All this debate about World Class signings etc made me think about one of my all-time favourite players, a bloke who also wasn't very good really: Kenny Wharton. Does anyone else have a soft spot for one of our crap ex-players.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Answers

Gordon Hughes.

I've got a soft spot for the whole club. It's called me head. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

The Whart? Crap? Wash your mouth out - he'd walk into our 1st team at the minute, he'd have been in our Keegan side too, a better full-back than Bez by some distance.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Paul Stephenson !

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

When it comes to Bez, you are preaching to the converted: he wasn't that good, he was merely touched by a bit of Keegan gold dust. Wharton, however, though committed and a passionate lad, wasn't very good either.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Alan Foggon! In school playground matches I was always the first to say 'bags me to be Alan Foggon' - funny, no-one gave me much competition as I recall...

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

More recently, I say Kets - although he did piss in me pint with some of his comments during the move to Wolves

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

John Anderson. Bliddy cart horse, but was around for so long, giving his all, you had to admire him.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

One is tempted to say "All of them!".

I've loved a lot of players who were fairly mediocre but often you don't know the full contribution a player makes - there is always the aspect of team spirit to consider and more than one player has said that this took a dive after Elliot's departure.

If I were to name just one I guess it would have to be Ron McGarry. I don't like to say he was crap but then again he would not have pushed Ronaldo for a place in a team. He was all heart though and a great joker what with his business cards "Have goals - will travel", his self professed "The Greatest" which earned him the moniker of "Cassius" and his never-say-die attitude. I also loved him for the right hook which felled a member of the opposition. The guy didn't dive - he was out cold, and McGarry was walking, head high, to the dugout, with rapturous applause ringing in his ears before the ref arrived on the scene! Well - I was only young and it struck me as a lot of fun. :-)

Despite "The Greatest" tag and a TV interview where he said he was the best thing since sliced bread, he was not at all arrogant, indeed when we got promotion he submitted a transfer request, admitting in all honesty that he felt he was not good enough for the top division! No matter, he was kept on and played his part in the ensuing dour struggle against relegation. A minor legend, IMHO.

Another player I recall as being truly crap was Colin Taylor, a number 11 from the mid sixties. As I remember the guy couldn't dribble, pass, trap or control a ball. All he had was possibly the most ferocious shot I've ever seen. I can remember a goal smashing into the inside netting against Plymouth at the Leazes end and a shot nearly snapping the bar against Preston at the Gallowgate end. So I watched him avidly hoping and praying for the next thunderbolt but there weren't many of them!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

John Anderson and David Mcreary were another two. I used to love it when the players did "talk ins" at local social clubs. Can just imagine YKD doing that ....not !

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

How about Stuart Boam, Toony Cunningham, Neil mcdonald. They were all crap.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

I still think you're doing the Whart a disservice Dougal - let me throw Steve 'Carnage' Carney, Mick 'Zico' Martin and Tommy '6 bags of Potatoes' Cassidy into the mix.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Don't be silly. Kenny Wharton was a class man and a class act. Still is...

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

As I keep saying, he is one of my all-time faves, I just don't think he was very good.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Easily our best player of that era - I know that's not saying much mind!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Kenny Wharton was a gem! Go DSS!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Yeah, we all loved kenny boy, used to see him walking round town with his doc martens on, looking like LBAB.

Anyone remember john andersons goal against leeds opening day of the season (dunno what year) we actually won 1-0. Leeds had a grassy verge which some nimrod tried to set alight to. We got back to the coaches and all the windows had been smashed in.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

I remember Kenny sitting on the ball v Luton, a bit embarrising as it was Gazza who was giving them the run around, not Kenny.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Did you read about Gazza in one of the papers today? (Shouldn't be on a crap players you have loved thread - quite the reverse in fact) Apparently he has received all sorts of treatment for depression, alcoholism etc since his injury last year - feels he is now raring to go - well we've heard that before.

I feel sad for the bloke. Fabulous talent - serious psychological problems IMHO. As his manager I would have him under constant surveillance to prevent him damaging himself. If he didn't agree to that then I wouldn't pay him the £30k+ a week I assume he earns.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

I was indeed in attendance at that Leeds 0-1. Ando from an acute angle as I remember. Aaaaaah memories.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

DSS, do you remember the weather conditions, I seem to recollect it being hot. Remember the lads trying to set fire to the grass behind the stand? do ya, do ya, tell 'em man they winnit believe us.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

It has to be Ando for me. won goal of the season for his effort against Watford, can't remember the season. Free Kick from the edge of the area, straight into the top corner. I remember distinctly thinking Oh no not Ando as he moved towards the ball and a burst of sheer joy as the net bulged.

BTW what happened to the Gazza competition. How many games he'd play, substitutions etc. Did we ever get a winner?

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Pop Robson? Willie Macfaul? Barry Venison? Pav the geordie? Kets ? Steve Watson? or are they all to good to be classed as crap players?

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

BILLY WHITEHURST

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

None of those were crap players Rik and all were internationals (Pop Robson probably under-21 or something) during their time at Newcastle.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Trevor Hockey, the midfield avenger and part-time winger.
He hid behind a beard, but we all knew who he was.
Barrie Thomas for being idiotically enthusiastic and Welsh.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Aaaah! Trevor Hockey! Built like the proverbial outdoor facility and twice as lethal. My recollection (which may well be inaccurate!) is that we signed him as a winger and Joe Harvey had the bright idea one day of having him man-"mark" the opposition playmaker, a task which Hockey took to with considerable relish such that the playmaker (deceased) knew he'd been "marked". I think the transition was then made from winger to midfield destroyer and lots more players were "marked" in ensuing matches. It was after this conversion I think that the beard appeared and he grew his hair and tied it back with a headband. He looked just like an extra from "The Vikings" - indeed if I cast my mind back I can almost imagine he carried a bliddy great sword around the pitch, or at least the carnage on the field made it appear so. No prisoners!

Barry Thomas - our record transfer fee at a bank-busting £45000 from Scunthorpe - (we don't know who put the c*** in Scunthorpe but we know we got him afterwards!). No to be fair, a tryer and always gave his best, without ever quite justifying the fee. I spoke earlier of Colin Taylor's goal against Plymouth and as he smashed the ball across goal into the far right inside netting, Barrie Thomas dived forward in a no-hope effort to head it in. The picture in the papers next day showed the ball bulging the inside netting and Barrie Thomas hurtling through the air with what appeared to be the most spectacular flying header ever seen and Colin Taylor well out of shot. In fact Thomas never got close to the ball.

My other favourite memory of Thomas was a wonderful misprint in The Pink when they missed the "r" out of "shirts" and "Barry Thomas blasted the ball through a crowd of red shits into the net"

Ah memories - nurse - is it time for my cocoa?

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Cast Iron Tommy Casey, Frank "I knew his fadda" Clark , the aforementioned Foggon , Victor Keeble and the Reverend Arthur Bottom, and of late , Darren Peacock.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

D McCreary - 1000% committed. Now reincarnated as Edgar Davids.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2001

Syme - sorry I've been away for a few days so don't know if you'll check this thread again - but anyway, I don't remember any firestarting antics at Elland Road that day. I do recall they gave us the whole of the paddock beneath the old main stand (and it was mobbed). My most vivid memory however was the trip there and back -- one of my brother's old work mates had an old converted ambulance that he used to load up for away games - "We're going home in a ****ing ambulance" was the high-brow tune of the day.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Wherever you were Dave I hope you had a good time. After the game as we were all moved (cattlelike) into the "holding pen" some lads were trying to start something on the bank to the right of where we were. I am thinking that perhaps you were leaving from a different exit.

Good day out though! What year was it we played leeds three times in 10 days, league cup, league and league cup reply??

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

You've got me going now - we got as far as Jesmond cemetery for the away game at Leeds before the electrics packed in on my mates banger. If I remember rightly Leeds did us at StJames 3-1, I think we're talking '84 here? maybe '83? A look in the record books would confirm things but I can't be arsed.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

You got as far as jesmond? You didn't even cross the tyne bridge before things started going south? That's hilarious. Of course you knew it was going to be one of those days when stuff happens before you even get to the toon. Dave you wouldn't happen to know (back then) a lad called lasky, funny bugger. He was always getting rides from strange places like converted ambulances. He would always show up in the stangest places with these huge stories....right laff. Them were the days.

If I remember correctly there was bother when leeds turned us over at home, I seem to remember getting tonked 4-1.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001

Don't remember a 'Lasky' , but then there were so many 'names' in those days. I was actually a bit of a veteran by '84, having started my awaydays round about '78. How about Millwall away first day of the season for a fixture? ouch!

BTW I think you were right with the 4-1 scoreline. Ouch again!

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

I liked the Cypriot players name that we had on the books a few years ago. He went back to Cyprus to do national service and is now a waiter

Can you remember his name?

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Makarios

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Nope

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Nicky Papavasilou

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Papavasiliou - got our first "assist" in the Premiership with a deft touch to the Cole man.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

We should start a Where are they now thread...

Wyn Davies .... Baker in Bolton

Mike Hoper ..... ???

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Or even Hooper

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Marcelinho.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001