The ones that got away.

BDL

Watching Ricky Lambert this afternoon has made me wonder what if we had actually signed him?

What of we had bought Tim Cahill when we had the chance or Steve Sidwell before the Chel$ki dollar turned his eye?

Who are the other ones that got away from us? The good, the bad and the downright ugly!

North Lower Neil

Dean Ashton - didn't we refuse to pay £3m instead of £2.5m, then spent that on Marcus Bent instead?

Could have had Dean Ashton and Darren Bent.

LenGlover

Darren Purse, Julian Gray...

nth_london_addick

Flamini

nth_london_addick

Danny graham

McBobbin

We could have bought fuller ages ago. And am I confused or were we close to signing adrian mutu and matheu flamini?

LenGlover

Kezman

RedPanda

Emile Heskey.

McBobbin

Kezman! Maybe I'm thinking of him and not mutu. Cheers Len

Stebo

Anthony Stokes - had the pen in his hand ready to sign when his agent got a phone call from Sunderland. in the end it was a lucky escape cause he turned out to be rubbish for them.

Clem_Snide

Ryan Nelson

Off_it

Pele

CAFCOlly

Sure i remember us being linked with Clint Dempsey before he went to Fulham

coltsgoalie

Drogba, Van Bommel

PeakieRocket

Ronaldo before he went to Man Utd

nth_london_addick

Rivaldo

Scoham

Lawrie Wilson, Danny Haynes and Danny Green.

Stebo

LenGlover said:

Kezman

yeah all set for a reunion with rommedahl before Chelsea swooped in and snatched him from us. Personally I think this had a negative effect on forest gump and maybe one of the reasons he never lived up to his reputation.

North Lower Neil

CAFCOlly said:

Sure i remember us being linked with Clint Dempsey before he went to Fulham

I remember that, think the MLS blocked it for some reason?

Off_it

Lionel Messi

(or do I mean Lionel Blair? Always getting them two mixed up)

happyvalley

I remember reading we were once after Stanley Matthews.

March51

happyvalley said:

I remember reading we were once after Stanley Matthews.

Yes. Jimmy Seed was keen on signing him and knew that the Stoke manager would be agreeable. This was in 1938 and he'd have cost around £13,000, almost the record fee at that time. In the end both chairmen turned the idea down, much to Seed's regret.

C_A_F_C

Stebo said:

Anthony Stokes - had the pen in his hand ready to sign when his agent got a phone call from Sunderland. in the end it was a lucky escape cause he turned out to be rubbish for them.

The same with Jon Stead, word for word.

golfaddick

John Hartson - read his autobiography which siad taht he ahd a medical with us and was about to sign but the medical showed problems with his knee & our insurerers wouldn't go ahead............then went & played for Wet Spam & Rangers with no problems

DaveMehmet

Steve Portway

PeakieRocket

C_A_F_C said:

Stebo said:

Anthony Stokes - had the pen in his hand ready to sign when his agent got a phone call from Sunderland. in the end it was a lucky escape cause he turned out to be rubbish for them.

The same with Jon Stead, word for word.

Didn't the same thing also happen with John Aloisi

collegeparkaddick

North Lower Neil said:

CAFCOlly said:

Sure i remember us being linked with Clint Dempsey before he went to Fulham

I remember that, think the MLS blocked it for some reason?

MLS holds players contracts here, not the clubs. The fee offered by CAFC was rejected as too low and the league held out until Fulham made an offer that was nearly twice as high.

MLS uses the story now as justification for refusing to sell players, as with Geoff Cameron until Stoke upped its offer, while ignoring all the times they have overplayed their hand, precluding Americans in their prime from trying their luck in Europe (e.g., Taylor Twellman).

tangoflash

DaveMehmet said:

Steve Portway

Welcome back Ackworth. ;-)

Addickted

Oliver Bierhoff

_MrDick

Richard Gough

Absurdistan

gudjohnsen