Mark Hateley £1,5 mill. 34 years, brought in to replace Sir Les and zero resale value. And whatever we paid for the Pelican, even if it was no more than £10 we were ripped off!
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Barton - no fee but he'll have cost us millions (even when suspended) and approx 15 million if he sees out his contract. I could have forgiven him but his lack of remorse and genuine desire to make amends isn't exactly endearing.
Think the whole of the 6m that was received for Sir Les was washed down the drain. As a collective of transfers it was pretty impressive to get so many so very wrong. We should have just given Les to Newcastle would have been far easier and we wouldn't have had to give any cash to Hayes either.
Bob Malcolm has to be the worst player I've seen wear the hoops. But as he was only on loan, can't really be considered for this list. Just had a quick look at his Wikipedia page and it suggests he's played only five games in the last two years (for two Scottish sides) but scored six times! Beggars belief. Mark Hateley gets my vote.
All the above are worth mentioning. The Zelic/Osborne/Hateley trio from the Sir Les money has to be the biggest collective waste of money ever, although our spree last summer albeit with a number of 'freebies' thrown in was as bad in the performance stakes...
Just cannot think of his name, cannot find him easily on web, so I have got some fact wrong...who was that player, small centre forward bought from Arsenal mid 19990s who was the most useless *****, Talentless, money-grabbing and injury prone and on huge huge wages. His signing was one of the main reasons we started the fall into liquidation Help please (I wasn't watching at time....had my head under a pillow for about 3 years)
"He came from Arsenal, He cost the R's **** all, Keee-wom-YA! woah wo Woah! Keee-wom-YA! Woah wo Woah" I didn't think he was that bad. Slade was much worse? We had some pretty shocking players around then!
I remember his last day hat-trick v Palace that kept us up in 98-99, he did score a few but was part of a team in rapid decline...
As soon as I saw the thread title, Mark Hateley stumbled before my eyes......Joseph will eventually win this title though....
Has to be SWP for me, closely followed by Sheron. Barton has been expensive but he's put way more effort in that many of the names above.
