Worst SWFC Player of the past 10 years (Owlstalk Ratings)

[Screen Door Slams]

In the same summer we signed George Boyd , Brentford signed Ollie Watkins.....................our recruitment Ladies and Gentlemen.

[Emerson Thome]

Number 8 incoming tomorrow. Always a favourite in 'worst ever player' threads, especially pound-for-pound ones.

[mcmigo]

48 minutes ago, Emerson Thome said:

Number 8 incoming tomorrow. Always a favourite in 'worst ever player' threads, especially pound-for-pound ones.

Abdi?

[vulture_squadron]

Haha. Tell you what though, none of these are as bad as some from the 10 years before.

[horny owl]

1 hour ago, vulture_squadron said:

Haha. Tell you what though, none of these are as bad as some from the 10 years before.

Izzy Brown???

[Emerson Thome]

 

 

[Emerson Thome]

Jordan Rhodes:

 

[Emerson Thome]

Never has a fanbase given a big thumbs up to a signing like the one we gave to Jordan Rhodes in February 2017. Here was a born goalscorer – with 91 goals in 137 starts (+39 sub) for Huddersfield Town and 85 goals in 158 starts (+11 sub) for Blackburn Rovers. About to turn 27, he was, theoretically, in the prime of his career.

 

He had a dream start. A deft flick-on header at Wigan set up Ross Wallace for the only goal of the game on his debut. Then he opened the scoring after just 9 minutes in his home debut against Birmingham. He seemed like the missing piece in the jigsaw.

 

For a while, no-one dare criticise him. It was almost heresy to go against the player we had wanted ever since we saw him smash 4 goals at Hillsborough for Huddersfield in 2011. But gradually we saw that the emperor had no clothes – that aside from chipping in with the odd goal, he wasn’t actually very good at football.

 

We realised he lacked the touch and finesse to be part of our link-up play like Gary Hooper, didn’t have the strength and bravery of Steven Fletcher, lacked the pace and unpredictability of Lucas Joao, couldn’t dribble or press like Fernando Forestieri, hadn’t got the aerial ability and nuisance value of Atdhe Nuhiu, and didn’t even have the passion of Sam Winnall. In short, we had wasted £8 million and a reported £40k a week wages on a player much worse than the ones we already had. With an ageing defence and injury-prone midfield, we had blown our last chunk of pre-FFP money all in one go on a sixth-choice striker.

 

After that assist on debut at Wigan, Rhodes was to set up only 2 more goals in his entire 4 and a half year stay (one season on loan at Norwich). And he never scored more than 7 in a season. The backlash didn’t really hit until after the playoff semi-final defeat to Huddersfield. Rhodes had scored 14 penalties in his 4 seasons at Blackburn Rovers, but stood aside to let Sam Hutchinson, Kieran Lee and Jack Hunt go instead, all of whom had never taken a penalty in regular play in their careers.

 

While there had been flashes of talent in that first season – his ability to find space in the box and to attack crosses, his fragile confidence dipped and the confidence of our managers dropped too. Carlos, who had never seemingly warmed to him, moved him more and more to the bench. Jos Luhukay never fancied him. Steve Bruce never managed him. Gary Monk never played him. Tony Pulis brought him on then subbed him off again.

 

And yet, there was always the hope that a great finisher still lurked within our midst. Amid a season of otherwise not scoring a single goal he suddenly rattled three in goals inside the first 37 minutes away at Forest. A perfect hat-trick of poachers goals, rounded off with an overhead kick. This earned him his first man of the match award, with a near-perfect 9.8 Owlstalk Rating.

 

And, in his final season at Hillsborough, when all the better strikers had left and as part of a dire team sleepwalking towards relegation, we finally got to see a bit of what Jordan Rhodes could do. He won his second man of the match award with a match-winning brace away at Barnsley, and a third as part of a brave performance on the final day draw at Derby, where he didn’t score or directly assist a goal, but his bravery in the box did indirectly create two goals. His Owlstalk season rating of 6.06, while not spectacular, was marginally above the team’s average that season – a real rarity for players on this ‘worst 10’ list.

 

Ultimately, his goalscoring record of 20 goals in 57 starts (+55 sub appearances) is not Jeffers-level bad. In the league, he scored a goal every 286 minutes, so not far shy of one every 3 games. But, particularly in those middle two seasons, he was also like playing with ten men at times. A player on a different wavelength to his teammates while towing an invisible caravan. Someone who was voted the worst player on the pitch 16 times in 4 seasons and the best one only 3 times.

 

And so, perhaps slightly unfairly, but he will always be remembered for the money wasted and the penalty not taken.

 

Welcome to the hall of shame, Jordan Rhodes.

 

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

How many other fanbases honestly rank their record signing among their 10 worst players of the past decade?

 

This club, man...

 

[owl84]

9 hours ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

How many other fanbases honestly rank their record signing among their 10 worst players of the past decade?

 

This club, man...

 

Id say Arsenal would have Pepe in theirs.

 

Lukaku maybe in Chelsea's

 

 

[mcmigo]

Definitely suffered from us being a team that had other issues on the park - a lack of pace, leading to very limited chance creation.  Ultimately he offered very little as an attacker, being slow and no good at hold up play . His confidence just eroded the longer he was here:

 

I do think most of this worst 10 will be attackers.  Most defenders are usually ranked 6 or 7 if they have games without mistakes . However a winger that is off form , messes up crosses or like Rhodes doesn’t really impact the game will get a 3 or a 4

[William 1867]

Pelupessy without a doubt. 

[Nero]

14 hours ago, Emerson Thome said:

Never has a fanbase given a big thumbs up to a signing like the one we gave to Jordan Rhodes in February 2017. Here was a born goalscorer – with 91 goals in 137 starts (+39 sub) for Huddersfield Town and 85 goals in 158 starts (+11 sub) for Blackburn Rovers. About to turn 27, he was, theoretically, in the prime of his career.

 

He had a dream start. A deft flick-on header at Wigan set up Ross Wallace for the only goal of the game on his debut. Then he opened the scoring after just 9 minutes in his home debut against Birmingham. He seemed like the missing piece in the jigsaw.

 

For a while, no-one dare criticise him. It was almost heresy to go against the player we had wanted ever since we saw him smash 4 goals at Hillsborough for Huddersfield in 2011. But gradually we saw that the emperor had no clothes – that aside from chipping in with the odd goal, he wasn’t actually very good at football.

 

We realised he lacked the touch and finesse to be part of our link-up play like Gary Hooper, didn’t have the strength and bravery of Steven Fletcher, lacked the pace and unpredictability of Lucas Joao, couldn’t dribble or press like Fernando Forestieri, hadn’t got the aerial ability and nuisance value of Atdhe Nuhiu, and didn’t even have the passion of Sam Winnall. In short, we had wasted £8 million and a reported £40k a week wages on a player much worse than the ones we already had. With an ageing defence and injury-prone midfield, we had blown our last chunk of pre-FFP money all in one go on a sixth-choice striker.

 

After that assist on debut at Wigan, Rhodes was to set up only 2 more goals in his entire 4 and a half year stay (one season on loan at Norwich). And he never scored more than 7 in a season. The backlash didn’t really hit until after the playoff semi-final defeat to Huddersfield. Rhodes had scored 14 penalties in his 4 seasons at Blackburn Rovers, but stood aside to let Sam Hutchinson, Kieran Lee and Jack Hunt go instead, all of whom had never taken a penalty in regular play in their careers.

 

While there had been flashes of talent in that first season – his ability to find space in the box and to attack crosses, his fragile confidence dipped and the confidence of our managers dropped too. Carlos, who had never seemingly warmed to him, moved him more and more to the bench. Jos Luhukay never fancied him. Steve Bruce never managed him. Gary Monk never played him. Tony Pulis brought him on then subbed him off again.

 

And yet, there was always the hope that a great finisher still lurked within our midst. Amid a season of otherwise not scoring a single goal he suddenly rattled three in goals inside the first 37 minutes away at Forest. A perfect hat-trick of poachers goals, rounded off with an overhead kick. This earned him his first man of the match award, with a near-perfect 9.8 Owlstalk Rating.

 

And, in his final season at Hillsborough, when all the better strikers had left and as part of a dire team sleepwalking towards relegation, we finally got to see a bit of what Jordan Rhodes could do. He won his second man of the match award with a match-winning brace away at Barnsley, and a third as part of a brave performance on the final day draw at Derby, where he didn’t score or directly assist a goal, but his bravery in the box did indirectly create two goals. His Owlstalk season rating of 6.06, while not spectacular, was marginally above the team’s average that season – a real rarity for players on this ‘worst 10’ list.

 

Ultimately, his goalscoring record of 20 goals in 57 starts (+55 sub appearances) is not Jeffers-level bad. In the league, he scored a goal every 286 minutes, so not far shy of one every 3 games. But, particularly in those middle two seasons, he was also like playing with ten men at times. A player on a different wavelength to his teammates while towing an invisible caravan. Someone who was voted the worst player on the pitch 16 times in 4 seasons and the best one only 3 times.

 

And so, perhaps slightly unfairly, but he will always be remembered for the money wasted and the penalty not taken.

 

Welcome to the hall of shame, Jordan Rhodes.

 

Couldnt have said it better. Great analysis.

[Leaping Lannys Perm]

Shouldn't Julian Bennett be on the list?

 

I seem to be the only one who remembers how poor he was.

[Gregory fee]

Kachunga 

lewis wing

[TomtheOwl95]

8 hours ago, Leaping Lannys Perm said:

Shouldn't Julian Bennett be on the list?

 

I seem to be the only one who remembers how poor he was.

Outside the time frame.

[Leaping Lannys Perm]

38 minutes ago, TomtheOwl95 said:

Outside the time frame.

Was with the club until 2013 according to Wikipedia. 

[TomtheOwl95]

42 minutes ago, Leaping Lannys Perm said:

Was with the club until 2013 according to Wikipedia. 

Yes but as the OP said in the first post the scoring only goes back as far as 2013/14.

 

He also didn't play any games beyond 2012 and didn't even have a squad number for 2012/13. So he wouldn't have featured anyway.

[Leaping Lannys Perm]

2 hours ago, TomtheOwl95 said:

Yes but as the OP said in the first post the scoring only goes back as far as 2013/14.

 

He also didn't play any games beyond 2012 and didn't even have a squad number for 2012/13. So he wouldn't have featured anyway.

Fair enough. I still think he was the worst player to step foot inside Hillsborough in the last decade, even if he never stepped on the pitch in that time.

[TomtheOwl95]

1 hour ago, Leaping Lannys Perm said:

Fair enough. I still think he was the worst player to step foot inside Hillsborough in the last decade, even if he never stepped on the pitch in that time.

I'm not sure, he wasn't great, but he at least contributed in a good team and helped us get points when needed.

 

The likes of Abdi and co who cost a lot more and ultimately did little to nothing are much higher on the list for me.