Exciting Transfers

Exiled_Addick

I'm sure I'm not alone in having an initial gut reaction of "underwhelmed" regarding our recent transfer activity, both rumoured and actual, and that got me to thinking - when was the last time we signed player and my initial reaction was "I've heard of this fella, think he is a good player and I don't have any worries about his attitude or fitness. I reckon he'll do well."?

So I looked up the last few season's transfers here and was kind of shocked to realise I'd probably have to go back 10 years to signing Murphy and Rommedahl (one turned out to be good for a while, the other not so good).

After that we signed D.Bent, Ambrose, Reid and JFH who I had hopes for, but also reservations based on lack of Premier League experience (wish we still had to worry about that kind of thing now) or excess of age/weight.

Once we were out of the Premier League I'd either not heard of them (Zheng Zhi aside thanks to his loan), had reservations because they were signed from lower leagues or thought they were a bit too journeyman-like to pin too much expectation on.

BWP might qualify, but even then I had not rated him much before he joined us so had doubts. Powell did some great business in league 1 but I just didn't really know anything about Wiggins/Hollands/Morisson et al before they played for us.

Maybe I'm just tough to please, and obviously some of those signings that didn't excite me turned out to be pretty good, others not so good, but wouldn't it be nice, just for once, to open a rumours thread or even better a new signings thread and read the player's name and think "Good player that, nice bit of business Charlton"?

Vincenzo

Haven't been excited since Arthur Horsfield.

Callumcafc

For me it was BWP and the following summer when we were bringing in Hollands, Stephens, Hamer, Wiggins etc. all very good League One players at the time.

Fanny Fanackapan

No-one's excited me for a very long time.

AddickEssex

Not a new player, but remember the headline on the back page of the evening news
that Derek Hales was resigning, happy days.

golfaddick

Great post. I must admit that I'd never heard of any of the Powell signings that got us promoted ( apart from Matt Taylor as my dad rated him after watching the FLS) as I never really watched lower league football. Before that Izale McLeod's signing made me sit up a bit, but only due to the youtube clips that were shown on here & had a good record in the lower leagues.

Previous to that at I can only say Andy Reid from the Dowie era and before that the ones you mention of Murphy, Rommedahl & D Bent. Prior to our Premiership days I remember being over the moon getting Mendonca, mainly because he always seemed to score against us for whoever he played for.

So, over the last 20 years probably only about half a dozen signings out of the hundreds we have signed have ever got me salivating - which is a very poor return,

Simonsen

Years ago I was well pleased with John Humphrey. I knew he'd been a tremendous player for Wolves and couldn't believe we'd got him for £40k. Alan Curbishley because he was actually somebody I'd heard of and was a definite step up from anything we'd had in that era. Colin Pates was another that was one that I thought would make a difference and he was our record signing at the time.

More recently, Danny Murphy because he was a proven performer at a high level.

But of course, the biggest was Alan Simonsen. Staggering really.

nth_london_addick

Danny Murphy
Darren Bent
Paulo did canio
Class Jensen
J Johanson
Andy Reid


Not a great return really that's why I don't get the underwhelmed comments when has it ever been good

flyingkiwiDK

Di Canio
Danny Murphy

Oliver Street

Dick Plumb and Cyril Davies... the transfers were exciting, the football was less so!

superclive

The most exciting was di canio closely folled by super Clive Then probably rohmmedhal, murphy and jeffersHowever thats a ut different from your description that i have heard of him and he'll be good. A fair few fitted that description.

BigRedEvil

Dean Sinclair

falconwood_1

Di Canio was the most exciting signing for me.

Valley11

I remember being pretty chuffed with bradley Allen. £400k

AFKABartram

Chris Powell being named manager for me

DaveMehmet

Di Canio, I was on holiday in Italy and saw it in the Gazetta de sport at breakfast

AddickEssex

Killer and Simonsen, my all time hero and the most gifted player I
have seen wearing a Charlton shirt

Absurdistan

John Barnes. Was a treat to see him in a Charlton shirt. OK it was an end of career cameo but he wasn't to shabby and produced a few touches of real class.

nth_london_addick

Jeffers
Romadhal
Great shouts

Will admit I wanted jack Lester not Clive and was totally underwhelmed when we signed and hunt

And some of you should visit the yann thread when he signed

Bournemouth Addick

The last two signings I was genuinely both really pleased about and confident they would do the business were Wiggins and Hollands purely because I'd seen a lot of them.

Not being an afficionado of the minor European leagues I've almost always never even heard of the latest Michel Moulesfrites we seem to be linked with let alone be in a position to have an opinion on what sort of player they are or if they are any flipping good and worth getting excited about.

Halix

I remember being thrilled when we signed Clive Mendonca, who had taken us apart when he played for Grimsby and I knew we were looking for promotion then.

Less succesfully I remember the anticipation of seeing our new record signing the hotshot welsh striker Andy Jones.

Vincenzo

Was so excited by Di Canio signing I actually bought a shirt with his name on. Wore it first game of the season. Lost 4-0. Never wore it again.

kevtherev

Simonson signing would be like signing Messi now.

PragueAddick

I was a bit worried about di Canio, needlessly as it turned out. Jorge Costa was the one for me. Especially after his intro press conference..

superclive87

Remember when we signed Martin Pringle such excitement but nothing ever came of it..other that mendonca and hunt one of the best for me has to be Mathias svensson what a great player

Stig

I learned not to get excited soon after we signed Dennis Rommedahl.

twiggyaddick

Ricardo fuller, thought we was making a statement

cafcsinger

Remember getting excited about Danny Green... his house as underwhelming as his corners.

HantsAddick

I opened this thinking we'd made some new exciting signings, should have known better.

GretnaGreenAddick

Can't remember the last time i got seriously excited about a signing, i always do get slightly excited for a player who is a regular international whoever they play for, as its not like they are a common occurrence for us.

I guess the only one who comes to mind is the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time that Chris Powell returned.

Im hoping one day i will get excited for his 5th return as a club employee.

Lazy_eye_metaphor

Nothing can compare to the signing of Allan Simonsen, even though it was so reckless in terms of the club finances. Other signings which excited me at the time were Derek Hales (2nd time), Carl Harris, Bradley Allen and Jason Euell. More recently, Alonso stirred the imagination at first. Then sadly he became a candidate for the biggest disappointment.