Players that proved us wrong | Vital Football

Players that proved us wrong

GillsBluenose

GillsBluenose

Vital Football Hero
I am here to gorge on humble pie regarding my reservations when we signed Kyle Dempsey,

I studied his stats and noticed that he doesn't score many goals for a midfielder.

Apart from a brief spell at Huddersfield, he had spent all his career at clubs like Carlisle and Fleetwood.

To top everything, he was a free agent and the best offer he received was from "lowest budget" Gills.

So what's the big deal?

I'll fetch me coat.:slap:

Can anyone else remember signings that made you think "what is the manager doing?" only to later admit you were SO wrong?
 
I've never thought "what was he doing" on signing a player, as I'll always give players a chance before dismissing them.

I'll freely admit though (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) to being amazed at how good a signing Eaves proved to be given his track record before joining us.

And I'm currently wondering exactly why Evans was so keen to turn Johnson's loan into a permanent transfer, given that he doesn't seem to want to play him for anything more than a few minutes at the end of games. Still, I trust Evans to know what he's doing in that respect.
 
LockdownLife said:
Tom Eaves - 4 goals the previous season in League 2 and didn't do much the first few games. Only kicked into gear when he scored a number of goals against Southend which Nobby would debate...
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I can't remember being more underwhelmed at a Gills signing than I was at the time.

Being honest, I briefly thought similarly about Big V when he signed, but decided to reserve judgement based solely on the Eaves experience and I'm glad I did.
 
A lot depends on when you make the judgement. Bob Taylor ,Tony Cascarino and Iffy as a winger never looked that impressive to start with.
For me perhaps Tony made the biggest improvement and possibly even than Eaves. I remember he looked very poor when he first arrived. Judging on his book maybe a fair bit was nerves. All credit to Sir Keith Peacock for seeing the potential.
 
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I was happy we signed Kyle Dempsey, I think he had turned down another contract at Fleetwood, and was a key player there. Midfielders don’t have to score goals and without his goals he would still be a fan favourite here.

I’m only let down with signings if they’re marquee, big money signings. Dominic Samuel hasn’t shown near his worth yet, and who knows whether he would’ve snapped out of it had he not been injured the second half of the season. Eaves was the same kind of signings most of our others.

Tommy Johnson was an astonishing let down along with Iwan Roberts. Rod Wallace was a goalmachine for the 15 games he played for us, so I’d put him in the ‘slightly disappointed’ tier.

Im pleased with Akinde’s form recently, or his influence in games anyway. Probably not the return we deserve since signing him but I don’t think he deserved to be dropped a few weeks ago.
 
I generally dont judge a player before we sign him. I've seen too many Olivers/Eaves and also plenty of JETs and Houghton's (who? exactly!) to get too excited before we actually see a player. Even then, i'll give it a good bit of time before I actually pass judgement. It can take some players more time to get used to a new club, or a new tactic etc. or just the manager/player might work on a few issues and then improve drastically.

I think we were all surprised by Eaves. His record on paper was not good before he came to us. I think most were underwhelmed when we signed him.

Simeon Jackson is the one player I admit I got it wrong on though. Not because I thought he'd flop with us. I think he did pretty well for us. However this is in regards to his move upwards. I just didn't think he'd be able to cut it at a higher level at all. I didn't think he'd do well at Norwich at all. I believe ended up firing them into the prem league with an amazing purple patch of form in the latter half of the season. I never thought he had that in him at all. I thought his touch was poor, and too many times ended up screwing up a 1-1 chance because of it - getting too close to the keeper or something. Excellent for league 1/2, but i just didnt think he'd make the step up. But he did.

Henderson also - while i thought he was good, i never thought he'd go on to do anywhere near as well as he did in the championship. Didn't he go on to score 20 for Watford in the championship a few times?

Mama Sidibe is one I got absolutely right though. He went on to do really well in the championship, and I said it at the time he was unplayable at times under Ternant. He went on to do very well at Sjoke i think, even played in the prem league didn't he, before injury problems?
 
timnolongerinbrisban said:
I think a few changed their opinion on Junior Lewis based on one cross.
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I always rated him. I thought he was harshly criticised. It seemed to be a common occurrence in those days that a CM was criticised if he wasn't Smudger, Saunders or Hessie.

Browning and later on Adam Miller also copped a lot of stick from the gills faithful - similar types of players I think.
 
Another one that has occurred to me is Big Fat Jim.

I think when Scally took over, we were accumulating loads of free transfers, apart from the £5k raised by supporters to buy Fortune-West.

Coming from Ashford, I remember Ashford Town playing Fulham in the FA Cup first round a few months earlier and he had been in goal when Ashford knocked two past him in the first game which was a mudbath (Fulham saved themselves with two late Micky Adams pens - one a terrible decision by Andy D'Urso) and three past him in the replay at Craven Cottage which ended 5-3 :
Ashford Town 2-2 Fulham (1994-95 FA Cup 1st Round) | Fulham Wiki | Fandom

At that time, Steve Banks claimed not to have been offered a contract, in favour of signing BFJ, which seemed to me a travesty.

Of course, BFJ went on to only concede only 20 in 46 league games for us that season.
 
chris who said:
A lot depends on when you make the judgement. Bob Taylor ,Tony Cascarino and Iffy as a winger never looked that impressive to start with.
For me perhaps Tony made the biggest improvement and possibly even than Eaves. I remember he looked very poor when he first arrived. Judging on his book maybe a fair bit was nerves. All credit to Sir Keith Peacock for seeing the potential.
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I remember Cascarino's debut at Burnley. He was classic youngster who had been playing non league full of energy, very direct and naive. I still came away delighted with his signing, he was a breath of fresh air from the very off and defenders didn't know what to expect. I grant it took a while for him to realise his potential but it was there from the start. Bob Taylor looked positively pedestrian early on but even when overweight and underperforming that short backlift and thunderball shot was evident.
 
PhilK66 said:
Gazzaniga?

Andy Thomson?
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Are you asking a question, or telling us you didn't rate either when they first came?

If it's the former, and you're suggesting it was more general opinion that neither were any good and we were all proven wrong then I don't think that's true at all. I don't think many had an opinion of Gazza at all, and in his first few matches he did really well so he was almost an instant hit with his long kicks.

Likewise, I think Thommo did well right from the start. His first season with us was my first season supporting GFC at every game, and i remember he was very impressive in a number of games, not just that one at the end that we all remember. I certainly dont remember many criticising him early on. Maybe you did.
 
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