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Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:41 am
by Wigan_forever1985
Shane Millard simply for being the slowest man alive and only ever playing well against leeds.
No in all serious it has to be Pryce, He may have fallen over the try line a few times but that doesn't make him a great player it just shows how good a team we are. he'd be better in football the amount of "injury" he has.
Other notable entries DV, Denis Moran, Was never a big seu seu fan either. I thought Jordan James actually did a job for us. Withers.
And if we are looking at segments of time. Pat Richards and Steve Renouf's first year performances lets not forget how woeful both of them were before turning out to be legends
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 2:44 pm
by LORENZO
Must be Price. Never has someone offered so much and come up with so little.
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 3:23 pm
by Exiled Wiganer
There are a few factors I think are worth throwing into the mix, particularly what role they were asked to play and how expensive they were.
Being exiled in London I saw a lot of Moran for the Broncos. He used to follow a superb player called Dymock about the field, and run off him, finish off kicks. When he came to Wigan he was asked to play as an organising 7 and proved completely out of his depth, but I would lay a lot of the blame on the coaching/scouting staff for his under performance.
Jordan James and Wilkes may not have been very good but my suspicion was that they were cheap as chips and were signed in desperation. I also thought JJ's effort could not be faulted.
Richards was rubbish in a poor team, when asked to play centre, so I would exonerate him a fair bit for his slow start.
The worst Wigan player I can remember was Jimmy Birts, a non attacking non defending full back who had to be seen to be believed.
In the last decade, considering how much we paid him (reputedly more than Saints paid Jamie Lyon), Vaealiki gets my award by a considerable distance. The only mitigating factor I can think of is that he had an achilles injury before joining us and that may have taken away his pace and confidence. He was so bad by the time he left us I think he couldn't make it in union.
Honourable mentions go to Seu Seu and Davico. Incidentally, as a job lot no club in any sport in the world can have got less out of a crop of new recruits than we did the year we signed DV, Seu Seu, Davico and Moran.
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 3:37 pm
by Kittwazzer
Definitely a disproportionate number of expensive overeas signings being mentioned here!
Were these the players who justified MoMo's all expenses paid trips down under, returning via Hawaii and Morocco?
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 11:40 pm
by weststand-rich
Exiled Wiganer wrote:
Honourable mentions go to Seu Seu and Davico. Incidentally, as a job lot no club in any sport in the world can have got less out of a crop of new recruits than we did the year we signed DV, Seu Seu, Davico and Moran.
Agreed there. I reckon a good squad can absorb bad players, but those four tipped us over the edge. They replaced (respectively) Connelly, Cassidy, O'Conner and Farrell (in the end). And to a man they were inferior to their predecessors. DV failed his fitness tests his achilles tear was so bad, but we bought him anyway. SeuSeu walked like he needed a zimmer frame (and that is no exageration), Davico was unlucky and Moran was never a scrum half in the creative mould.
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 9:49 pm
by old_trafford_or_bust
David Vaealiki can have his terrible games crossed off just because of that try against St Helens in one of his last games for the warriors, absolutely fantastic!
I would say...Jon Whittle! Absolute crap!
Or for signings rather than development would probably say, Dennis Moran!
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:28 am
by GeoffN
In addition to those worthy contenders already mentioned:
Wes Davies.
Rickey Bibey.
Harvey Howard.
Desi Williams.
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:16 pm
by jayzn
We had a few puddings over the years, but in past decade: karl Pryce (who is sadly still on our payroll), Richie Mathers, Michael Withers (only played in 7 games and was useless). And finally, Desi Williams although he was a star in his first appearance, his second game at Cas was a disaster....and then he disappeared without trace from the first team.
Re: Who's the worst player we've had in the last decade?
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:15 pm
by Dobby
I think there is a big difference between the likes of Desi Williams, who was a youngster thrown in at the deep end and had a shocking game and was never seen again, and the likes of Moran, Vaeleki, Pryce, Mathers etc who were all fairly big name signings, on big contracts and were all consistently awful. For some reason Pryce is still here and he has probably been the worst that I have seen.
It is not really hard to believe that the club fell from grace so much when you look at some of the players we began to sign from the late 1990's on. I think the rot set in when we started to sign the likes of Koloi and Doc Murray on the cheap to replace much superior players and this ultimately led to the wilderness of the last decade or so.