I would be amazed but delighted if we signed a top player at his peak as apart from Keegan who have we ever signed that was top class ? We have signed players that have had promise and some went on to perform well ,Beattie springs to mind but in general our toplayers were home grown ,we are just not a club that attracts top players,,some fans on here are unreal they want it always in there opinions. They want top players at low cost,low wages and small ego,s. well sorry they do not exist. Hope to be made stupid in January but the autumn signing hardly give me cause for optimism,,hootvelt about third choice and de ridder from nowhere too,,am over the moon with team this past year and top marks to whole club setup but am a realist too
Ahem... Ron Davies Dave Watson Chris Nicholl Ted MacDougall Phil Boyer Shall I bother to carry on..? The list is 4 or 5 times that long, at least. EDIT: Tell you what. If Saints sign one striker of the class of just either MacDougall or Boyer during the January window, let alone Davies, then promotion will be a shoe-in. Trouble is, they'll be each upward of £7-8 million. RE-EDIT: Just looked back at this post and I think I have seriously undervalued both Boyer and MacDougall. Ron Davies would command more than What'shisname at Liverpool.
I kind of know where you are coming from. I have followed saints since 95ish. And i cant remember a marquee signing until we dropped to league 1. Fonte, for our level was a massive signing. he was the best defender for a team the league above, and in his 20's. Same can be said for lambert, at that level. It remains to be seen if we will do it in the prem, i personally think they were one offs because we needed a quick fix after losing our original players.
Ron Davies signed from Norwich not top draw at the time but became a legion at the club(although i was at game at dell where fans booed him because he had lost his touch and wasnt playing well was ashamed that day) the others past there best maybe exception of watson plus you missed shilton although great servants for the club.all over 20 years ago. Am not knocking the club that I love dearly just a realist.
With respect, I don't think anyone was over their particular hill, and also I stopped naming players when I stopped. I certainly hadn't run out of players. As you say, the Saints crowd who booed Davies that day were wrong. I was also there and couldn't believe my ears. The Saints crowd can be a nasty bunch when they want to be. Nothing special about us.
I was pleased with the signing of Rickie Lambert at the time and for League 1 he was a big signing, but I bet if we signed the top scorer in league one today (Jordan Rhodes) it would be a good signing but not that Marque signing for which you refer. I think our last major signing was Kevin Philips and compared to Shilton or Keegan that seems a little flat.
so called "marque" signings do not always pay off - anyone think Torres and Carroll were worth the money? I prefer the likes of Beattie, Kevin Davies, Marian Pahars, Chris Marsden (football genius), Hassan Kachloul, etc who developped into key players for the saints.
Was just looking for the James Beattie bullet header goal against Man City, which involved Marian Pahars [I'm sure you remember it, great goal and we won 3-1] at the then, Eastlands Stadium. But I got slightly more than I bargained for. Watch it through. Wrong striped shirts, wrong teammates. Great goal: [video=youtube;mVCjlIAW1_E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCjlIAW1_E[/video]
