Best and worst foreigner to play for the golden boys.

Best:- Allan Neilsen, oozed class and could easily have got a game at most Premiership clubs when he came to us.

Worst:- Tony Meola, Absolutly cracking bloke to talk to but unfortunatly our poorest import ever

 

Best

All round footballer - Alan Nielson/John McClelland
Most talented - Xavier Gravelaine

Worst

Ramon Vega

 

Best: Jan Lohman and Alan Nielson

Worst: That Norwegian keeper ex Spurs, can't think of his name began with Th something like Thorsted. Vega was also a huge disappointment. Issa was not as bad as these.

 

Espen Baardsen?

 

Vega was much worse than Issa.

 

Worst signing ever "The Bald Italian" :dismay:

 

Recent Best : HH ( he could be claimed as "our" discovery which Alllan Neilsen couldn't)

Recent worst : Jure Travner (I think we signed the wrong full back, didn't we?)

Junior from Derby was a fantastic waste of time & money as we found he was an illegal, didn't we, and so couldn't play?

 

Big John Was not a "Jock" he was a Brit or Ulsterman!

 

What? No way, I think your memory is clouded.

Ben Iroha was a solid player in the games he played for us and produced an outstanding display against Spurs away. Its a shame we never saw the best of him. Alon Hazan was a really decent player as well. David Connolly was excellent for us until he left. Xavier Gravelaine was our Eric Cantona who never was. He was brilliant in the few games he played - scoring one of my favourite goals ever at home in his first game. Its a shame he got sent off for a weird tackle - it all seemed to go down hill from there and he wanted to go home.

Patrick Blondeau - well ok he's a candiadate but was he really the worst player? No, I don't think so. That title has to go to Perry Digweed. Digweed was definitley foreign - that fella was from another planet.

 

Best: Nordin Wooter, Richard Johnson, Marlon King

Worst: Santiago Aloi

 

All Go Double American

Best: Super Jay

Worst: Tony Meola

 

How can Aloi he be the worst? He didnt even play a first team game.

 

With regard to Tony Meola, he had a great career, despite his lone poor WFC game.
Read about it here.

 

best three in my time: hh, marlon king, allan neilsen
worst three in my time: vega, issa, johan cavalli

 

Can we count Ellington as the worst because he wants to play for Bosnia?

 

He was not crap. Unfortunately he has the physique of a barrel. Magic wand of a left foot though!

 

I have submitted the article now and have gone with H and Vega.

 

best: tamas priskin
worst: tamas priskin

 

Best HH (longest serving), Galli (class)

Worst Easily Vega

Gravalane was pretty good, he was on a pay as you play deal until a better club came along, which they did and he left, GT was not happy at the time as was one of our few players who could score in the prem.

 

I dont think Vega was that bad , its just that he happened to be on an enormous amount of wedge , not a bad defender in reality

 

Blondeau was the worst
Helguson was the best

 

Best: HH

Worst: Pierre Issa

 

I liked Cavalli!

 

his name was paul okon

 

As usual, Layts speaks sense.

Vega was a very good defender for our level. Scored a few goals as well.

Peoples' memories of the Vialli era are clouded by the ITV digital collapse and the penury which ensued afterwards. We didn't have a load of crap players. They were overpaid, sure, but on the ITV Digital money, we could afford it. The one thing missing from Vialli's side was a striker of quality, who would likely have been signed in the summer, with promotion to follow, however, the credit crunch of Championship football which ensued pulled the rug from under us. Nobody was calling for Vialli's head before the money from the TV deal stopped coming in.

In any case, discussing players' merits as "foreigners" has a whiff of Nazi Germany racism about it and I'll have no part.

 

"Discussing players' merits as "foreigners" has a whiff of Nazi Germany racism about it and I'll have no part."

You just have! Since there are rules governing home-grown players (admittedly foreigners poached too young count as homne-grown) it's legitimate to discuss the value of our imports.

Vega was an overpaid prima donna who was found out at Spurs. He did well at Celtic, where his defensive abilities weren't tested and where his goals from set-pieces came in useful, and then Vialli stupidly outbid Celtic to bring him here, where his deficiencies were shown up again. Technically he probably wasn't the worst (Joe McLaughlin?) but he was no better than the Championship journeymen we normally fielded and cost a helluva lot more.

Issa was worse, but was played out of position in midfield. Like Vega, he more or less gave up the game after leaving Watford, which suggests that they had lost interest and only came for the money.

But the one I hated most was Okon, who somebody dubbed "the master of the pointless sideways pass". He contributed so little that I'd forgotten all about him until this thread reminded me.

 

Best: Xavier Gravelaine

 

I was referring to specific examples of Watford legends being slated in this thread.

I'd never judge our players based on their race, creed or nationality. Your first paragraph reads like a pamphlet from the BNP

 

Didn't we have that with Helguson but he was played left wing back by Vialli? I do agree though if it wasn't for the ITV collapse, I would love to have seen how well we would have done the following season. Oh well hindsight and all that.

 

He ended up playing right back against Man City at home.

 

I didn't realise the BNP was particularly concerned about 14-year-olds being hoovered up from Africa by Belgian clubs and then abandoned if they don't make the grade - or for that matter 15-year-old Spaniards coming to Arsenal.

If the BNP's main concern is up-market people-trafficking by football clubs then maybe I'll have to reconsider my attitude to them. In my innocence I thought they were against people of different ethnicity or religion who are settling or already settled in Britain.