them.
Djimi Traore - Sent off on his debut. It is a shame that they don't give a 1000 match ban for getting double yellow, then we'd have never have had to suffer this waster again. £1.75m we spent on him, that's the equivalent of £135k per match. Completely useless.
Viggo Jacobsen - Played just nine matches for us including defeats to Swansea, Luton, Orient, Wrexham, Birmingham and Shrewsbury. Charlton were relegated to the old Third Division and Viggo never played for us again despite being payed for a further 2 years. There was a cinema in Copenhagen that was designed by Viggo Jacobsen. I'd love to think that it was our Viggo, but I don't think so. It closed in 1980 whilst we were in the 3rd division.
Cory Gibbs - Made his impact by never playing for us. Spent the best part of three seasons with us injured. Then took the money and run. Has done pretty well for himself since, just a pity he couldn't hang around for a while once we'd payed his hospital bills.
Dennis Rommedahl - The biggest disappointment ever to play for Charlton. Never looked comfortable. Bombed down the wing and then stopped still like the proverbial headlit rabbit. His woeful time with us is made all the worse by the fact that he was brilliant for everyone else he played for.
Mirrors my thoughts, except Rommers who I thought was a great player that we never got the best out of. Also perhaps Hans Jeppson should feature more prominantly in the best category, didn't he score a hat trick at Highbury?
Comments
Best: Claus Jenson - why on ever did he go to Fulham!?
Worst: Amdy Faye surely
Faye had one OK game in defence against Bolton if I remember rightly, and then quickly proceeded back to being the most atrocious midfielder I've ever seen in a CAFC shirt, foreign or not. How did such a physically impressive being, manage to barely make a tackle or fall over before he could get near to making one. As for him having an offensive game, I do not remember even a mistake. He just wasn't a footballer. Traore had the athleticism of a footballer, and very occasionally would make an excellent tackle; usually from an incident he'd made by giving the ball away in the first place. Faye had nothing but a ridiculously sized pay check.
A player I saw with my own eyes, it has to be Di Canio. Jensen was wonderful, but could go missing. I think Di Canio was a top four player, without his temprement problems, when we got him he was declining but still clearly a cut above Jensen in terms of talent.
Best, Jenson.
Worst Traore. Awful. Faye didn't look as bad when he played Centre half.
Best: John Robinson :-)
Worst: Faye
But he was cack!
The worst player for me was Traore.
For me it has to be Jensen as the best and Faye as the worst
worst: thomas hovi