Players who were useless for us to begin with but became key players for us

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fireblade said:
I can remember my dad commenting about Tony Currie when he first arrived at the Lane. "Never make a footballer, he's always on his arse"
Wasn't often wrong my dad, but that wasn't his greatest appraisal, and it didn't take him long to change his mind.
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I started going to the Lane regularly in January 1970 but I was surprised your dad didnt rate TC at first. He scored against Spurs on his debut, missed the next game due to getting wed, played for the rest of the season, scored twice against Liverpool (home and away) and scored at Burnley. He was only 18
 
Silent Blade said:
I started going to the Lane regularly in January 1970 but I was surprised your dad didnt rate TC at first. He scored against Spurs on his debut, missed the next game due to getting wed, played for the rest of the season, scored twice against Liverpool (home and away) and scored at Burnley. He was only 18
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My memories of Currie are after he had turned 20, and my dad’s not around to ask, but I assume as an 18 year old he might not have handled some of the physical stuff too well.
 
fireblade said:
My memories of Currie are after he had turned 20, and my dad’s not around to ask, but I assume as an 18 year old he might not have handled some of the physical stuff too well.
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As said earlier he came to us as an 18 yr old, always a well built lad, but once adjusted , he didnt let anyone bully him. remember that Hull match and that tackle on De Vries was it.? I met ken Knighton years later and he said he still had the scars from that night.
 
Silent Blade said:
I started going to the Lane regularly in January 1970 but I was surprised your dad didnt rate TC at first. He scored against Spurs on his debut, missed the next game due to getting wed, played for the rest of the season, scored twice against Liverpool (home and away) and scored at Burnley. He was only 18
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My dad always told me that, after TC's debut goal (a headed effort, I believe), he thought "he looks like a decent target man".
 
A few honourable mentions in this thread but it makes me realise that the vast majority of our players that started out shite stayed shite
 
It has to be Bob Booker.
His story about being on the point of retirement before joining and then being in the top division as a cult hero, is streets ahead of any other, except possibly Basham where there are so many similarities.
 
Going to add my two pence...

Billy Sharp (came good third time round)

Not to say he was shite, we all knew his pedigree and the fact he scored goals everywhere else, he was just played completely out of position by every manager until Adkins came (yes he was a terrible manager, but knew how to play Billy).
 
If you wanted a 10,000 thread it would have been better being called,

"Players that were useless to begin with and remained useless for the entire time they were here and end up getting fucked off with a payday"

And many wonder why we end up skint and can't compete financially
 

Kevin Arnott - ropey first season (think he might have gone out on loan as well) but came back and was brilliant in 83/84.
Simon Webster - useless until he'd had a pre-season with Harry
Marcus Bent - played out on the wing before Warnock arrived and then was moved up front.
Shaun Murphy (as above) - there's a funny piece about Warnock bollocking him early doors because he tried to dribble the ball in his own area and Warnock was shouting at him "Just fucking head it and fucking kick it!".
Peter Katchouro (sic) - was subbed as sub in one of his early games.
 
I’m going back a bit to Keith eddy from Watford pretty poor at first but turned into a callouses .
 
Nine Inch Nalis said:
Chris Basham.

Let's not be all revisionist here, nobody was singing his praises under Clough or Adkins, in fact he was quite the liability most often.
It even took me until 2017 to see his true worth.
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Bladesman said:
Basham is the one I was going to mention. Utter liability under Clough and Adkins especially when being played in midfield.

The role he has in our squad now suits him perfectly.
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Nine Inch Nalis said:
It's true, and it took ages to find his best position and there was a lot of moving around back and forth.
For a long time, the best anyone could say about him was, "good squad player" which is always a dubious label.
When Wilder's system eventually took shape he was completely transformed.
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At the risk of going against the grain here, I always liked the look of Basham, even when he was struggling. He clearly had something about him, with a terrific engine and gave us more bite in midfield than we had seen for a while. He just couldn't do it for a full game, and absolutely had a few stinkers too.

It's fair to say though that none of his good moments, even the 'Bash roulette' thingy that he did against Southampton, could prepare me for the complete man beast that he would later become for us.
 
Basham was dreadful until Wilder got hold of him, Coutts likewise.

Nick Montgomery got some stick but we could use a bloke like him in our midfield at the moment.

If Kean Bryan gets another year, which will likely be in the Championship, he could be quite useful next year
 
I always thought lee Sandford was a bit shit at first looked like he had the pace and body and even face of a 50 year old, proved me wrong and turned out to be really good...sorry Lee
 
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