Bargain Buys! Have We Ever Made Made Any (in Recent Times!)

[alanpayne]

Looking at last Saturdays team there was just one of our "magnificient seven" close season signings in the starting line-up. Yet again we don't seem to have spent wisely during the summer.

In my view there is nothing wrong with Stewart and Bridges but a club like City can't afford to have someone on Bridges wages sat on the bench - the money (his signing-on fee and wages) could have been more prudently spent in other areas. I have no problem with Partridge but I do think £150k, particularly when we were reported to have said we were not prepared to pay £100k for Nelson of Hartlepool last season, seems excessive.

This leads me to my question! When was the last time we made, what proved to be an astute signing involving a transfer fee! I can't immediately think of one! We usually overpay!

My favourite signing involving a transfer fee (sorry I'm going back too far for most of you!) would be John Galley. £30k from Rotherhan (our relegation rivals at the time).John hit about 26 goals, (includng a hatrick debut at Huddersfield), kept us in the old Div 2 and Rotherham under Tommy Docherty were relegated!

I'll be interested to hear views!

[RedM]

I still think mickey Bell was one of our best buys (fee set by a tribunial I believe), this is of course with hindsight.

But you are right it seems far easier to recall players who we paid dear for and let them go for nothing in most cases, or next to nothing.

[Robbored]

Goater was also a sound buy - again from Rotherham I think.

But the best bargain of recent times had to be Shaun Taylor.

[Guest Ron]

Actually there were 2; Stewart and Partridge - with Keogh & Bridges on the bench, Heywood & Russel out injured, and I forget who the other guy is.

Problem?

[Wilksi]

Not a buy as such... but he was released by chelsea one Leeroy Lita..

scored a couple of goals then done the best thing he ever could do get us a million quid..

[Red 1963]

Alan Walsh from Darlington for $10,000 has to one of the best signings we've ever made.

What about the biggest bargain in football history Norman Hunter for 40,000 in 1976-he kept City in the top flight for three years-then he left and we have not recovered since.

[robins72]

How much did we pay for Andy COle?

[Old Dazzler]

Alan Walsh from Darlington for $10,000 has to one of the best signings we've ever made.

What about the biggest bargain in football history Norman Hunter for 40,000 in 1976-he kept City in the top flight for three years-then he left and we have not recovered since.

Hunter was sheer class. I think that we all thought that we would be getting an ageing hard-man.

He was still one of the hardest in the game but he also had the vision, skill, and ability to pass that we have not seen the like of in our defence since he left.

His partnership in the centre of defence with David Rodgers was something to behold. Rodgers was a strapping, awkward centre half who won just about everything in the air and got away with murder because the refs were always looking out for Norman. When Rodgers didn't win the ball he usually ended up on his backside in the penalty area when Hunter would cooly rescue the situation. Not much got past these two!

The other thing that marked him out as a class player is something that some of our defenders over the years, with a fraction of Hunter's class have never mastered and that is the abilty to know exactly when a ball needs to be hoofed into Row Z.

Walsh, Goater and Taylor were also excellent buys.

Another that has to be right up there is Keith Curle - bought from Torquay for £10,000 as a winger. Terry Cooper turned him into a centre back where he played brilliantly for a few seasons. We sold him too cheaply to Reading and before we know it he was in the top flight with Wimbledon then Man City and then playing for England.

Also worth a mention - Andy Cole and Ade Akinbiyi.

Scott Murray wasn't a bad buy either (first time around) £150,000 from Villa.

[Mr Mosquito]

How much did we pay for Andy COle?

I think we paid £500,000 to buy Andy Cole from The Arsenal circa 1991. Andy Cole was an absolute gem, shame we couldn't hold onto him.

[Old Dazzler]

How much did we pay for Andy COle?

We paid Arsenal £500,000 for Andy Cole after an initial loan period.

We sold him to Kevin Keegan's Newcastle for around £1.8 million, who later sold him to Man Utd for around £7 million.

Just as we were rubbing our hands at the thought of maybe bagging £1 million as our part of the "sell-on clause" the Board revealed that such a minor detail had been overlooked when we negotiated his sale to Newcastle!

[coomber]

Paul Allen was a decent short term signing back in 96/97.

Also, Adam Locke wasnt bad. Wasn't he a freebie?

Paul Agostino - wasnt he signed for a nominal fee from Young Boys in Switzerland? If only we'd managed to keep him, or at least get a proper transfer fee.

[Gerry Gows' Tash]

How much did we pay for Andy COle?

Half a Mill, sold to Newcastle for 5 mil just over a season later IIRC.

[fRed]

Have you forgotten Steve Torpey?

[WayOutWest]

I think Mark Robins on loan. Cant remember a player making that much impact in such a short space of time. He was only here a month but banged in a load of goals, that made the Rotherham Manager want him back pronto.

I always liked Steve Galliers. Had him for a couple of season, probably took a small hit on selling him on. But for a smaller player his game was huge.

Goes without saying Jacki. Probably cost us more than we had. Excellent at times, sometimes even better than that, then would go missing defo lazy. Didnt fit into managers plans, a victim of being an absurdly great player in a very ordinary league where you need a work horse and mucker.

Darren Barnard springs to mind.

Also mustn forget that Jim Brennan was a fringe player until Benny Lennartson got hold of him and made him into a millon pound player. Think Benny would have done a job for us in time.

My thoughts

Steve

[Steve Watts]

Half a Mill, sold to Newcastle for 5 mil just over a season later IIRC.

£1.75m he went for....WITH NO SODDING SELL ON CLAUSE!!!!

Mark Shail was a bargain at £35k from Yeovil...as was Shauny Taylor. How much did we pay for Super Bob and Robbie "Carnage" Turner? Best front pairing we had in a while!

[Guest]

We bought Murray for £110'000 from AV.

His best days are perhaps beyond him now, but you can't say we didn't get our moneys worth pre Reading saga

[Bangkok Red]

Hunter was sheer class. I think that we all thought that we would be getting an ageing hard-man.

He was still one of the hardest in the game but he also had the vision, skill, and ability to pass that we have not seen the like of in our defence since he left.

His partnership in the centre of defence with David Rodgers was something to behold. Rodgers was a strapping, awkward centre half who won just about everything in the air and got away with murder because the refs were always looking out for Norman. When Rodgers didn't win the ball he usually ended up on his backside in the penalty area when Hunter would cooly rescue the situation. Not much got past these two!

The other thing that marked him out as a class player is something that some of our defenders over the years, with a fraction of Hunter's class have never mastered and that is the abilty to know exactly when a ball needs to be hoofed into Row Z.

Walsh, Goater and Taylor were also excellent buys.

Another that has to be right up there is Keith Curle - bought from Torquay for £10,000 as a winger. Terry Cooper turned him into a centre back where he played brilliantly for a few seasons. We sold him too cheaply to Reading and before we know it he was in the top flight with Wimbledon then Man City and then playing for England.

Also worth a mention - Andy Cole and Ade Akinbiyi.

Scott Murray wasn't a bad buy either (first time around) £150,000 from Villa.

Good post Old Dazzler, but I think you will find it was Gary Collier playing alongside Norman Hunter.

Rodgers only got into the side in the last season in the top flight, by which time Hunter had retired & Collier had joined Coventry. The failure to replace either of them was the main reason we ended being relegated and, well you know what happened after that.

[maxjak]

Has to be Super Bob Taylor, purchased from Leeds Utd reserves for 175,000, he scored 58 goals in 126 appearances and was then sold (Criminally) to WBA for 300,000. If hadn't pulled a hamstring against Crewe at home(shortly after having completed a hat-trick) with six games left, it would of been us rather than the Gas who would have won the league that season (alledgedly)!

[robins72]

Ahhh Super Bob was my hero when I was a young un

[stortfordred]

When was the last time we made, what proved to be an astute signing involving a transfer fee! I can't immediately think of one! We usually overpay!

Good point and yet whenever we sign someone, the cheer they get at the Gate is always the biggest of the day.

We always seem to welcome new players like heros and then go off them in about two weeks! Perhaps the real long term favourites are always the home grown ones!

[Nogbad the Bad]

Good post Old Dazzler, but I think you will find it was Gary Collier playing alongside Norman Hunter.

Rodgers only got into the side in the last season in the top flight, by which time Hunter had retired & Collier had joined Coventry. The failure to replace either of them was the main reason we ended being relegated and, well you know what happened after that.

Not sure about that - Collier surely played his last game for City at the end of the first season at Coventry. Didn't he sign for them almost immediately afterwards?

Rodgers must have played alot, even though he was a very limited player. If it wasn't Rodgers for the best part of 3 seasons, who was it?

The drawback in signing Norman was uprooting the great Geoff Merrick to left back. Bit harsh after he turned down Arsenal the previous season.

[jimmyb]

Ahhh Super Bob was my hero when I was a young un

Please don't I go all teary eyed when we start talking about super bob.

On the subject of Andy Cole can someone enlighten me as to whether Arsenal had a sell on as well so they got a cut of the money we got from newcastle? I seem to remember they did meaning cole ended up costing nearly a million pound and we only mady £7/800k profit.

As bargain signings go as well what about Jordan? Cant remember what we paid for him but he did a good job as a player for a couple of years before being our most successful manager since Alan Dicks ruled the roost here.

[22A]

Summer 1990 Mark Gavin went to Watford and City received Wayne Allison plus £100,000. A few years later we resigned Mark Gavin on a free transfer.

[Bangkok Red]

Not sure about that - Collier surely played his last game for City at the end of the first season at Coventry. Didn't he sign for them almost immediately afterwards?

- No. he left at the end of the 3rd season. Dicks chose to spend the money on the useless Tony Fitzpatrick instead of a central defender.

Rodgers must have played alot, even though he was a very limited player.

- He did play a lot in the 2nd division.

If it wasn't Rodgers for the best part of 3 seasons, who was it?

- Collier

The drawback in signing Norman was uprooting the great Geoff Merrick to left back. Bit harsh after he turned down Arsenal the previous season.

- Agreed. Sir Geoff was never the same player again, but he was a better option than Drysdale who was past it by that time.

[Bangkok Red]

Not sure about that - Collier surely played his last game for City at the end of the first season at Coventry. Didn't he sign for them almost immediately afterwards?

- No. he left at the end of the 3rd season. Dicks chose to spend the money on the useless Tony Fitzpatrick instead of a central defender.

Rodgers must have played alot, even though he was a very limited player.

- He did play a lot in the 2nd division.

If it wasn't Rodgers for the best part of 3 seasons, who was it?

- Collier

The drawback in signing Norman was uprooting the great Geoff Merrick to left back. Bit harsh after he turned down Arsenal the previous season.

- Agreed. Sir Geoff was never the same player again, but he was a better option than Drysdale who was past it by that time.

[Nogbad the Bad]

You're absolutely right about Collier sarasin. I'd forgotten he'd played 3 seasons for us in the top flight.

I've just looked up Rodgers in BCFC First 100 years.

Apparently he was with us for 13 years and made 193 apps., leaving of course as one of the Ashton Eight.

Seems the only time he really made the position his own was in the 2 or 3 seasons after Collier left in July 1979.

Norman left in June 79 so Hunter and Rodgers would very rarely have played together.

Presumably Sir Geoffrey Merrick belatedly moved across to partner him then, although i remember the likes of Roger Kenyon (although he doesn't seem to feature in the book) and Julian Marshall getting games at that time too.

[Bangkok Red]

Presumably Sir Geoffrey Merrick belatedly moved across to partner him then, although i remember the likes of Roger Kenyon (although he doesn't seem to feature in the book) and Julian Marshall getting games at that time too.

Sir Geoff reverted back to central defence in the final season in div 1 and Dicks experimented with Clive Whitehead appearing at left back and (unbelievably) in central defence! Roger Kenyon only played for City on loan and that may be the reason he doesn't appear in your book. Julian Marshall came in the Houghton era (Div 2) and is a worthy candidate for one of the worst City players of all time.

[alanpayne]

Some really interesting posts.

You all seemed to have vindicated my original point though! - we havent made many bargain buys in recent years!

Now we have Sir Gary on board all that is about to change!

[Old Dazzler]

Good post Old Dazzler, but I think you will find it was Gary Collier playing alongside Norman Hunter.

Rodgers only got into the side in the last season in the top flight, by which time Hunter had retired & Collier had joined Coventry. The failure to replace either of them was the main reason we ended being relegated and, well you know what happened after that.

Sorry if I seem pedantic, but I was convinced that Rodgers and Hunter was the main central defensive pairing for the 1978/9 season. Sad as I may seem, I checked out the WBA programe of that season with 3 league games left. The Rodgers/Hunter partnership was ever present up until 1st Jan when Hunter missed one game and Collier made his 1st appearance of the season. The partnership was only broken for a handful of games and Rodgers only missed 2 games all season.

Collier only played another 4 games that season, which was the reason he eventually went to Coventry under the new contract rules. Merrick was injured all season, not that he would have played if he had been fit - Merrick was shown to be totally out of his depth in the top flight, which was why Hunter was brought in in the first place.

As for Collier, great prospect that he was when he first appeared in the mid 70s, he also struggled to make any real impact at this level. While the general concensus was that Collier was a better footballer than Rodgers, Alan Dicks justifably stuck with Rodgers alongside Hunter and the results and league table show that he was right to do so.

That season saw City finish 13th in what is now the premiership, their highest finish in modern times, and the league table in my programme shows that after 36 games City, in 11th place had conceded 44 goals. Man U were 10th having only played 31 games but conceding 52 goals. Compare this with Chelsea who had conceded 74 goals in 34 games and were relegated that season! Whatever happened to them. The Rodgers/Hunter partership saw a few decent results, notablya 3-1 win at Old Trafford, a 1-0 win at home to Liverpool, a 5-0 win at home to Coventry. And they notched up a 3-1 win at home to Chelsea, with David Rodgers popping up to score his 6th goal of the season.

This is why I mentioned the partnership. I'm sure that most people that were around and going to the games at the time obviously remember "bites yer legs Hunter", but tend to forget the contribution of the whole-hearted, if somewhat ungainly, big, old fashioned Centre-half. David Rodgers, we salute you!

[Northern Red]

Although he wasn't that great, didn't we double our money on Liam Robinson after 1 year (and 4 goals).