1973Blade
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An excellent summary of some of our players. I agree about Gary Speed, who had an excellent career, he was past his best when he joined us, he did OK but wasn't as effective as Gordon Cowans and Stuart McCallGlyn Hodges is the best we’ve had.
We’ve has two of Wales greatest ever players in Ian Rush and Gary Speed. Speed didn’t have the impact expected but still showed moments of quality and a good head to have round the dressing room. Ian Rush was well past it and stealing a living by the time he came to us on loan.
Some others
Dean Saunders - came to us as back up for Deane and Fjortoft when we were throwing daft money around in the Championship before the wheels came off. Again, his best years were probably behind him but chipped in with a few goals and I enjoyed watching him. The “cheeky” goal against Port Vale summing him up. Was sold to Benfica the following season when we were selling anything that wasn’t nailed down. We never got the full amount for either him or Brian Deane from Benfica as I recall. Lost respect for him in the past few years. The inaccurate stories he put out about Brian Clough’s alcoholism for a cheap laugh and to sell tickets for his after dinner speeches struck me as a real cunt’s trick and his drink driving episode certainly didn’t do him any favours.
Gareth Taylor - very limited footballer but a decent enough target man when everyone had one. Turned down a move to Utrecht despite being 4th or 5th choice striker. Scored a cracking volley from the edge of the area to beat forest at home. All the rest of his goals seemed to be headers.
Rob Page - Captained Wales and the Blades. Created a formidable partnership with Shaun Murphy at the back. Key part of the “triple assault” side. His legs had gone by the end of 03/04 and Warnock packed him off to Chesterfield.
Ched Evans - came from Man City for a surprisingly hefty transfer fee (at a time when we were relying heavily on free transfers and loans) and a lot of expectation. Struggled with form and fitness in his first couple of seasons and only found the back of the net a handful of times.
Had more or less been written off by the time of his arrest at the back end of 2010/11 which just added to the sense of doom and gloom around the club following relegation. The assumption was that he wouldn’t really feature for us again. Danny Wilson brought him on as a sub away at Scunthorpe where he bagged a late equaliser. The rest is well documented. One can only speculate how good a player he could have been had he not had so long out of the game.
Vinny Jones also turned out a few times for Wales in the late 90s when they were dreadful and would have anybody.