Didier Drogba

[Deepred]

Warnock just been on TalkSport saying he could have signed Drogba when he was our gaffer. No detail as to whether he was just recommended or if it went further than that but another player to add to those who could have graced a football pitch in Sheffield.

 

[Beans]

Not sure I'd be admitting that if I was Warnock. If it's true (...) then it doesn't exactly reflect well on him that we didn't sign him!

 

[Lil red rooster]

typical.
we'd have sold him on for 250 grand anyhow.

 

[JohnDenver]

Warnock just been on TalkSport saying he could have signed Drogba when he was our gaffer. No detail as to whether he was just recommended or if it went further than that but another player to add to those who could have graced a football pitch in Sheffield.

Emily told him not to?

 

[CrookesBlade]

Warnock just been on TalkSport saying he could have signed Drogba when he was our gaffer. No detail as to whether he was just recommended or if it went further than that but another player to add to those who could have graced a football pitch in Sheffield.

Seem to remember Drogba taking a while to settle into English football - he'd have been another Dries Bousatta.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Not sure I'd be admitting that if I was Warnock. If it's true (...) then it doesn't exactly reflect well on him that we didn't sign him!

Didier, Diego........anyone else we missed out on?

 

[Grecian2000]

Didier, Diego........anyone else we missed out on?

Alan Hansen.

 

[aBladeInTheNorthernSky]

Didier, Diego........anyone else we missed out on?

Juanpi

 

[Sheffsteel]

Warnock just been on TalkSport saying he could have signed Drogba when he was our gaffer. No detail as to whether he was just recommended or if it went further than that but another player to add to those who could have graced a football pitch in Sheffield.

It was just a recommendation from the French scout/ friend, ex player Lauren D’Jaffo.

Drogba was playing for Le Mans in the French 2nd division and D’Jaffo told Warnock he was exactly his type of player.
Big, strong with decent ability on the ball and a decent goal scorer. His record was 12 goals in 64 matches.

D’Jaffo told Warnock he was available for £100,00. Warnock said the valuation was far too high for an untested French division 2 player and no way would the board even consider it and then in 2002 he signed for French top flight club Guingamps for £80,000 instead where he scored 20 goals from 45 matches.

Warnock said that when Drogba went from Guingamps to Marseille then on to Chelsea, Lauren D’Jaffo would ring him each time and gloat that he was the young player he rated so highly and recommended to him.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Didier, Diego........anyone else we missed out on?

Brooks?

 

[Torrix1889]

Widow Twanky has just been on SSN saying the same....claimed he was recommended by D'Jaffo whilst playing in the French second division...

 

[Harry's Game]

Don’t think he’d have got in in front of laurens Ten Heuvel.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

It was just a recommendation from the French scout/ friend, ex player Lauren D’Jaffo.

Drogba was playing for Le Mans in the French 2nd division and D’Jaffo told Warnock he was exactly his type of player.
Big, strong with decent ability on the ball and a decent goal scorer. His record was 12 goals in 64 matches.

D’Jaffo told Warnock he was available for £100,00. Warnock said the valuation was far too high for an untested French division 2 player and no way would the board even consider it and then in 2002 he signed for French top flight club Guingamps for £80,000 instead where he scored 20 goals from 45 matches.

Warnock said that when Drogba went from Guingamps to Marseille then on to Chelsea, Lauren D’Jaffo would ring him each time and gloat that he was the young player he rated so highly and recommended to him.

“Hi Neil. Remember when you didn’t take my recommendation to sign Drogba a few years ago because you thought it was too much of a risk to take on a striker from the French 2nd division? Well have I got the French 2nd division striker for you. His name’s Christian Nade, he’s 22, and he’s available on the cheap from Troyes....Oh yes, very similar, he’s built just like Drogba.... No, I don’t think he has quite the same goalscoring record.... but remember when you didn’t take the last recommendation I gave you?”

 

[Topplayersleave]

£100,000 is a lot to gamble on a striker though. I agree with Warnock, far to much for us to risk.
The only team that would have benefitted from it would have been Chelsea, they'd have bought him from us for a £1million instead of the £25 million that they had to pay Marseille

 

[BushBlade]

It was just a recommendation from the French scout/ friend, ex player Lauren D’Jaffo.

Drogba was playing for Le Mans in the French 2nd division and D’Jaffo told Warnock he was exactly his type of player.
Big, strong with decent ability on the ball and a decent goal scorer. His record was 12 goals in 64 matches.

D’Jaffo told Warnock he was available for £100,00. Warnock said the valuation was far too high for an untested French division 2 player and no way would the board even consider it and then in 2002 he signed for French top flight club Guingamps for £80,000 instead where he scored 20 goals from 45 matches.

Warnock said that when Drogba went from Guingamps to Marseille then on to Chelsea, Lauren D’Jaffo would ring him each time and gloat that he was the young player he rated so highly and recommended to him.

I can just imagine Warnock pitching a £100k gamble on an unknown French player to the board and KM saying ‘yes but we need a bums on seat signing, I hear Duncan Ferguson is available on loan’.

 

[mattbianco1]

Warnock just been on TalkSport saying he could have signed Drogba when he was our gaffer

I could've shagged Margot Robbie... if i'd ever met her.

Thinking about it, I think I actually have, although I can't be sure if it was a dream or not.

 

[mattbianco1]

Drogba was playing for Le Mans in the French 2nd division and D’Jaffo told Warnock he was exactly his type of player.
Big, black, strong with decent ability on the ball and a decent goal scorer. His record was 12 goals in 64 matches.

Fixed it for you ^^

For every Didier Drogba that Warnock could've signed, there's always an Iffy Onoura or Barry Hayles that he actually did!

 

[Tezza1889]

I can hear the conversation now,

Yeah but I can get Ahmed Fahti and Hi Hao Dong for the same money..

Kmc, “you’re a genius Neil, do it”

 

[Sheffsteel]

“Hi Neil. Remember when you didn’t take my recommendation to sign Drogba a few years ago because you thought it was too much of a risk to take on a striker from the French 2nd division? Well have I got the French 2nd division striker for you. His name’s Christian Nade, he’s 22, and he’s available on the cheap from Troyes....Oh yes, very similar, he’s built just like Drogba.... No, I don’t think he has quite the same goalscoring record.... but remember when you didn’t take the last recommendation I gave you?”

Classic ,made me laugh. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though. I remember at the time Christian Nade looked a real player....amazing that he’s spent most of career playing in the lowly Scottish league.

Hawksby and Jacobs were laughing that “Sheff Utd are famous for almost signing Maradona, well they can now add Drogba to the list”. They then said that in fairness many clubs in the UK will have a list of near misses where they could have bought stars on the cheap. One of them, then laughed at his own club Spurs, apparently they were offered Dennis Bergkamp on the cheap but Alan Sugar (then the owner of Spurs) said he Bergkamp was a dreadful player and not worth the small asking price.

 

[I'll tell me dad.]

Bergkamp could do things that even Bergkamp had never thought of. Even when he was doing them. He seemed to operate on a different time line and sometimes on a different surface to those falling around him.
I wasn't a fan though...

 

[diplomat]

£100,000 is a lot to gamble on a striker though. I agree with Warnock, far to much for us to risk.
The only team that would have benefitted from it would have been Chelsea, they'd have bought him from us for a £1million instead of the £25 million that they had to pay Marseille

Would that have been right after he fired us to the UEFA cup?

 

[diplomat]

Bergkamp could do things that even Bergkamp had never thought of. Even when he was doing them. He seemed to operate on a different time line and sometimes on a different surface to those falling around him.
I wasn't a fan though...

I loved Bergkamp but sone of our fans would have berated him for not winning enough headers no doubt

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

It was just a recommendation from the French scout/ friend, ex player Lauren D’Jaffo.

Is that Laurent D'Jaffo's sister?

 

[RammyBlade]

I dont remember if £100k was a lot of dough then but remember Brian Deane was an unproven player and £30k was a reasonable size then

 

[Rodders]

I recall hearing a story about 12 years ago that Drogba turned up at Southampton for a transfer in 2004 and turned them down.
Paul Sturrock greeted him with a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops with the t-shirt having fried egg sandwich stains down it. Sturrock took training with the side whilst sat on a park bench. Drogba made a hasty exit and signed for Chelsea the year after.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

Didier, Diego........anyone else we missed out on?

One of the Laudrup brothers , Michael I think

 

[itsinyerblood]

One of the Laudrup brothers , Michael I think

That one slipped through the net......if there'd been any truth in that then we've allowed some wonderful players to pass us by.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Drogba was a egotistical shithouse of the highest order. Could've been one of the best & had all the skills to do so. Decided to play to 70% of his capabilities & spend the rest of the time moaning, diving, feigning injury and involving himself in nonsense.

United lost out on Aldridge & Houghton in '85ish when they were at Oxford.

 

[Topplayersleave]

I dont remember if £100k was a lot of dough then but remember Brian Deane was an unproven player and £30k was a reasonable size then

It wasn't really that a big fee even at the time, it was described as a miracle signing for the amount he cost

Here's a few transfers of relatively or completely unknown players at about the same time. I've left out the bigger transfers of well known players

Brighton signed Barnet defender Nicky Bissett for £115,000, a record for a non league player
Wimbledon sign an unknown defender Keith Curle from Reading for £500,000
Newcastle sign Coleraine forward Michael O'Neill for £55,000
Chelsea sign goalkeeper Kevin Hitchcock from Mansfield for £250,000
Newcastle sign unknown winger John Hendrie from Bradford for £500,000
West Ham sign forward David Kelly from Walsall for £600,000
Derby sign Oxford United striker Dean Saunders for £1 million (Who we were in a tug of war with Oxford to sign but when Oxford offered £60,000 for him we were blown out of the water)
Watford sign 19 year old Lee Richardson from Halifax Town for £175,000
Southampton sign Jason Dodd from bath City for £50,000

 

[Davalon]

Warnock still takes people in.

Do you really think we wouldn't have heard about this before now?

All about him and keeping himself talked about. Knows being infamous will keep him getting media work and the like. Happy to make himself look like a sad bitter twat with his getting comments about Man Utd and Liverpool.