Almost a Ram

[jono]

Ahhh Brooking, he of the cultured passes sprayed all over the field. Quality player with real vision 

Would have loved “D I Canio” what a characterful player with sublime gifts. Maverick though ! Might have suited us.

[gfs1ram]

During the Nigel Clough era we were linked with Martyn Waghorn, Chris Wood and Harry Maguire when they were at the beginning of their careers.

[Carl Sagan]

I heard we were after a striker and it was a toss up between Conor Sammon from Premier League Wigan or Jamie Vardy who'd moved for a season from nonleague to League Two newcomers Fleetwood Town. The asking price for both was £1m, so Nigel Clough opted for a "proven Premier League striker" in Sammon, meaning Vardy had to go to Leicester City.

[Walkley Ram]

Wasn't Yakubu close to signing for us once?

Edit - despite having sat and read this thread, I missed someone already posting it.

We did approach Warnock to manage us though. Does that count?

Edited October 8 by Walkley Ram

[europia]

2 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

I heard we were after a striker and it was a toss up between Conor Sammon from Premier League Wigan or Jamie Vardy who'd moved for a season from nonleague to League Two newcomers Fleetwood Town. The asking price for both was £1m, so Nigel Clough opted for a "proven Premier League striker" in Sammon, meaning Vardy had to go to Leicester City.

That's just too depressing to even contemplate....

[Ram-a-lama fa fa fa]

2 hours ago, Walkley Ram said:

Wasn't Yakubu close to signing for us once?

couldnt get a work permit if i recall. but then rocked up at portsmouth a season later. i may be wrong tho

[cannable]

3 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

I heard we were after a striker and it was a toss up between Conor Sammon from Premier League Wigan or Jamie Vardy who'd moved for a season from nonleague to League Two newcomers Fleetwood Town. The asking price for both was £1m, so Nigel Clough opted for a "proven Premier League striker" in Sammon, meaning Vardy had to go to Leicester City.

I mean… yeah with hindsight… but I suppose at that time we already had Tyson and Theo as pacey strikers and intended on playing Ward up front as well. 

[ramit]

Woulda coulda shoulda, it's all self flagellation in the end, I suspect that's rather the point

[Magicman]

Several years of rumours we were going to buy Jordon Rhodes at his peak. 

[ramsbottom]

10 hours ago, Ram-a-lama fa fa fa said:

couldnt get a work permit if i recall. but then rocked up at portsmouth a season later. i may be wrong tho

From what I remember it was about a month later.  It's amazing what one of 'Arry's brown envelops and do...

[RodleyRam]

Still holding out hope for the German centre back.

[oldtimeram]

On 08/10/2024 at 09:57, Dordogne-Ram said:

BC was livid that a Leicester defender - ? Ian Cross? -  who he wanted refused to sign for us. So annoyed that he said afterwards that he wouldn’t sign him even if he crawled from Leicester! 
 

And then of course there was the Storey-Moore saga.

Graham Cross as I recall

[Parsnip]

On 08/10/2024 at 19:23, Carl Sagan said:

I heard we were after a striker and it was a toss up between Conor Sammon from Premier League Wigan or Jamie Vardy who'd moved for a season from nonleague to League Two newcomers Fleetwood Town. The asking price for both was £1m, so Nigel Clough opted for a "proven Premier League striker" in Sammon, meaning Vardy had to go to Leicester City.

I hope you've just made that up for a laugh.

[abertawe_ram]

There was a story recently about how close we were to signing Olly Watkins from Exeter 

 

Oops just spotted his name on the op, sorry...

Edited October 10 by abertawe_ram

[Nuwtfly]

Not sure about any players but I believe Steve Bruce was very keen to become our new manager when Darren Wassall was at the helm.

Hull were above us in the table at the time but Bruce was keen to get out of Hull and applied for the position.

[Ziga Zaga10]

On 08/10/2024 at 23:43, DavesaRam said:

Jim didn't have fat fingers, but I clearly do! 

Funny you should mention fingers with regard to Baggio. When asked how close he was to signing him Jim said, we've shaken hands on a deal but I made sure to count my fingers afterwards.

[Ziga Zaga10]

On 08/10/2024 at 14:11, chelloram said:

I was reading an article by Jimmy Greaves the other day regarding the fact he wished he'd have opted to join Brian Clough at Derby as he felt Cloughy could have resurrected his career after he left Spurs and felt he mistakenly opted to go to West Ham instead because he didn't want to leave London. It made me think of some of the amazing players we were close to signing or closely linked with, mainly from the Clough/Mackay era but a few more recent. I can't think of anyone in particular from the great Cox Team,from the late 80's other than the 2 Czeq lads Maxwell flew in. Here's the ones I remember , only top quality ones , anyone have any others?

Greaves

Moore

Brooking

Osgood

Kubic

Knoflicek

Baggio

Petit

Watkins

Toney

Some fine players in their😍，what might have been. also seem to remember reading Cloughy was interested in Trevor Francis when he was a young lad at Birmingham but not 100% sure about that one. 

 

 

Straight from the horses mouth at about 1 hour 1 minute.

 

[eddielewis]

Bit more recent but can remember us being so close to signing Gary Hooper until he eventually went to Celtic. Surprised at how clinical he was during his peak years 63 goals in 95 games for Celtic.

[Macintosh]

Hull's Ken Wagstaff is the first I remember us doing our best to sign in the late 1960s. He scored 266 goals in his career and wanted to come here, having played for Mansfield earlier.

 

From Give It to Moore, He Will Score: 

Barely a quarter of an hour earlier O’Farrell had arrived at the popular hotel and restaurant on the outskirts of Nottingham fully expecting to complete the signing of Forest’s star striker.  Moore repeated himself, ‘I’m sorry, Mr O’Farrell, I can’t accept those terms.’ With that, Frank O’Farrell, heir to Matt Busby’s Old Trafford empire, stood up, politely shook Moore’s hand, and left the room. 

 

From the Daily Mirror’s ‘The Saturday Star’ feature: 'I might have been a better player in a better team, but really there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for the game in Nottingham. The fans soon lose their loyalty. I don’t think the public are very interested in football. It’s a bit of a depressed area now.’

 

Two clubs in particular had been assiduous in tapping up Moore. Derby County’s assistant manager Peter Taylor would regularly telephone Moore to let him know that he and Brian Clough were interested, insisting ‘Ian, don’t sign for anyone else.’

After the O'Farrell meeting:

‘I can’t agree terms with Manchester United, Brian.’

‘Don’t worry, son, we’ll be right over. Where are you?’

‘The Edwalton Hotel, just outside Nottingham.’

‘We’ll be there in half an hour. Don’t go anywhere.’

‘Are you a womaniser?’

‘No, I’m married now, Mr Clough. When I was younger, absolutely, I was chasing the girls like anyone else.’

‘Are you a gambler?’

‘No, not really, the odd flutter now and again but I wouldn’t say I’m a gambler.’

‘Do you smoke?’

‘No, I’ve never smoked, Mr Clough.’

Clough turned to Taylor, ‘Peter, we can’t f****** sign him, he’s a f****** liar!’ 

Then Clough looked back at Moore, ‘Right, come on then, son, how much do you want?’

Moore was on his own, no agent, no advisers: he had to think on his feet. He decided to see if Clough would match the terms O’Farrell, through his journalist friend, had ‘offered’ but reneged upon.

‘£200 a week, Mr Clough.’

‘£200 a week? Roy McFarland’s not on that.’

‘I know that, Mr Clough, but I can guarantee you 20 goals a season.’

‘Listen son, if I want a f****** guarantee, I’ll buy a f****** washing machine.’ And after a pause, ‘Don’t worry, son, I’m only kidding!’

 

Clough agreed to everything Moore had asked for, including the signing-on fee O'Farrell had gone back on. Moore trusted Clough implicitly as a man of his word and when a blank contract – the details to be filled in later – was placed in front of him, he signed without hesitation. 

 

Meanwhile, at the City Ground an emergency meeting of the nine-man committee that ran the club was taking place, the second in two days. Committee members were angered at the way Clough and Taylor had paraded Moore as their new signing even though Forest had not formally agreed to the transfer.

Late on Sunday evening, after informing Sam Longson, Derby’s chairman, Wood telephoned Moore’s wife, stating, ‘Listen, Carol, there’s no way we’re going to let Ian sign for Derby County, we’re simply not going to let him go there. You might as well get him to come home.’

Taken aback by this bolt from the blue, Carol rang the Midland Hotel. On being put through to her husband, Carol passed on Wood’s message – or, more precisely, instruction. 

 

Afterwards, when Clough was manager at Forest, he refused to ever acknowledge Moore’s presence on the backroom staff there.

 

 

[oldtimeram]

On 09/10/2024 at 23:39, oldtimeram said:

Graham Cross as I recall

I think I remember him saying something along the lines of;

"Who does Brian Clough think he is?  The manager of Real Madrid"

 

Needless to say he did not join us

 

In the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman...."Big Mistake"