Big name/money signings | PASOTI
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Big name/money signings

Jun 27, 2019
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The Simon Walton thread got me thinking about other high-profile signings in our recent history. More to the point, just how bad our record is of bringing in so-called star players.

There are some exceptions of course (Halmosi was our record signing for a while but he was completely unknown when he signed), but the general formula seems to be the higher the fee and/or profile, the worse the player performs.

Simon Walton, Peter Swan, Peter Shilton, Taribo West, Emile Mpenza, Steve Maclean, Alan Gow, Kenny Cooper, Nadar Ciftci, Damien Johnson... that's a real rogue's gallery of high profile and/or expensive names who all flopped.

Perhaps something to bear in mind the next time we're all clamouring for the recognised name over a wee nugget!
 
Mar 8, 2016
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We have also had some success with money transfers, youā€™ve already mentioned Halmosi, other ones you could include are ebanks-Blake, Akos, Steve castle, Adrian littlejohn. Spending money on players doesnā€™t always work out, but if argyle want to be successful in this 5year plan of reaching the championship then they need to invest better on the pitch and hope the manager uses his budget wisely. I canā€™t see us challenging the top of league one in the next 5 years let alone being in the championship.
 
Jan 15, 2020
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Itā€™s interesting isnā€™t it? Timing and environment must come into it. Weā€™ve spent money on some right duffers....but at other clubs these same players have been half decent.
On the flip side we spent decent money on the likes of Paul Dalton who is one of the best players Iā€™ve seen at HP....but I donā€™t think he did a lot after us. Timing....and management....Iā€™m guessing these play a big part for players.
(Also thought Damian Johnson was half decent for us) :lol: And Taribo West was just mental
 
I think we have to accept that under the Hallettā€™s excellent stewardship we will probably never make another major money signing. The only reason that Championship clubs can sustain an average Ā£11 million loss per year is because they have (mostly) foreign billionaire owners who simply consider this a worthwhile gamble with their small change in the hope of Premiership riches.

Back to the OP, surely the hateful Swan must be our worst signing. To actually spend money to bring such a poisonous character into the camp must rate as an all time stupidest decision, by him and the club.
 
Jan 21, 2007
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I remember we were being heavily linked with Charlie Adam around the time we bought Alan Gow ... I think Gow cost Ā£200k and Adam went to Blackpool at the same time for Ā£500k; this would have been shortly after Simon Walton joined. Also, a season or two before that, we were strongly linked with David Nugent, who went to Preston for about Ā£100k, and not long after, we plugged that gap with Steve MacLean ...

Iā€™m not crying over spilt milk here, as I really enjoyed our turged football around that time, and back to back relegations, but for roughly the same outlay, iā€™ve often wondered how our fortunes may have differed had Adam and Nugent been in our squad at that time rather than Gow and Maclean

:sigh:
 
Aug 5, 2016
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GTTB Resurgam":949w1otg said:
i remember being very excited we signed Scott Taylor from Blackpool for Ā£100k :funny:

Same here, he was such a prolific lower league goalscorer. I also remember being chuffed to bits at getting Jermaine Easter.

We paid Ā£250,000 to sign Ebanks Blake from Manchester United and sold him for Ā£1.5m. We also paid good money for Halmosi and sold him for much better money. Buzsaky we sold for Ā£500,000 after a few dazzling seasons. So there are the odd occasions when we invest with a bit of sense and see a good return.
 

demportdave

šŸŒ Bomber Harris.
Jul 6, 2005
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mervyn":33pwtixo said:
Back to the OP, surely the hateful Swan must be our worst signing. To actually spend money to bring such a poisonous character into the camp must rate as an all time stupidest decision, by him and the club.
In fairness to the Club and also to Dan McCaulay, Swan was very much a Shilton signing.

He had Captained Port Vale to promotion at our expense the previous season and Shilton thought he would do it again for Argyle.

Ironically, it was Swan's last ditch goal line clearance from Dalton at Vale Park which turned out to be a very significant moment in the season.

We didn't even need a CB, we needed to replace Marshall who had gone to Luton and we could have signed Forster from Gillingham for less than what we paid for Swan.

Instead, in between making Swan look slow and ineffective, Forster scored 2 goals at HP for Brentford on debut in a 5-1 thrashing in what turned out to be one of the worst seasons in memory.
 
Jul 11, 2006
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Hargyle":2ynl43oy said:
I remember we were being heavily linked with Charlie Adam around the time we bought Alan Gow ... I think Gow cost Ā£200k and Adam went to Blackpool at the same time for Ā£500k; this would have been shortly after Simon Walton joined. Also, a season or two before that, we were strongly linked with David Nugent, who went to Preston for about Ā£100k, and not long after, we plugged that gap with Steve MacLean ...

Iā€™m not crying over spilt milk here, as I really enjoyed our turged football around that time, and back to back relegations, but for roughly the same outlay, iā€™ve often wondered how our fortunes may have differed had Adam and Nugent been in our squad at that time rather than Gow and Maclean

:sigh:

There was a massive difference in the wages between Charlie Adam and Alan Gow, thats' part of why the former went to Blackpool and the latter joined Argyle. One should also not forget though that Alan Gow had to pay money to Falkirk out of his own pocket before joining Argyle. Could have been a cracking player for us, but alas it never worked out. With MacLean we had actually been in for Steve Thompson but he had chosen not to join us, so we took MacLean instead and we all know how that ended out. Was a good player in his day, but for some reason it never quite worked out for him at Argyle.
 
demportdave":2p1dj141 said:
mervyn":2p1dj141 said:
Back to the OP, surely the hateful Swan must be our worst signing. To actually spend money to bring such a poisonous character into the camp must rate as an all time stupidest decision, by him and the club.
In fairness to the Club and also to Dan McCaulay, Swan was very much a Shilton signing.

He had Captained Port Vale to promotion at our expense the previous season and Shilton thought he would do it again for Argyle.

Ironically, it was Swan's last ditch goal line clearance from Dalton at Vale Park which turned out to be a very significant moment in the season.

We didn't even need a CB, we needed to replace Marshall who had gone to Luton and we could have signed Forster from Gillingham for less than what we paid for Swan.

Instead, in between making Swan look slow and ineffective, Forster scored 2 goals at HP for Brentford on debut in a 5-1 thrashing in what turned out to be one of the worst seasons in memory.

One of my lowest Argyle supporting moments was that thrashing. Was it/is it our biggest ever home defeat, does anyone know?
 
Jan 4, 2005
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Mark58":2nhoehvk said:
Alan Peacock.

I do not seem to recall that Peacock cost Argyle a big transfer fee. He had been successful as a player but was badly crocked and had not really recovered from his injury before getting back into the game with Argyle. It was much the same with Alan Sealey, who had previously successfully played Division One football with West Ham. After a big injury, his return to football was short lived. In my time of watching Argyle, the biggest named signings, both then Internationals for their own countries, were Barrie Jones and Peter McParland, both very fine players and not blighted with past injuries
 
May 22, 2006
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mervyn":1rp9ankd said:
demportdave":1rp9ankd said:
mervyn":1rp9ankd said:
Back to the OP, surely the hateful Swan must be our worst signing. To actually spend money to bring such a poisonous character into the camp must rate as an all time stupidest decision, by him and the club.
In fairness to the Club and also to Dan McCaulay, Swan was very much a Shilton signing.

He had Captained Port Vale to promotion at our expense the previous season and Shilton thought he would do it again for Argyle.

Ironically, it was Swan's last ditch goal line clearance from Dalton at Vale Park which turned out to be a very significant moment in the season.

We didn't even need a CB, we needed to replace Marshall who had gone to Luton and we could have signed Forster from Gillingham for less than what we paid for Swan.

Instead, in between making Swan look slow and ineffective, Forster scored 2 goals at HP for Brentford on debut in a 5-1 thrashing in what turned out to be one of the worst seasons in memory.

One of my lowest Argyle supporting moments was that thrashing. Was it/is it our biggest ever home defeat, does anyone know?

Lost 6-0 at home to Reading in Div 3South in 1956, and let in six a couple of times in Cup comps. Obviously thanks to GoS.