Biggest Transfer Shock (1 Viewer)

Sky_Blue_Daz

Well-Known Member
I’m going to say the transfer in that never happened Neil Lennon, the missing link for us at the time Atkinson and Strachan met him agreed terms but left without him putting pen to paper only for Martin O’Neil to nip in and nick him for Leicester in a division lower at the time. Lennon became the maln stay of a very good Leicester team for a few years.
I read somewhere that Atkinson wanted to play him as a centre half, and this is what led to Lennon signing for Leicester
 

jimmyhillsfanclub

Well-Known Member
In: Hadji

Out: Kirkland to the red shite for £6.5m was it.......he'd only played about 20 games & suddenly was the most expensive keeper in British history....

Going way back to when I was a little nipper.....selling Wallace to forest for over £1m was mental just because of the price tag at the time......couldn't believe my club were involved in one of the most expensive transfers in the world......
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
Shame McAllister was so diabolically bad his first couple of seasons, because he really seemed like the missing link - the sprinkling of stardust that would lift an expensively assembled side to the level it wanted to be at. He was a league winner who chose to come to us.

But boy, was he a waste of cash (as so many were around that time!)
 

JulianDarbyFTW

Well-Known Member
John Salako. Saw the newspaper billboard that we were signing him for £2m and thought 'this is it, we're destined for the big time'. How wrong I was.
 

JulianDarbyFTW

Well-Known Member
I’m going to say the transfer in that never happened Neil Lennon, the missing link for us at the time Atkinson and Strachan met him agreed terms but left without him putting pen to paper only for Martin O’Neil to nip in and nick him for Leicester in a division lower at the time. Lennon became the maln stay of a very good Leicester team for a few years.

By the same token, Chris Marsden going to...I want to say Wolves..? I'm still very upset about that.
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
John Salako. Saw the newspaper billboard that we were signing him for £2m and thought 'this is it, we're destined for the big time'. How wrong I was.
Trevor Brooking in the Radio Times tipped us as dark horses for the title that season.

Then we lost 3-0 to Newcastle first day of the season (I think!).

Frustrating thing is we spent at the right time, just before transfer fees really took off. Just a shame we bought the wrong players / had the wrong manager buy them.
 

nunchuckas

Well-Known Member
This may sound odd but the sale that upset me most was John Aloisi. He kind of symbolised my frustrations at the time. A quality, proven, goal scorer who wasn't starting. He'd have bagged loads of goals in league 1 if he'd been allowed.

Forgive me if I'm not remembering correctly!

I could never understand why Aloisi was never given a chance, he always scored when he played, which was mostly as a sub. I think at one point he even had the best goals-per-minute ratio in the Premier League - ahead of Solksjaer. And then to just let him go when we went down, when he would have been better than splashing £5 million on Hughes and whatever we spent on Joachim's wages...it was all very weird.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Gallagher to Blackburn was the first time as a kid one of my favourite players left. It was a total shock and I was proper gutted.

Keane signing was a bolt from the blue but in a good way.
 

Covstu

Well-Known Member
I think the Keane sale was a massive eye opener (albeit raised the questions on the finance of the purchase) but I was amazed to think one of our players going to somewhere like Inter! Most struggled to get to Intershop.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
I think the Keane sale was a massive eye opener (albeit raised the questions on the finance of the purchase) but I was amazed to think one of our players going to somewhere like Inter! Most struggled to get to Intershop.

Did we ever get to the bottom of whether we actually ever owned Keane? I remember lots of rumours that we’d essentially agreed to sell him before we even signed him.
 

Covstu

Well-Known Member
Did we ever get to the bottom of whether we actually ever owned Keane? I remember lots of rumours that we’d essentially agreed to sell him before we even signed him.
Not sure if it was ever concrete but the rumours around Richardson n co pocketing the change from the sale was rife at the time. We obviously got that twat Bellamy for similar money to what we paid for Keane but the change certainly vanished... I guess we will never know!
 

Offhegoes

Well-Known Member
Transfer In - Has to be Gary Mac. Heard rumours he had fallen out with Howard Wilkinson, and of course we already had Strachan as Assistant Manager, which was probably the biggest pull for Macca. Shame we didn't see anywhere near his best until his 4th and final season with us.

Transfer Out - Robert Rosario - He was never the best player, but was captain, and had struck up a great partnership with Micky Quinn. I felt that sale ripped the spirit out of the squad, and the season was disappointing from then on in. Apparently he didn't want to leave either,
 

Esoterica

Well-Known Member
There's a few sales that rocked me as a fan. Selling Boateng to Villa so soon after we'd sold Dublin to them and then them nabbing Hadji too. The Babb transfer a couple of years before that that hurt too. The firesale after relegation hammered home the reality too. I'd expected to lose Hartson, Bellamy, Hadji etc but Kirkland & Aloisi I thought were players that would stay and help us bounce back up.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
I read somewhere that Atkinson wanted to play him as a centre half, and this is what led to Lennon signing for Leicester

I think it's covered in the Rick Gekoski book 'Staying Up'. Lennon was put out when Atkinson asked him if he could head a ball. It made him feel like Atkinson didn't take him seriously.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Did we ever get to the bottom of whether we actually ever owned Keane? I remember lots of rumours that we’d essentially agreed to sell him before we even signed him.

Not sure if the link will work:

These are the accounts y/e 31 May 2001

There is reference to £10m profit on player sales, though it isn't particularly clear how that figure is arrived at. However, it just looks like the £10m profit just paid off operational losses the club was making.

There is reference to the club financing players through Registered European Football Finance Ltd, who loaned the club £6m secured against some of the players. Registered European Football Finance Ltd was a company set up by...........Ray Ranson
 

SkyBlueSoul

Well-Known Member
There is reference to the club financing players through Registered European Football Finance Ltd, who loaned the club £6m secured against some of the players. Registered European Football Finance Ltd was a company set up by...........Ray Ranson

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Speng

Well-Known Member
Trevor Brooking in the Radio Times tipped us as dark horses for the title that season.

Then we lost 3-0 to Newcastle first day of the season (I think!).

Frustrating thing is we spent at the right time, just before transfer fees really took off. Just a shame we bought the wrong players / had the wrong manager buy them.
I was at that game ,I think David g made his Newcastle debut , he killed us
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
Not sure if the link will work:

These are the accounts y/e 31 May 2001

There is reference to £10m profit on player sales, though it isn't particularly clear how that figure is arrived at. However, it just looks like the £10m profit just paid off operational losses the club was making.

There is reference to the club financing players through Registered European Football Finance Ltd, who loaned the club £6m secured against some of the players. Registered European Football Finance Ltd was a company set up by...........Ray Ranson
Yep he and them were involved with Ridsdale at Leeds when David O'leary got them to the CL semis.
God knows how it worked But they'd spend £60M then get it back off his outfit.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Yep he and them were involved with Ridsdale at Leeds when David O'leary got them to the CL semis.
God knows how it worked But they'd spend £60M then get it back off his outfit.

Bit like a car loan by the sounds. CCFC paid 5 per cent interest on the £6m. Presumably if they got behind Uncle Ray could enforce a transfer elsewhere to recoup the arrears?
 

skyblueelephant76

Well-Known Member
Not sure if the link will work:

These are the accounts y/e 31 May 2001

There is reference to £10m profit on player sales, though it isn't particularly clear how that figure is arrived at. However, it just looks like the £10m profit just paid off operational losses the club was making.

There is reference to the club financing players through Registered European Football Finance Ltd, who loaned the club £6m secured against some of the players. Registered European Football Finance Ltd was a company set up by...........Ray Ranson

I was told from someone that worked at the club that Eddie Jordan financed the Keane signing and then took profit on him when sold.
 

olderskyblue

Well-Known Member
Shame McAllister was so diabolically bad his first couple of seasons, because he really seemed like the missing link - the sprinkling of stardust that would lift an expensively assembled side to the level it wanted to be at. He was a league winner who chose to come to us.

But boy, was he a waste of cash (as so many were around that time!)

Wont argue about the cash, as I know he was paid silly money, but my memory of Gary Mc was of how bloody good he was, only the season after his serious injury did his game drop. He showed he was class again when he joined Liverpool.
 

Mcbean

Well-Known Member
I would say that signing one the most hated players ever to come to Coventry and he turned into a legend for me - helping the younger players - balling out those who made mistakes and generally playing like a bloody general in midfield - Dennis Wise !
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
Most of these transfers were before my years as an active Cov fan, and what I takeaway from it, is that we’ve been badly run for even longer than I can remember!

As for shocking transfers, I’d say the Joe Cole signing, it was also a bit crazy because we were (very tenuously) linked with him when he was at Chelsea! So it was a bit weird. I was also pleasantly surprised we signed Dann and Fox too!
 

JWC

Well-Known Member
Robbie Keane for me. i remember being really excited for him signing and his debut was a dream. I've watched his goals from that a million times, probably because I'm in the highlights when he celebrates in front of the west terrace. Great day though.

For transfers out, i remember being far too gutted when Leon Best left. Thinking about it now it seems ridiculous, but at the time I was really disappointed.
 

Londonccfcfan

Well-Known Member
Joe Cole joining us a couple of years ago was also shocking, shame it didn’t really pan out.

This was easily the biggest shock. A massive name taking a huge pay cut to play 2 levels below premier league.

All the other signings, Dublin, Macca, Hadji, Bellamy, Keane, were not shocks for me, we had money to burn in the 90s (obviously more than we could afford). We were a club in the mid to late 90s in the top 6/8 teams when it came to transfer fees spending wise. Everton/West ham/Southampton/Leicester/Derby/Forest could not compete in any way shape or form when it came to transfer fees.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Not sure if the link will work:

These are the accounts y/e 31 May 2001

There is reference to £10m profit on player sales, though it isn't particularly clear how that figure is arrived at. However, it just looks like the £10m profit just paid off operational losses the club was making.

There is reference to the club financing players through Registered European Football Finance Ltd, who loaned the club £6m secured against some of the players. Registered European Football Finance Ltd was a company set up by...........Ray Ranson

I know there was the dodgy financing thing at the time. Didn’t Robinson own Whelan or some bollocks? I heard more like the Jarni deal where another club wanted him and paid us to take the risk on agreement they could have first dibs if it came off or something. Long time ago now and plenty of rumours flying around about then.
 

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