Set to join Spurs for 8.5 million

joined the Saints from Wolves on a freebie

at the same time as we signed Goma and Farcelino for 11 million

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001

Answers

spotting good bargains...not

aaargghhh

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001

It's even worse than that Pete - at the time he indicated very clearly that was interested in joining us.
Apparently, he wasn't considered to be a good enough footballing CB for RG - tousle-haired tosser!

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001

From what I heard at the time Clarky, RG was very interested in him, but he had already signed Goma and Marcelino and couldn't guarantee him a place, so he ended up at Southampton.

I may be wrong though.

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001

I think he's too slow and I have been given the same opinion from Wolves supporters. Would have done on a free transfer I suppose but Spurs are mad to pay that much for him.

He came to SJP to watch a match during Gullit's reign, met him to discuss a possible move but then nothing materialised. Richards's said that he didn't hear any more from gullit after that.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

I wouldn't tar Goma and Marcelino with the same brush - Goma played some decent football and we made (literally) a few quid on him, didn't we?

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Dean Richards does lacks pace, but which 6'2" "brick netty" centre half doesn't?
He's an excellent CB - better than Goma, Marcelino and Dumas all rolled together, and our failure to sign him on a FT was just one of Gullit's many mistakes.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Isn't there an element of "wise after the event" about this? Who honestly would have classed him as a great CB before Hoddle paid this much for him? How many of us were that turned on by Saha for that matter? I don't blame Gullit for Goma or Marcelino: both were considered top class defenders before they came to NUFC, Marcelino in particular.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

clarky in reply to your question on the first line of your post, DISTIN, I hope!!

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Dougal, Do you recall your assessment of Darren McDonagh and Peter Garland the very first time you saw them?
Do you remember watching Guivarc'h playing for France, after we'd signed him, and getting that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?
Likewise, did you see Marcia play for Real Mallorca in that UEFA Cup Final after we'd signed him? Yup - same sinking feeling: he was cr@p. That is not the wisdom of hindsight - it's the sort of football sense/understanding that many fans have, but appears to be lacking on some Managers.

Dean Richards was good CB even when he was with Wolves, and personally I was amazed and disappointed when RG didn't sign him - on a FT ffs. I also believe it was known he was out of contract, and therefore available for nowt, long before we signed the other three buffoons at vast expense.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Fair do's Clarky: I'd never given a thought to Dean Richards ever apart from fond memories of his face when the ball hit him right in the balls at SJP in the 5-0 drubbing a couple of seasons ago. I agree that Marcelino was awful in that UEFA final but he'd had some good games in the competition and, I believe, was part of the stingiest defence in Spain the year we bought him. Sometimes our first instincts about players are good, sometimes bad they are bad: we thought Lua Lua was immense when he first came and now we have doubts, we thought Bellamy was awful and are being proven wrong, Nobby didn't look much cop until his second season.... I just don't particularly blame Gullit for not taking up Richards or for buying two players who were very well regarded in their respective leagues before joining us. What I do blame him for is his assessment of certain players who have gone on to do a job for us under YBR ...but that's a different story entirely.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

PS. Clarky, talking about Dumas, the best Newcastle defensive performance I've seen in the past five years was Arsenal v NUFC at Highbury just after YBR joined: we were so solid you wouldn't recognise us and the best player on the park was Dumas. I think Gullit could spot a good player (Domi was a mint player). I think the club has some duty to look into a player's personality and at that point, we were backing managers without a thought.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Franck the Pie Man - one game wonder: suspect character and lazy git. Bad signing.
Goma - decent player: temperamentally unsuitable. Bad signing.
Marcia - physically not up to the PL. Abysmal signing.

Total investment ca £12mm. Amount recovered/recoverable £4-5mm. Draw your own conclusion.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

You're dead right Clarky, that's basically £8m down the drain - or over half of a world class future Rob Lee for us, gone.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Although we did make a profit on Dumas

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Clarky, I'm not arguing with their temperaments, but I think all of Gullit's purchases have been decent players. Besides which, if we lost a few million off Marcelino and about a million off Goma (we were about even on Domi and Dumas), we were at one point looking at a £19 million profit on Dyer so all in all, even allowing for the Ferguson factor, I think Gullit's financial legacy isn't anywhere near as bad as we'd like to think it was.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001