Which Albion player have you been most wrong about?

[Icy Gull]

Either expecting brilliance and being disappointed or expecting him to be crap only for him to turn out to be good?

Or even a player who disappointed to start with and then came good or vice versa. Guy Butters springs to mind on one hand and Paul Kitson on the other, strangely both signed around the same time.

Possibly Michel Kuipers who I seem to recall being substituted at half time on his debut.

I guess CMS will figure highly but I was never that keen on him anyway, so I was not that happy to see him arrive once it became clear that Murray would leave, although I was shocked he chose us.

There must be MUCH better examples that I can't think of at the moment

 

[Buzzer]

Either expecting brilliance and being disappointed or expecting him to be crap only for him to turn out to be good?

Or even a player who disappointed to start with and then came good or vice versa. Guy Butters springs to mind on one hand and Paul Kitson on the other, strangely both signed around the same time.

Possibly Michel Kuipers who I seem to recall being substituted at half time on his debut.

I guess CMS will figure highly but I was never that keen on him anyway, so I was not happy to see him arrive and Murray leave.

There must be MUCH better examples that I can't think of at the moment

El-Abd. I thought Poyet was bonkers when he described him as the best defender at the club.

Craig Davies. I was really expecting him to be good.

Ryan Harley. I was not expecting him to be a one-game merchant (that Forest free-kick) and utterly lazy shitebag.

 

[keaton]

Alan Navarro
I thought he was Sunday league at best the first few times I saw him but I thought for the second half of 2011-12 (first season in Championship under Gus) he was one of our best players.

 

[Icy Gull]

El-Abd. I thought Poyet was bonkers when he described him as the best defender at the club.

Craig Davies. I was really expecting him to be good.

Ryan Harley. I was not expecting him to be a lazy shitebag.

Good call on El Abd

 

[fat old seagull]

Holla.... I did a Bedwet post when we signed him. I was wrong, very wrong.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

David Livermore. Had played all his career at a higher level than our lowly status at the time. I was expecting him to come in and be THE MAN in our midfield.

He wasn't. He was slow and utterly deficient in skill or desire.

Desperate.

 

[Icy Gull]

Alan Navarro
I thought he was Sunday league at best the first few times I saw him but I thought for the second half of 2011-12 (first season in Championship under Gus) he was one of our best players.

Wasn't it a bit earlier than that? I recall he got badly injured early the next season and was replaced by Bridcutt who didn't look all that for a few games. Who'd have though a replacement freebie player could turn out to so influential. We were still at Withdean and in League One though

 

[keaton]

Wasn't it a bit earlier than that? I recall he got badly injured early the next season and was replaced by Bridcutt who didn't look all that for a few games. Who'd have though a replacement freebie player could turn out to so influential. We were still at Withdean and in League One though

Possibly. I can't remember him being particularly great or impressive until we were in the Championship

 

[Icy Gull]

David Livermore. Had played all his career at a higher level than our lowly status at the time. I was expecting him to come in and be THE MAN in our midfield.

He wasn't. He was slow and utterly deficient in skill or desire.

Desperate.

We had a glut of allegedly good players, by our standards at the time, who disappointed under Adams Mk2 - Robbie Savage being one.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Wasn't it a bit earlier than that? I recall he got badly injured early the next season and was replaced by Bridcutt who didn't look all that for a few games. Who'd have though a replacement freebie player could turn out to so influential. We were still at Withdean and in League One though

Russell Slade brought Navarro in 2009.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Good thread. During the part of this year's post season where we'd pretty much only signed Stockdale I wrote an article for another fan site praising his arrival based on some great saves I'd seen on telly and the reaction of the Fulham fans to the departure. While I don't think he's as bad as many others do it's not an article I will be sharing with anyone for a while. Hopefully, by the end of the season he'll have turned his critics round in a Butters-esque manner.

CMS is an odd one. It wasn't HIM I was excited about as much as the fact that we'd spent that much money. Hasn't quite lived up to the price tag. I also thought Hoskins would be brilliant for us. I genuinely feel sorry for him. Stephen Dobie was another who excited on reputation only.

Butters is the obvious one to turn in to a positive from a negative.

 

[Munkfish]

Guy Butters: Thought that we had signed some useless old guy picking up a wage, turned out to be a very good player for us.

Graham Barrett: Coming in on loan, a player I had heard of from Arsenal I thought he was sure to get goals, scored on his debut at Portsmouth I think, then turd for the rest of the season and his career.

Gary Dicker: I thought he was a baller in league 1 and would step up to the mark in the Championship shame he didn't.

Ashely Barnes: I thought he was a league 1 striker at best, scored 20 in the title winning season and went on to do very well for us in the Championship.

Wayne Bridge: Thought he had come here because he was pushed out so he could earn himself one last payday, assumed he would be unintrested and that he was a bit of a nob. How wrong I was.

 

[Chinman3000]

Stockdale: After seeing clips of him in the prem and knowing he came from Fulham I was expecting top notch shot-stopping prowess and have so far been disapointed with his schoolboy errors.

Agustien: See to be a reall burst of creativitiy when he joined but it soon faded and now he barley exisits.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I thought Federico Turienzo was going to be brilliant. He wasn't.

And Battipiedi and that lot that signed with him.

I had begun to write Lewis Dunk off a couple of seasons ago. I was so, so wrong.

 

[Mellotron]

El Abd and Navarro.

And Cristian Baz. From a couple of shoddy videos I thought he looked like he'd tear up League One with Kaz.

 

[dennis]

Lee Steele twice!!!

When we signed him I knew of him as my wife’s uncle in Shrewsbury said he was the best thing since sliced bread. He turned up and was toilet and I kept saying give him a chance.
After a season I decided to start slagging him off and then he started scoring!

As a kid I remember the hype around Teddy Maybank and thinking this is it. It was a good job this was before squad numbers and names on shirts!

 

[Luke93]

Leon Knight. Disappointed so much after his Bristol City winner.

 

[Icy Gull]

Leon Knight. Disappointed so much after his Bristol City winner.

His first few games under Coppell were brilliant though. So much talent, such a dick.

 

[Juan Albion]

Les Berry. After his first game for us, several of us agreed he was exactly the player we had been waiting for. Sadly that first game turned out to be a fluke.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Oh and Alan BILEY.

I was thrilled when he signed, thinking it was a proper coup.

By god that guy was a preening waste of a shirt.