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Most surprising signing


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Charlie george.

didn't see that one coming at all.

 

Quite a few managers were surprising - arthur cox was a big surprise?

similarly frank, and cocu. 

 

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53 minutes ago, ollycutts1982 said:

Taribo West for me. Bloody loved him. Maybe he could solve our current defensive problems, he’s only 27. 

I said to Jim Smith at the Ramarena shortly after he signed Taribo "you have got away with it Jim haven't you"? He said, "I have, haven't I". Meaning that he was going to avoid relegation and he did.

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Ignoring the good/ill bit...

Stephen Bywater, who's signing I only knew about the day after it had happened and he'd already made his debut in a 2-1 victory away at Hull in August 2006.

It was an early evening fixture and his signing was only announced a few hours before kick off, I'm pretty sure there weren't even any rumours or hints beforehand. 

I was over in Caldicott for a couple of days without access to the internet (phones+internet in 2006 = a practically useless combination) and had gone out on the piss for the day, so it was only when I saw the highlights the next morning on my host's TV that I knew anything of the result or any signings, so yeah, that was a surprise.

I've got a nagging feeling there was a second player in the squad I didn't know we'd signed that day, but I can't think who it would have been.

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20 minutes ago, Coconut said:

Stephen Bywater, who's signing I only knew about the day after it had happened and he'd already made his debut in a 2-1 victory away at Hull in August 2006.

It was an early evening fixture and his signing was only announced a few hours before kick off, I'm pretty sure there weren't even any rumours or hints beforehand. 

I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that even the players didn't know Bywater was signing until he'd already done so, and only found out when he came onto the coach to go to that game. One of the many episodes that earned Davies his "Mad Billy" reputation.

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It wasn't that much a surprise when it actually happened, but Ashley Cole last year is surely one that I wouldn't have imagined happening until it did. If you'd told me the January before we signed him that within a year we'd have him playing for us I would have said "isn't he a bit young for Rowett to be signing him?"

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In my time, the ones that come to mind: Michael Boulding, Ruben Zadkovich & Chris Weale. It was just three signings that didn't make any sense. It proved as neither of them really played. 

Bradley Johnson was quite a shocking one - promoted with Norwich as their top goalscorer. We were linked with Butterfield all day then Bris, I think, came on here and said that we were close to signing Johnson via Pete O'Rouke at HITC. It was mocked initially and then he came - Johnson for Derby City. Never thought we would've spent £10m within the space of 24hrs at that point. 

Nige bringing in Buxton & Pringle from the local area to play Championship football seemed quite radical at the time too. 

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For me it wasn’t one signing, it was when we signed Shilton, Wright and Saunders in fairly quick succession.  Shilts and Wright were experienced internationals so their signings were a big surprise.  I was 11 / 12 and all my mates were Villa fans or followed other top teams.  These 3 really took us up a level and that season when we finished 5th in the old first division is still probably my favourite in my time.

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John Robertson, couldn't understand why a two time European Cup winner would want to willingly* drop down to the old Third Division. Twenty minutes watching him play showed me why.

*  - as opposed to the whole Forest team, who unwillingly dropped to the third division

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