A little off topic here but a thread on the Southampton board inspired me to write this article. Basically, tell us which players you were most pleased to see leave the club, and which you were most saddened by. Try to keep them post PL era, so that young un's like myself can contribute I'll go first. Glad: Dejan Stefanovic - What a misery of a player, woeful performances for FFC, surprising as he was actually alright with Portsmouth. Him saying he hoped Portsmouth would beat us on the last day of the season, to send us down, was the final straw for me. Old, crap and couldn't even get in the side ahead of Ian Pearce. One of our worst players for sure. Mladen Petric - What high hopes we all had for him after the Norwich game where he opened his FFC account with two goals. Sadly they dried up as the season went on and he was restricted to cameo appearances from the bench. Some inexcusable misses (Chelsea sticks out) and shoddy half arsed performances mean he won't likely be missed this season. Bringing him on always seemed like a sign of desperation from Jol. Bobby Zamora - I'll admit I never really took to Zamora the way that other FFC fans may have. Never really rated him at West Ham and am too young to remember his Brighton/Tottenham days. Despite that, always willing to give him a chance, and he proved he wrong considerably, playing a vital role in some of our greatest ever matches. However, his attitude coupled with his disdain for the fans (ear cupping, verbal abuse) meant his time here may not be remembered all that fondly. Hodgson was right to ship him out, as his form for QPR since would suggest. Sad: Simon Davies - Quite possibly my second favourite sportsman of all time, the first being the late snooker player Paul Hunter. Epitomised class and was one of the hardest working players I've seen at the Cottage. In his prime was one of the finest wingers in the PL and capable of scoring some fantastic goals (Hamburg, Atletico etc). I know his time had come to an end due to some niggling injuries, but as Senderos mentioned recently, we're not putting enough decent crosses into the box, something Davies was always capable of doing. Riether and Davies in his prime on the right side? Imagine. Chris Baird - Who would have put Mr Versatility here after his first few months at FFC? The man everybody liked to blame slowly but surely became a cult hero at FFC. Unspectacular in every sense of the word, but hard working and talented in various different positions meant he thoroughly earned his place among Hodgson's better players during his time here. Will always be remembered for his double vs Stoke which turned our season around under Hughes to stop the rot. Steed Malbranque - Consider myself very lucky to have watched this man at the Cottage during his prime. I read a quote from somebody a few years back which went 'Steed - French for 'sweet left foot'' Our midfield of Steed/Boa/Davis/Clark has yet to be beaten and is no surprise that under Tigana we played the best football I've seen at the Cottage, a lot of that down to Steed. Moussa Dembele - It had to be him. Even though he is our record sale, the money exchanged was a pittance in regards to exactly how instrumental and valuable this man was to the team. Watching him hustle his way through midfield's, shoulder barging defenders off the ball, was a thing of beauty. Rarely do you see a player that physical play with so much grace. Yet to be replaced at FFC and most likely won't ever be. I can't understand Jol banging on about us missing Dempsey, but missing Dembele can be excused.
That would be Mr Jol - it was only January 2012! Otherwise a good thread and I agree on the whole. Glad Andy Johnson. I know a lot of people here rated him, but in reality he didn't do a lot. He must've spent, what, nearly 2 years on the treatment table? Not his fault, I know, but it kind of negates the claims that "he always put a shift in". His classless post-move comments sealed it for me. Sad A couple of obvious ones, but I was sad to see Saha and, to a lesser extent, Van Der Sar go. Saha moreso because he was responsible for some of my favourite moments as an FFC fan, and was with us in Division One. Van Der Sar, because, well, you don't like to see players of his class leave, do you? Those are all I can think of at the moment.
I was sad to see Barry Hayles leave, although as with Digger I knew the time was right. I was also sad to see Coleman go (as a player), in part due to the manner of his injury and also because us signing him back in 1997 was really a defining moment for me as an 11 year old fan. I was glad to see Zamora leave. To be honest, it was very tiring defending his sullen attitude and the constant disrespect he showed the fans at the end was hard to take. Michael Brown was also someone I was relieved to see the back of - I did not enjoy watching him when I was at university in Sheffield (he was a Blade) and he was so un-Fulhamish. Somewhat ironically, it was Mr. Quality Football himself (Sanchez) who moved him on.
Like it Bandit. Can we have the UGLY as well? please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Only joking, right now I would be glad to have either of them in that troublesome spot. And I was definitely sad to see this guy go - please log in to view this image
For the departures that made me saddest, you have to go back to two bombshells from 1984. Malcolm McDonald departing as manager for reasons beyond football (can't remember entirely what it was now, but I remember that as a teenaged fan it made no sense to me) and Gordon Davies leaving to join Chelsea and sit on the subs bench for a year. He was considered a flop there, but according to Wikipedia he got 6 goals in 13 appearances for them, many of them (probably) from the bench. At least Gordon came back two years later. Slightly (only slightly) more recent: Ara Bedrossian. I loved the way he could thread a pass through a defence. If we had someone now who could do the same, Bent and Berba would fill their boots.
