Players who started off terrible then got worse

[stealthpapes]

David Meyler (actually pretty much everyone signed Summer 2018 other than Yiadom)

Sone Aluko

Chris Martin

Martin Keown

[Snowflake Royal]

David Meyler (actually pretty much everyone signed Summer 2018 other than Yiadom)

Sone Aluko

Chris Martin

Martin Keown

Hey, Meyler looked like a revelation in his first game.

[blythspartan]

I often tend to think of Steve Moran, but I think I am being harsh as I am pretty sure he scored a goal in every 3/4 games. My memory is hazy, but I think I had high expectations of him when he joined from Southampton.

[From Despair To Where?]

Mark Whitlock. Absolute donkey and looked like a sex offender. He was shit to start with but very quickly just gave up even pretending to be a footballer.

I know it's bad now but at least today's team still has a heartbeat. The club and team in the fag end of the Smee/Portfield era had the stench of death about it and Whitlock was the epitome of that.

[Royals and Racers]

Paul Brayson- terrible signing

[Linden Jones' Tash]

I often tend to think of Steve Moran, but I think I am being harsh as I am pretty sure he scored a goal in every 3/4 games. My memory is hazy, but I think I had high expectations of him when he joined from Southampton.

no, he was a big let down - came for £250k a near record signing IIRC, couldn't hold the ball up for toffee & collapsed as soon as a challenge came in...

Made Martin Williams look like a 1000 year old redwood in comparison...

[stealthpapes]

Steve Moran was a PFA young player of the year, a fact that continues to tickle me

[bakerlou]

I see that Steve Moran's wiki page neglects to mention trips to Sweden {ahem}

I met him in the kebab van queue in Henley after chucking out time at Stallones one long ago Friday night / early Saturday morning - he was utterly cunted. And he had a match for Exeter that afternoon. I was very envious.

[bakerlou]

WRTtOP as Brayson has already had a mention, Jimmy Crawford.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

WRTtOP as Brayson has already had a mention, Jimmy Crawford.

in my 39 years of watching Reading, I can honestly say that Jimmy Crawford was singularly the worst player I have ever seen don the hoops

[Orion1871]

WRTtOP as Brayson has already had a mention, Jimmy Crawford.

in my 39 years of watching Reading, I can honestly say that Jimmy Crawford was singularly the worst player I have ever seen don the hoops

Great diving header against Brizzle Shitty though.

[blythspartan]

I am whacking my brains out thinking if Michael Meaker should be on any of these threads. I remember feeling underwhelmed by him but recall going to Man City around May 97 and he scored an early goal. I think we took a 2-0 lead but lost. I swear when I hit 60 my memory took a nosedive.

[Crusader Royal]

I am whacking my brains out thinking if Michael Meaker should be on any of these threads. I remember feeling underwhelmed by him but recall going to Man City around May 97 and he scored an early goal. I think we took a 2-0 lead but lost. I swear when I hit 60 my memory took a nosedive.

I’d say he fits more into the category of ‘started out fairly average, stayed fairly average’ (idea for a new category there…..)
He loses a few points simply because we somehow gave QPR Simon Osborn as a swap !

[bakerlou]

I am whacking my brains out thinking if Michael Meaker should be on any of these threads. I remember feeling underwhelmed by him but recall going to Man City around May 97 and he scored an early goal. I think we took a 2-0 lead but lost. I swear when I hit 60 my memory took a nosedive.

I’d say he fits more into the category of ‘started out fairly average, stayed fairly average’ (idea for a new category there…..)
He loses a few points simply because we somehow gave QPR Simon Osborn as a swap !

Yeah - we offload Osborn and Scott Taylor and get in Meaker, it was never going to work well.

He could certainly play a bit but not often enough. He had a really bad goal celebration jump dance thing that he did with Asaba. I hated it.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

what category does Carl Asaba fit int?

I remember being desperately disappointed that he didn't live up to the potential, mainly because he was expected to win long balls hoofed at his head (which he couldn't) rather than having clever through balls threaded through to him (which he could run onto)

[blythspartan]

I am whacking my brains out thinking if Michael Meaker should be on any of these threads. I remember feeling underwhelmed by him but recall going to Man City around May 97 and he scored an early goal. I think we took a 2-0 lead but lost. I swear when I hit 60 my memory took a nosedive.

I’d say he fits more into the category of ‘started out fairly average, stayed fairly average’ (idea for a new category there…..)
He loses a few points simply because we somehow gave QPR Simon Osborn as a swap !

If I could only choose one favourite all time player it would be Osborn.

[Sutekh]

what category does Carl Asaba fit int?

I remember being desperately disappointed that he didn't live up to the potential, mainly because he was expected to win long balls hoofed at his head (which he couldn't) rather than having clever through balls threaded through to him (which he could run onto)

Good. He still managed to be top scorer (13) in a relegated team. He went on to prove himself elsewhere so his shortcomings here were probably largely due to cr@p managers as much as anything.

[Clyde1998]

1. Les Ferdinand
2. Yakubu
3. Brandon Barker

Some bad signings requiring some context:

1. Royston Drenthe seemed to cause problems the second he showed up.
2. Anton Ferdinand and Felipe Araruna were both disasters of signings - although they both looked like there were a decent players behind all his injuries, but neither ever really played.
3. Alex Fernandez, because we couldn't play him due to the loan limit (five players in the matchday squad, when we had six - an issue caused by the deadline day sale of Michael Hector to Chelsea with a loan back). He did seem decent enough when playing though.

David Meyler (actually pretty much everyone signed Summer 2018 other than Yiadom)

John O'Shea was fine from that window (did as expected) and became a good coach for us.

[Dulwich Royal]

Sean Evers
Can't remember which manager signed him but Luton mugged us for £500,000

[tidus_mi2]

Zat Knight, he only played twice but his terribleness is eternal.