The only good signing really. Edit- think Nosworthy was one of the frees in which case he would probably be one of the best or was he previous season? In fairness to McCarthy His overall transfer record was very good, plenty of bargains.
Bent was very, very good for us. Sadly his ego, money grabbing nature and Cappello's unwillingness to look at any player further north than Manchester got him out. He could have been a legend here otherwise. Grigg (Don't think he ever played against us, but wow) Rodwell - much hype as a young un, but little to show for it by the time he came here Flo - poor for Rangers and generally disinterested Cole - past it when we signed him (apparently Denis Smith had wanted to sign him from Arsenal as a kid before Smith was sacked and promptly signed him for Bristol City when he wound up managing them) Stubbs - not interested, never want to be here Lescott - past it when he came here Whitley - drunk!
Before my time really but Claudio Marangoni. Probably sold just as he was getting to grips with English football, though he struggled to settle. After leaving us and generally being disappointing he joined Huracan and then Independiente in 1982, winning three major titles, the 1983 Argentine league championship, the Copa Libertadores and the world club championship in 1984. After leaving Independiente he joined Boca Juniors and won two more international tournaments, the Supercopa Sudamericana in 1989 and the Recopa Sudamericana in 1990. He also won 9 caps for Argentina and should have been part of the 1986 world cup squad but fell out with the manager before the tournament.
I think Marangoni was 2-3 seconds ahead of the rest of his team mates while he was here, so looked worse than he actually was. As his subsequent record proved, he was a class act. Back to flops -Keith Bertschin. Was excellent against us but didn't do much here. Alan Kennedy would be another that's best forgotten. Whitehurst!
Very similar to what my dad used to say about him. He said he thought that Marangoni struggled with the pace in England at first, but when he adapted he began to show what he could do. Lots of little tricks including playing 1-2s off opponents shins! But that other players couldn't read him which made him look poor. A shame really when you see what happened in the rest of his career that he wasn't given more of a chance. I think the problem with people like Keith Bertschin and Alan Kennedy was that by the time we signed them, they were past it and only going further downhill. A few years earlier and they might have been different, that's why they had looked good against us previously but did nowt for us when here. Billy White Hurst, however, he was a nut job.
Christ that's name I'd forgotten about. I googled Swindlehurst, he played 72 games for us and scored 11 goals in 2 seasons. I'm really surprised he played that many times, I barely remembered him! To be generous to him, he had only played 61 games (16 goals) in 2 seasons at West Ham as he seemed to have had a bad time with injuries there after having a decent career at Palace and Derby beforehand. It might be that when we signed him he might well have been knackered, as he didn't play much after leaving us and retired when he was 33. Still, there's no excuse for the fact he shouldn't have been signed. We really did sign some crap under McBastardly.
One for you oldies...Gordon Harris ex England International. Bought from Burnley by Jimmy Adamson and was shocking..don't think he stayed too long.
Marangoni was always going to struggle here at that time. The game was very physical and often very direct. 4-4-2. Hard running, hard tackling, get it up there. That was mostly your lot. A player like that turning up now would excel .
I also think we were jumping on the bandwagon at the time as well. Spurs had signed Ardiles and Villa and the media were in a frenzy about them. The bright lights of London may have been an exciting proposition to foreign players. Jackie Whites Market and Roker Beach in Sunderland not so much.
I only remember Gordon Harris as a slow "old man". Bought by Ian McColl when he was setting fire to the club, Harris was 27 when he signed for us! This only a year and a bit after being picked for England, as a precaution in case Bobby Charlton was injured for the '66 World Cup. He had some injuries , even by then, but was seen then a as a strong running midfielder, after being a flying winger in his early twenties. He could whack a ball mind, I can remember that much as a very young kid!
I'm sure it was him that my dad said had knees like a road map with all the scar tissue. Unless I'm mixing it up.
Quite possibly. I was very young, and he seemed impossible old for a footballer, but he was just one of those, craggy, old looking guys even when he was kid I think.
