Signings that felt underwhelming at the time but whelmed you in the end

[Whiston Blade]

100% Neil Shipperley.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Agree...thought Stead was surprisingly good.....tall but surprisingly skilful...a nice player.

However think I can beat that with Fatman......Neil Shipperley.
There was a spell of games playing for us where he lit up the Championship,.....head and shoulders above 2nd tier level.

I've now thought of some others who beats Shipps.

I give you Paul McGrath and Gordon Cowans
knew McGrath was a top international....but he came to us right at the end of his career and could hardly run
but his positional play was so amazingly good....he always seems to know where the ball would go before it was kicked
His class really stood out in the 2nd tier....was like watching a past master/ world great in action.

Similarly never realised how good Cowans was too..played a very simple (almost underwhelming) quick short pass and move game.
Played in a style very similar to Coutts at his best and he was the main reason we totally controlled midfield with long spells of possession.

 

[Antonb]

Neil shiperley. What a has been I thought! He was superb!

 

[Maidenhead]

Got to be Brian Deane.

I was at pre season training for YB FC in the Mansfield Sunday League when one of the lads, a Spirite, said "I see you've signed that great streak of lean from Donny"

He was almost laughing as he said it, and I'd never heard of Brian Deane, so I had no expectations whatsoever.

I had the last laugh though.

What a fantastic signing he was.

 

[Revolution]

Jon Stead. Honestly remember the frothing after he signed following his atrocious record at Sunderland.

5 in 10 in the PL. Great strike against West Ham.

5 in 14 but yes, I was also very wrong about him.

We should have used him more than we did the following season.

 

[Revolution]

We got a lot more out of Richard Cresswell than I was expecting, although it was not a great time for the club generally.

 

[CrookesBlade]

Stuart McCall - way past it looking for one last pay day warming our bench

Chris Basham - no idea who he was, freebie from Blackpool, seemed like a signing to make up the numbers in the squad

Billy Sharp (3rd spell) turned into bit of a journeyman on his way down the leagues seeing out his career. Seemed like a ploy by Adkins to get the fans onside.

 

[Silent Blade]

Billy Dearden, a winger from 4th division Chester

 

[sufc323]

Brereton Diaz, thought he'd be way out of his depth in the PL

 

[Sheffsteel]

He was almost laughing as he said it, and I'd never heard of Brian Deane, so I had no expectations whatsoever.

I had the last laugh though.

What a fantastic signing he was.

Agree....Deano was very raw when he first arrived.....a bit of a lanky beanpole....played like Bambi on ice.
However even in the very early days....he had this knack of scoring.

In the early days, Agana was always the much better player with more skill/ awareness, more pace and overall class.
However once Agana left for Notts County then Dean stepped it up and kept improving his overal game through the years.

Used to always annoy me how the national media used to pigeon hole him as this big physical lump of a player.
When actually he was too nice and soft on the pitch, he should and could have been more physical.
Think he was under rated regards his overall play, he had good first touch, decent skill, worked hard, good tackler and his crossing was superb.
We always used to joke that we needed Deane to be on the end of his own crosses ha ha.
Of course he was also a good finisher and great header of the ball. Our best striker in the past few decades.

 

[Maidenhead]

Agree....Deano was very raw when he first arrived.....a bit of a lanky beanpole....played like Bambi on ice.
However even in the very early days....he had this knack of scoring.

In the early days, Agana was always the much better player with more skill/ awareness, more pace and overall class.
However once Agana left for Notts County then Dean stepped it up and kept improving his overal game through the years.

Used to always annoy me how the national media used to pigeon hole him as this big physical lump of a player.
When actually he was too nice and soft on the pitch, he should and could have been more physical.
Think he was under rated regards his overall play, he had good first touch, decent skill, worked hard, good tackler and his crossing was superb.
We always used to joke that we needed Deane to be on the end of his own crosses ha ha.
Of course he was also a good finisher and great header of the ball. Our best striker in the past few decades.

Completely agree.

I always used to say that "for a big lad, he's the best winger on the pitch"

His most annoying habit was that every time the ball went out for a throw in he'd dash to get there to take it causing a shout from me of "Deano, what ya doin you daft bugger? You're the centre forward, you don't take bloody throw ins", and usually, in the end, he didn't.

If he had taken them I bet they'd have been bloody good ones though.

 

[BladeInIreland]

When we signed speed (not being old enough to know anything about him) I assumed at best he would just be an old, experienced head around the place. He was the best midfielder I had seen for united up untill relatively recently. To do that at that age, pure class.

 

[Bla blade]

Jack O'Connell. I didn't know much about him when he joined. Can't remember much about his home debut against Rochdale other than we scraped a 1-1 draw. Then in the next home game against Oxford he came on at left back for Chris Hussey. I recall he looked poor and quite leggy at left back and thought to myself we won't be seeing much more of this fella. How wrong I was. I did also think the same of Hussey so at least I was on the money there

 

[1973Blade]

Tom Davies