Record signing

[Deleted member 1486]

Question posed in the Football Knowledge section of the Guardian:

"“Dani Osvaldo was a club record signing for my club Southampton,” writes Jamie R. “Three goals and 13 games later he seems to be on his bike. Has any club ever had a worse record signing?”"

THREE goals??? THIRTEEN games, you say??? A luxury!

His entire Sheffield United career is contained in this here match report.

United, meanwhile, seem blessed with that coveted ability to play poorly and win. They reached half-time on Saturday without one worthwhile goal attempt to their name yet still led after Paul Bodin helpfully turned John Ebbrell's cross into his own net. Their first proper shot brought Walker his 12th goal of the season.

Ebbrell, making a belated debut, dropped out at half-time with damaged ribs, which may mean Hutchison starts against Huddersfield. Walker's goal could keep Fjortoft on the bench, despite the latter's run of eight goals in 10 matches since his move from Middlesbrough.

This got me thinking, at £1.2 million (+ wages for 2 1/2 years, which must be at least equal to the transfer cost?) I'm wondering this; we must have had one of the most expensive players (if not THE most expensive player?) in the history of world football (in terms of money paid for minutes on the pitch).

I'd usually ask for "memories", but given his entire output was limping onto the pitch before being stretchered off again that question might be better put; "memory?"

John Ebbrell's Sheffield United Panini sticker:

 

[Sothall_Blade]

What was the actual nature of Ebbrell's injury?
I'm pretty sure if he didn't retire because he had "damaged ribs".

 

[UnitedBlade]

I wondered what Ebbrell looked like.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Clod Davis immediately springs to mind.

The horror............the horror.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Question posed in the Football Knowledge section of the Guardian:

"“Dani Osvaldo was a club record signing for my club Southampton,” writes Jamie R. “Three goals and 13 games later he seems to be on his bike. Has any club ever had a worse record signing?”"

THREE goals??? THIRTEEN games, you say??? A luxury!

His entire Sheffield United career is contained in this here match report.



This got me thinking, at £1.2 million (+ wages for 2 1/2 years, which must be at least equal to the transfer cost?) I'm wondering this; we must have had one of the most expensive players (if not THE most expensive player?) in the history of world football (in terms of money paid for minutes on the pitch).

I'd usually ask for "memories", but given his entire output was limping onto the pitch before being stretchered off again that question might be better put; "memory?"

John Ebbrell's Sheffield United Panini sticker:

Don't clubs insure against this sort of risk?

Did we make money off Ebbrell?

 

[Deleted member 1486]

Don't clubs insure against this sort of risk?

Did we make money off Ebbrell?

Good point and something I hadn't thought of. Although I wonder if there is some liability issue with (presumably?) passing him through a medical on arrival?

 

[coaxingstar71]

I was there to witness Ebbrell's 45 minute blades playing career and he looked quite useful, obviously managing an 'assist' too!

I always thought it was his ankle that gave way and ultimately ended his playing career. I also thought that the club were able to recoup a sizeable proportion of the transfer fee in insurance - but could be wrong about that too!

Not on the same scale, but I seem to recall Bassett signing Julian Winter for around £50,000 (one of his big money signings!) and he never even made it onto the playing field!

 

[WF10BLADE]

I was there to witness Ebbrell's 45 minute blades playing career and he looked quite useful, obviously managing an 'assist' too!

I always thought it was his ankle that gave way and ultimately ended his playing career. I also thought that the club were able to recoup a sizeable proportion of the transfer fee in insurance - but could be wrong about that too!

Not on the same scale, but I seem to recall Bassett signing Julian Winter for around £50,000 (one of his big money signings!) and he never even made it onto the playing field!

Im sure we didn't lay out £50000 for him, bearing in mind we paid about £35000 for Deano that summer.

 

[coaxingstar71]

If I was being cynical, I might think that Kendall bought him knowing of his injury but wanted to give his mate from Everton a decent pay off in terms of the signing on fee and the club signed the player knowing full well they would be able to claim the fee back in insurance. He probably had to play 45 minutes to enable the claim to be made!

 

[Nick Jansky]

We didn't get a penny in insurance. He was finished by a pre-existing injury that existed before we signed him. Not our greatest moment.

 

[Wards]

From a hazy memory I recall a story saying that we couldn't get him insured as he did, indeed, fail a medical but we were determined to push it through. Also remember his actual retirement injury being something to do with his foot... heel possibly?

£1.2 million per game though! That's quite impressive. Can't be too many more as expensive as that.

 

[blade too long]

From a hazy memory I recall a story saying that we couldn't get him insured as he did, indeed, fail a medical but we were determined to push it through. Also remember his actual retirement injury being something to do with his foot... heel possibly?

£1.2 million per game though! That's quite impressive. Can't be too many more as expensive as that.

Rooney costs that , MORE OR LESS

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

We didn't get a penny in insurance.

Do you know this for sure? It would be surprising - but a not unprecedented cock up - to sign an uninsured player for a large fee.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Im sure we didn't lay out £50000 for him, bearing in mind we paid about £35000 for Deano that summer.

I might be wrong although your logic is like saying "we can't have paid £650,000 on Vinnie Jones when Deano only cost £35,000".

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Good point and something I hadn't thought of. Although I wonder if there is some liability issue with (presumably?) passing him through a medical on arrival?

I don't know for sure about the insurance side of player purchase but I have heard it mentioned in passing in other contexts and it would seem to be good practice.

 

[Blade for Sale]

In terms of transfer fee and wages it's going to be hard to top Winston Bogarde's 9 appearances in 4 seasons for Chelsea! Worked out to be about £4m per match I think!

 

[Nick Jansky]

Do you know this for sure? It would be surprising - but a not unprecedented cock up - to sign an uninsured player for a large fee.

Yes, that was indeed the case.

 

[Guesty]

John Ebbrell isn't our record signing any more, of course. Does anyone have a list to hand of players who have been?

In my lifetime, Beattie certainly has been, and I think Don Hutchison was too. Is Beattie still the record holder or did Evans end up costing more?

 

[Kev Gee]

I reckon the Shammers beat us on this one...

Marco boogers anyone?
Pretty sure he was sent off within 10 mins of his debut and then never played again. Last news on him was living on a caravan site or something?

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

James Beattie, all that money for someone who only scored penalties. And free-kicks. And 'flukey' long range efforts...

 

[WF10BLADE]

I might be wrong although your logic is like saying "we can't have paid £650,000 on Vinnie Jones when Deano only cost £35,000".

ha - I was simply saying we didn't have money to throw around that summer and that I would be sure we spent more on him.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

From a hazy memory I recall a story saying that we couldn't get him insured as he did, indeed, fail a medical but we were determined to push it through

[...]

£1.2 million per game though! That's quite impressive. Can't be too many more as expensive as that.

I seem to remember us pushing it through too.

BTW, he only played half, so it was £2.4 million per game

 

[AlienBlade]

Good point and something I hadn't thought of. Although I wonder if there is some liability issue with (presumably?) passing him through a medical on arrival?

Don't clubs insure against this sort of risk?

Did we make money off Ebbrell?

you cant profit from insurance... so even if we did get anything back from it, you would only be as well off as you were prior to the loss.

 

[Balham Blade]

John Ebbrell isn't our record signing any more, of course. Does anyone have a list to hand of players who have been?

In my lifetime, Beattie certainly has been, and I think Don Hutchison was too. Is Beattie still the record holder or did Evans end up costing more?

Off the top of my head, Beattie tops the list at £4m with Evans tied with Claude "Bombscare" Davis in second at £2.5m. Honorable mentions to Billy Sharp and Darius Henderson (both £2m); Ade Akinbiyi (£1.8m); Luton Shelton (£1.7m) and Geoff Horsfield (£1.1m) - all relatively big money forwards for us and all relatively (or absolutely) shit.

Record fee received is Kyle Naughton (£5m), followed by Phil Jagielka (£4m); Beattie (£3.5m) and Claude Davis, Matthew Lowton, Lee Morris & Kyle Walker (all £3m).

Random fact: we generally lose a lot of money on our big money signings - on that list, only Davis was sold on for a profit - and we also are far better at developing academy players than signing younger players from other teams. I can only Marcus Bent, Oliver Tébily and Nick Blackman as players we've made over £1m profit from.

EDIT: Hutchison was signed in 95/96 for £1.2m and sold the following season for £1m

 

[Guesty]

Akinbiyi gets a lifelong pass for that Hillsborough goal.

I thought Evans was around £3M plus add-ons?

 

[Tyler Durden]

Let's not forget the Geoff Horsfield fiasco, which I never did fully understand. £1 million for a player we didn't want??

 

[I should coco]

I can only Marcus Bent, Oliver Tébily and Nick Blackman as players we've made over £1m profit from.

Wayne Quinn?
Curtis Woodhouse?
Jordan Slew?
Deano?

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Off the top of my head, Beattie tops the list at £4m with Evans tied with Claude "Bombscare" Davis in second at £2.5m. Honorable mentions to Billy Sharp (£2m), Darius Henderson (£2m), Luton Shelton (£1.7m), Ade Akinbiyi (£1.2m) and Geoff Horsfield (£1.1m) - all relatively big money forwards for us and all relatively (or absolutely) shit.

Record fee received is Kyle Walker (£5m), followed by Phil Jagielka (£4m); Beattie (£3.5m) and Claude Davis, Matthew Lowton, Lee Morris & Kyle Naughton (all £3m).

Random fact: we generally lose a lot of money on our big money signings - on that list, only Davis was sold on for a profit - and we also are far better at developing academy players than signing younger players from other teams. I can only Marcus Bent, Oliver Tébily and Nick Blackman as players we've made over £1m profit from.

EDIT: Hutchison was signed in 95/96 for £1.2m and sold the following season for £1m

I think Kyle Naughton was £4M + £1M add-ons and Kyle Walker was £2M + £1M add-ons.
Naughton had played a full season and Walker only around 5 matches when they were sold.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

I might be wrong although your logic is like saying "we can't have paid £650,000 on Vinnie Jones when Deano only cost £35,000".

You just reminded me (not really worth creating a new thread for..) I was passing through a shop the other day and noticed Vinnie's Autobiography on the shelf. I like to read football autobiographies, but I think it safe to assume anything with Vinnie's name on should be in the "fiction" section, so instead I stood and read it for a minute, obviously skipping straight to the United section.

I think he only gives us a page or two, bangs on about how he hated it here, how he realised his career was shot to shit when he signed for us, how the team couldn't go into town because the fans weren't happy and were going to kick off, etc, etc, but says when he was signed he was asked to come straight in to sort the team out and be captain but refused (like I said; full of shit!). Don't quote me on this (sure I read this somewhere, but maybe not this book?), fairy sure he also says Harry offered the team £100k to split if they avoided relegation, which he reckoned was why they started winning after Christmas. (and that's about it, so you can don't need to buy it now!)

Oh, another Vinnie story I read recently was a Chris Kamara interview (not sure if I posted this before? Sorry if so). This is quality :

I also ask Kammy what Vinnie Jones was like as a team-mate.

“Vinnie Jones!” he exclaims with a genuine fondness for an old friend, as Kammy starts to recount a story about the ex-Wimbledon hardman turned Hollywood actor.

“Me and the wife went to LA for a holiday not long ago. We’d forgotten he was out there to be honest. Anyway we did the whole Hollywood thing, you know, the studios and the sign, and what have you. Then we decided to do that tour they do, the one of the stars houses.

“There was this little Columbian guide doing the commentary. Lovely fella but let’s just say his English was better than my Spanish – but only just. Anyway there we are on the top deck going round all these stars houses, until we get to this one huge place, and the lad says: “Here we have Weenee Yo-nes house. I’m like ‘who’s Weenee Yo-nes to the wife thinking it’s some new star I’ve never heard of. She doesn’t know either. And then he says it again, this time more impatiently: “This is Weenee Yo-nes house! Who has heard of Weenee Yo-nes?”

“No-one answers and the coach moves on. We see Ron Howard's place and so on for a while before the route just happens to take us back to the same road as before. The Columbian guide, bless him, says: “there is Quentin Tarantino’s house – but next door to that is Weenee Yo-nes house”. It had obviously got to him that none of us on the coach knew who this star was. ‘This bloke must be huge’, I thought, if this Columbian lad is completely ignoring Quentin Tarantino’s house next door because he’s far more bothered about this Weenee Yo-nes.

“So, as there’s a few Brits on board someone shouts out, ‘give us a clue who what films Wee-nee Yo-nes has been in.’

And he goes: “Starred in 36 films – Lock, Stock…Gone in 60 Seconds, Snatch – you must know Weenee Yo-nes?!’ By now he’s getting really agitated, until suddenly I say, “He means Vinnie Jones! I know him! He’s a mate of mine”

Well, the little Columbian lad doesn’t believe me so the missus and I get off the bus and press the buzzer. And me and the wife get invited to a BBQ that Vinnie is having!! The look on the Columbian tour guide’s face was priceless!”

“But that’s Vinnie. He welcomed us in with open arms. He’s a very loyal bloke. He’s also a larger than life character. It was a funny day.”​

 

[Balham Blade]

Wayne Quinn?
Curtis Woodhouse?
Jordan Slew?
Deano?

That was in the context of us signing a player then selling them on at a profit. Deano is definitely another one though.

Academy players sold for >£1m:

Naughton £5m
Jagielka £4m
Morris £3m
Lowton £3m
Maguire £2.5m
Slew £1.1m
Woodhouse £1m + Ndlovu
Mellis £1m

I think Kyle Naughton was £4M + £1M add-ons and Kyle Walker was £2M + £1M add-ons.
Naughton had played a full season and Walker only around 5 matches when they were sold.

Thanks Sothall - you got there in time for me to make a ninja edit