Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo
I believe in Joe Hendry
- Oct 4, 2003
- 12,027
The story I heard was that we couldn't afford to sign Wright and Steve Penney and we went with Penney as he was considered to be more ready for the first team.
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[Albion] Ian Wright
- Thread starter Tesco in Disguise
- Start date
The story I heard was that we couldn't afford to sign Wright and Steve Penney and we went with Penney as he was considered to be more ready for the first team.
Nothing to do with Saunders and Fashanu as they were both signed in 85, a few years after Wright's trial. Cattlin was manager from 1st Oct 83 so his trial must have been shortly after that based on the fact Wright says he was a teenager! At that time I think we had Connor, Smith, Alan Young and Ian Muir on the books plus a heap load of debt! Things might have been different had Wright signed for us but c'est la vie!
Edit: TLO beat me to it.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
Foster went to Villa in March 1984 so it was in the 6 months before then from October 83
Obviously....
Steve Penney
Hans Kraay
Dean Saunders
Danny Wilson
Working for a board and regime that utterly shafted him. Yeah, utterly clueless.
Fair point, but Ian Wright turned out better than all of the players you have listed.
The Large One
Who's Next?
But he wasn't at the time, and it seems to be enough for you to condemn Cattlin outright.
Name a manager - even those at the top of the game - who hasn't missed out on a particular signing, or let someone go.
Which is basically what I said, so you are in agreement.
I said obviously Cattliin wasn't that good at spotting what a good player Ian Wright turned out to be.
The Rock shop comment meant Cattliin didn't continue to work in football management.
You are assuming that if Wright had signed for Brighton he would have turned out the Ian Wright Arsenal version, doubt that.
Top three candidates for Footballer of the year last season, De Bruyne, Salah and Lukaku all once on Chelsea's books..
Cowfold Seagull
Fan of the 17 bus
I'm sure other clubs have similar stories to tell. The ones that got away.
dejavuatbtn
Well-known member
For what it’s worth, the story I got was that George Petchey was responsible for triallists at the time and didn’t rate him. I am not convinced that it was all down to Cattlin.
AZ Gull
@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
Wright was here on trial in November 1983, at the same time that Penney was also here as a trialist. They both started in reserve matches at Swindon on Tuesday November 22 (Wright scored in a 1-1 draw) and two days later at home to Reading in a 4-1 win (as shown here from the programme for the match against Cardiff City on December 3 1983). The amazing thing was, Penney was signed......and started for the first team in the 3-1 defeat at Oakwell on Saturday November 26 - his third start in 5 days!!!
DavePage
Well-known member
As a left back
Indeed. I do believe from the triallists we had at the same time as Wright we went for Steve Penney. Younger fans will go 'Who?' but in fact he did really well for us - as those of us who DO remember him will testify. Yeah sure in retrospect it we should have signed them both (or maybe just Wright), but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
dejavuatbtn
Well-known member
Good spot AZGull. It reminded me that Steve Palmer was here as a youth at the time (a member of John Shepherd’s brilliant youth team). He left to go to uni and when he finished he came back looking for a contract. Lloyd didn’t want him so he had a tremendous career of over 500 matches elsewhere.
A winger, Danny Carter also played and had a good career at Orient when they were half decent.
A winger, Danny Carter also played and had a good career at Orient when they were half decent.
symyjym
Banned
Outrageous behaviour by Cattlin and the club. Was never a big fan of Foster, seemed a bit of an arrogant Billy big bollocks, but he's gone up in my estimation after hearing this.
I was looking at the same, but it belies the general story of him playing and scoring loads of goals whilst here, also begs the question where are the six weeks that Wright confirmed was how long he was here for (of course I am not saying it's wrong) but if you look a little closer that November he started 3 games from a total of 10 games that month and he scored one.
I also noticed perhaps another 4 triallists that were never signed around this time not including Wright, Penney or Howlett, so there was an active conveyor belt of young hopeful players around this time, mostly not signed.
