Andy Gray

drewman

Just watching the 2008-09 DVD (god we were crap that year, Id almost forgotten) and Andy Gray banged in a few goals. I remember him being a flop who returned to the north pretty sharpish but maybe he was better than I recall. What are peoples' memories?

cabbles

I thought he was a figurehead for the absolute productivity line of shite we had around that time. However, I did also hear that his wife was quite ill at the time he signed for us so I am sure that had an impact on his performances.

This is what happens with intl week by the way. Lost souls bring out old Charlton season DVDs of poorer times.....

ForeverAddickted

Not the worst commentator out there...

Brendan_O_Connell

My memories of that season are wanting to drink a pint of battery acid after every game. Just to numb the pain and forget about it all.

cafcnick1992

Thnink cabbles is right. I remember reading that his wife was seriously ill. Don't blame him for not being 100% interested in his football career.

Talal

My memory of him is being injured for a long time.

andynelson

My memory is of the two cracking goals he scored against us which persuaded Pardew to spend £1.8m on him.

Athletico Charlton

Journeyman who had one or two decent seasons which meant Pardew paid over the odds. Murray tells how Pardew twisted his arm to buy him saying he was the missing link to our return to the promised land after the sale of Reid. Just ended up as another waste of money.

Simonsen

Think he was top scorer in the division when we signed him (including a bullet header against us for Burnley) but he took a while to get his first goal for us. With good service he could've been ok because he was a good finisher but we were a poor team by then.

Karim_myBagheri

the missing link

Clem_Snide

He was unplayable against us for Burnley at The Valley. Was very pleased when we signed him.

Unfortunately, I don't think he ever settled in London. His wife's illness must have been a big factor in unsettling him.

LenGlover

Great for Burnley against us not very good for us.

Domestic circumstances may have been a mitigating factor.

Carter

Alan pardew treated him awfully when his wife was ill

Him, varney and iwelumo and if he could ever get fit todorov could have been fantastic.

He never let us down, price tag was not his fault and we could have signed hoolahan that year for not a lot to replace Reid

nth_london_addick

Pardont piece of shit cnut manager screwed us in the arse shocker

Rob

I, also, had big hopes when he joined us. He had been a star at Burnley. It just didn't work out for us though. Probably shouldn't have come down Sarf.

kentaddick

straw that broke the camel's back in terms of having to sell off andy reid to pay the bills at the time. If we would've bought sylvan ebanks blake and kept hold of reid we might have fluked it back up to the prem via playoffs that season.

lordromford

I remember him fondly as it happens, but that's because he scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory at Doncaster on the day my daughter was born, 16th September 2008.
:-)

Unfortunately, we wouldn't win an away league game again until we beat Southampton 3-2 nearly 7 months later...
:-(

Callumcafc

Also scored on his Premier League debut for Sunderland against us. Was that same game that Darren Bent scored twice on his debut!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4127036.stm

Southendaddick

A few weeks ago on one of the numerous Simon Church threads I said that we have had equally worse players that have cost us a lot more money.

Andy Gray was a classic example although if his personal circumstances were affecting him so much at the time then I may be being harsh

Luke Varney on the other hand...

RedChaser

Southendaddick said:

A few weeks ago on one of the numerous Simon Church threads I said that we have had equally worse players that have cost us a lot more money.

Andy Gray was a classic example although if his personal circumstances were affecting him so much at the time then I may be being harsh

Luke Varney on the other hand...

Not to mention Izale McLeod.

drewman

Good grief I had forgotten all about Izale McLeod, although he did win a few penalties. Couple of years ago I went to watch Pompey v Orient with a mate and he was playing for Pompey. He missed a pen and then in the second half pompey won another one and he stepped up to take it. The whole crowd was jeering the decision to allow him to take it as he was not the most respected even though he had only been there a short while but fair play, he smashed it home and I thought that you had to respect that. If nothing else the man had bollocks, but maybe he should have used them instead of his feet as he was a crap player.

RedChaser

We certainly did some dough on 'strikers' around that time check this out;

Andy Gray £1.5m scored 9 in 46
Izale McLeod £1.1m 3 in 31
Marcus Bent £2.3m 4 in 46
Luke Varney £2m 10 in 57

So actually Andy Gray gave us the best return with Varney running him a close second and that little lot cost us just short of £7m at the rate of £265k per goal! Colin has got nothing on me :-)

Lincsaddick

a lightweight 'striker' in a cruiserweight body .. he was knackered when we signed him from Burnley, a case of Burnley selling him at just the right time .. a member of a Scots footballing 'dynasty' and he lived off that reputation for a good few years

cafctom

Would always try and catch the ball on his knee when it was played into him, but had very little control over it on the second touch and would get bullied off the ball very easily.

cabbles

RedChaser said:

We certainly did some dough on 'strikers' around that time check this out;

Andy Gray £1.5m scored 9 in 46
Izale McLeod £1.1m 3 in 31
Marcus Bent £2.3m 4 in 46
Luke Varney £2m 10 in 57

So actually Andy Gray gave us the best return with Varney running him a close second and that little lot cost us just short of £7m at the rate of £265k per goal! Colin has got nothing on me :-)

I'm sure M Bent got more than 4. He was with us from 2005 until 2007. Played a few Prem games up top with D Bent

RedArmySE7

Andy Gray, Luke Varney and Izale McCleod cost the club all told £11m. I've still not quite gotten over that fact.

Simonsen

cabbles said:

RedChaser said:

We certainly did some dough on 'strikers' around that time check this out;

Andy Gray £1.5m scored 9 in 46
Izale McLeod £1.1m 3 in 31
Marcus Bent £2.3m 4 in 46
Luke Varney £2m 10 in 57

So actually Andy Gray gave us the best return with Varney running him a close second and that little lot cost us just short of £7m at the rate of £265k per goal! Colin has got nothing on me :-)

I'm sure M Bent got more than 4. He was with us from 2005 until 2007. Played a few Prem games up top with D Bent

Trying to think...

Chelsea away
Wigan away
Man City away? (lost 2-1 on TV)
Bolton home (league cup)
First game back in Championship....maybe Barnsley (set up by Mouta...)

cabbles

Simonsen said:

cabbles said:

RedChaser said:

We certainly did some dough on 'strikers' around that time check this out;

Andy Gray £1.5m scored 9 in 46
Izale McLeod £1.1m 3 in 31
Marcus Bent £2.3m 4 in 46
Luke Varney £2m 10 in 57

So actually Andy Gray gave us the best return with Varney running him a close second and that little lot cost us just short of £7m at the rate of £265k per goal! Colin has got nothing on me :-)

I'm sure M Bent got more than 4. He was with us from 2005 until 2007. Played a few Prem games up top with D Bent

Trying to think...

Chelsea away
Wigan away
Man City away? (lost 2-1 on TV)
Bolton home (league cup)
First game back in Championship....maybe Barnsley (set up by Mouta...)

Def first game back in Champ, 1-1 with Scunthorpe. Was sure he would've got more than 4/5 but maybe not....

Chunes

I couldn't say that he was rubbish, because that would wrongly imply that he touched the ball. I don't remember a thing about him.

RedChaser

cabbles said:

RedChaser said:

We certainly did some dough on 'strikers' around that time check this out;

Andy Gray £1.5m scored 9 in 46
Izale McLeod £1.1m 3 in 31
Marcus Bent £2.3m 4 in 46
Luke Varney £2m 10 in 57

So actually Andy Gray gave us the best return with Varney running him a close second and that little lot cost us just short of £7m at the rate of £265k per goal! Colin has got nothing on me :-)

I'm sure M Bent got more than 4. He was with us from 2005 until 2007. Played a few Prem games up top with D Bent

RedArmySE7 said:

Andy Gray, Luke Varney and Izale McCleod cost the club all told £11m. I've still not quite gotten over that fact.

Disclaimer; all stats were taken from 'Wiki' which should always be taken at face value :-0 Goals scored are league games only I believe.

Carter

Luke varney was a good player. Again, it wasn't his fault we paid what we did. He worked non stop and created plenty, he got ridiculously scapegoated for missing a chance he completely made himself and never came back from that.

I'll always have a soft spot for him for what he did at Southampton away in 2007 and palace at home 2008.