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Your top three most exciting City signings ever


Major Isewater

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20 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

Nobody knew that we'd still struggle to score with Royle on board so I was excited by the signing for the reasons that I gave equally the one you have commented on that we didn't sign him until the following November.

We'd waited so long that added to the joy.

 

My apologies Major, you are quite right. In fact, it is amazing to think that during those 4 years in the top flight, Cheese, our main spearhead, was crocked in just the second game and yet we went ages before replacing him! Also, in those 4 seasons, in which goalscoring was our main downfall, we brought in just two proven strikers(Royle/Garland) and then a striker from non-league (Ian Doyle). OK, 17 year old Kevin Mabbutt was also given his chance and did well, but it still amazes me with the turnover we have in strikers now that we had so little at our disposal in the top flight and did so little to address this glaring issue.

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As in exciting my 3 based on the excitement of the signing and not necessarily how well they did would be:

Tony Thorpe - Had a really good record and was a decent striker. I believe he signed during the summer when we got promoted to Div 1 1998. It really felt things were moving upwards but a following season of Ward who left (or fired), Lennartsson, really killed the chance we were moving upwards. It was only when Pulis left and Fawthrop, Rosenior, Burnside too the helm for a while that Thorpe started to show some form.

 

Danny Wilson - Had lots of success with Barnsley who played great football and having gone all the way to the chosen it seemed he was the man to take us forward. He always came across well and had integrity. After the Pulis era, albeit short followed by the gang of three the arrival of Wilson raised spirits.

// I hope managers are within the rules Major.

 

Scott Murray 2nd time. The performances and goal scoring of Murray prior to his move to Reading were a joy to behold. The instinctive telepathic relationship with Tinnion felt that every time Tins passed to Murray we would probably score. His return wasn't as fantastic as his first stint but his record speaks for itself and if you cut him half he'd have Bristol City FC written all around him like a stick of rock. 

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1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

Yes but were you really excited at the prospect of signing him ?

That's a little bit the theme of this thread, not our greatest ever player .

I see where you are all coming from. But given the era, when all information and hype came solely from newspapers, I would still go with John. 

Consider this. He had been at Portsmouth as an amateur, yet played in First Division for them. Pompey had just won two First Division titles in a row and we nick one of their most promising young players. Harry Dolman certainly talked it up in the press and by first game of the season, there was a real buzz about the new lad Atyeo. 

So with deference to the intent from the OP, I will choose two totally different characters. 

Norman Hunter and Andrew Cole. 

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2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

1. Andy Cole. After the initial loan spell, didn’t think we had a hope of getting him permanently. That we did, and had Jacki and Rosenior ready to form an attacking trio which would in theory be the best in the league was something special

2. David James. Ended badly, and way past his best, but it was England’s WC keeper - remember the thread on here. Been no hysteria at that level since

3. Evander Sno. After that Ajax friendly and the standing ovation, couldn’t wait. Again, didn’t happen the way we hoped

 

Lesson from all the above - anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment!

 

 

These three, and for exactly the same reasons!

JET  and Alan Walsh close behind. JET for similar reasons to Sno. Walsh because in those dark days it seemed like we'd only ever sign players from the depths of non league, and Walsh was at that level a decent player, and we got him so cheap!

And I also wonder whether a lot of the "disappointment" comes from the over-expectation! Andy Cole did fine for us, and I still maintain that David James was one of the technically best keepers I've seen, just struggled with what was going on around him I think.

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In no particular order:

  • Andy Cole: the club took a massive risk and it paid off.  Then we sold him for massively less than he was worth, and didn't insert a sell-on clause
  • Robbie Turner: a sign that we were looking to move on from routine lower league waifs and strays to proper players, for the first time in a decade.   Soon to be followed by Bob Taylor, Gary Shelton, etc in a team that simply blew the opposition away (mostly)
  • Kodjia: we finally appeared to have a broader transfer scouting network than the UK, plus he was absolute dynamite

I was tempted to put Jackie in there, but I knew how it would end.  And I was right.

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1 hour ago, BerkeleyBAred said:

Joe Jordan - always remember watching him warm up from the Dolman on his debut at the gate. He oozed professionalism from playing at the top level which we hadn’t seen before in my opinion. Remember getting glimpses of him in the fog on ‘that day’ back in Div 1, so for us to secure a player of that quality was rare and exciting - even if he was in the autumn of his career.

Andy Cole - for all the reasons mentioned previously

And coming back to recent times, Tammy Abraham..Chelsea letting us nurture one for the future - how times were changing. Would he be any good....or a dud? Trepid anticipation of a football fan always believing but old enough to know that it’s normally futile!

Anyway - that one worked and delivered the results to match the original anticipation.

Wonder who will be the next one who causes the same stir - as it’s not currently on the horizon and becoming visible....

Over to Mark Ashton....or maybe the next Mark Ashton!

Joe Jordan - yep

Andy Cole - yep

the other first me was...

Gert Meijer - not as successful as the other two, but created huge excitement when signed.

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1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

You have all ignored, forgotten or just did not think of the best signing we have ever made. JOHN ATYEO. 

 

I was minus 18 years old.  My parents were still at school.  Unsurprisingly, I don't recall that one.

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2 hours ago, Brann-red said:

1) Ralph Milne - as I think it was the first player city had brought who was in one of my panini sticker albums from Man U . 

 

We got Milne from Hearts, IIRC, and sold him to ManUre (much to everyone's utter amazement)

Came on loan at first, I think, seem to recall he scored a truly outrageous lobbed volley from 20 yards...

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20 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

I see where you are all coming from. But given the era, when all information and hype came solely from newspapers, I would still go with John. 

Consider this. He had been at Portsmouth as an amateur, yet played in First Division for them. Pompey had just won two First Division titles in a row and we nick one of their most promising young players. Harry Dolman certainly talked it up in the press and by first game of the season, there was a real buzz about the new lad Atyeo. 

So with deference to the intent from the OP, I will choose two totally different characters. 

Norman Hunter and Andrew Cole. 

Ok , thanks for your reply. You can have Atyeo .

 

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1. Marcus Stewart. 

Signed in a very busy summer. There was a huge amount of hype around the fact that Stewart was ‘Bristol born and red’. I thought his signing along with Michael Bridges would be the catalyst for a real promotion push.

2. David James.

This seemed to be a real statement of intent from the club. Having Coppell in charge as well installed a real belief Pre season that this could be our year. 

3. Lee Tomlin 

The way this transfer was dragged out after a good loan spell increased the excitement when he did actually sign. Mainly because many of us thought we’d seen him for the last time in a City shirt at AG against Huddersfield a few months earlier.

Worth mentioning Luke Freeman, Lee Trundle and Ade Akinbiyi as well.

 

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28 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

We got Milne from Hearts, IIRC, and sold him to ManUre (much to everyone's utter amazement)

Came on loan at first, I think, seem to recall he scored a truly outrageous lobbed volley from 20 yards...

Well remembered - so I can further recall Ralph Milne was a sticker in the Dundee United section in panini . 

I think I may have answered this as a “player most surprised to leave for a big club” section instead !

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Difficult to trim it down to three, but here goes (in no particular order):

Lee Tomlin

Marcus Stewart

Lee Trundle

Interesting that none of these reached the heights expected of them.

Other signings who could have made my list:

Jordan, Akinbiyi,  Dave Smith,  JET, and Murray (when he returned to us).

 

 

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Peter Cormack. As a kid during the 70's, before I grew out of such things, Liverpool were my "second club" and I just couldn't believe we could sign one of their players who had been a hero of mine.

Geert Meijer - Because signing a Dutchman from Ajax somehow seemed like we had really hit the big time, this was a time when the Dutch were probably one of the top 5 teams in the world.

Lee Trundle - I knew his reputation and the way Swansea fans spoke about him, just wanted to see a real footballer in our team 

 

 

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