Favourite forgotten players

[Fidel Castro]

Mettomo was ace. Then I think he fell out with KK about playing for Cameroon and he lost his place in the team

[Mikhail Chigorin]

The 'barnstorming' young centre-forward Ian Bowyer......and then Brian Clough got hold of him and converted him to a midfielder.

Bloody hell. That's two of us who didn't slag him off all game, every game

Thanks Patrick, we're still in a minority, I suppose, but it's nice to know I wasn't the only one who valued him.

[Hutch's Shoulder]

Agree with wiekens, remember sing 'walking in a wiekens wonderland' as a kid all the time! Also loved Sun Jihai!

I liked Sun's song!

[Benjay]

Van Buyten at the time was like a gift from the footballing gods he was so good. Shame we couldn't afford to buy him.

[Michael Brookes]

Tarnat... purely for that howitzer against blckburn

[beehive's dodgy pint]

David Oldfield. Partnered Tricky Trefor for a while and scored in the 5-1 v Rags at Maine Road. Beautifully kept blonde hair. Reminded me a bit of Tony Adcock as a striker. Scored a hatrick in the 10-1 v Huddersfield when Andy May returned to Maine Road. Both pretty rank strikers but had their moments in games.

[Blue Oli]

Im amazed at some of the 'forgotten players' mentioned good recall of quiet a few.

How about Spencer Prior and Simon Royce though?

[CTID Hants]

[quote="hartfordsheartbeat"]
[/quote]

You didn't think about your name sake? As a kid idolised him (& Joe Corrigan), during his first stint with the club.

[Crossie]

Hatem Trabelsi

We had no pace at all that season (Pearce), he came along and I remember watching him blitz a full back and I thought our prayers were answered. We all knew he had glass knees and wouldn't last, played 20 games, scored 1. Moved to the middle east and played 13 more games then hung up his boots.

Thanks for the memories. That goal was Vs Scum but we lost 3-1 anyway.

[maddog fenton]

<null>

No pal Ian bishop signed while we were in the 2nd devision sure he was part of the 99 wembley team

[Wonderwall]

Anyone from the side that got us out of League 1. Morrison, Wiekens, Cooke, Weaver, Bishop etc etc. And not forgetting Big Joe and David Bernstein. Without them all we can only speculate....

I'm pretty sure Bishop rejoined after we got promoted back to Division One, as it was. Not that that detracts from your point.

EDIT: Just checked and I'm wrong. Odd, as I'm normally bang-on with dates.

He was born on the Cantril Farm housing estate in Liverpool and on leaving school in July 1981 he joined Everton, turning professional for the 1983–84 season under the management of Howard Kendall – who had taken over during the same summer that Bishop had first joined the club.

However, he failed to break into the first team at Goodison Park. After spells at Crewe Alexandra, Carlisle United and Bournemouth he signed for Manchester City in 1989 for £465,000 in a deal involving Paul Moulden.[2] Bishop was a good passer of the ball and in his 24 appearances for Manchester City in his first spell helped the team demolish their local rivals Manchester United 5–1 scoring City's third goal, on 23 September 1989.[3] Despite being popular with the Manchester City supporters he was sold by then manager Howard Kendall to West Ham United.

Bishop joined in the same week as Trevor Morley and Colin Foster, as manager Lou Macari continued to rebuild the West Ham squad. He spent the majority of his career at West Ham, playing 284 times between 1989 and 1998, scoring 16 goals and becoming something of a cult figure. In 1998, having become surplus to requirements at the Boleyn Ground, he returned to Manchester City. His second spell at the club saw the team relegated to what was then Division Two, but then promoted to Division One and in the following season to the Premiership. Bishop was an integral player in the team which earned promotion to the premiership but only played ten times for the club in the top flight. He transferred to Miami Fusion in March 2001 and played Major League Soccer (23 apps 0 goals), before finishing his playing career with a stint at the New Orleans Shell Shockers in the USL Premier Development League. He now resides in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife and three children.

from the ever reliable wiki

[maddog fenton]

Van Buyten at the time was like a gift from the footballing gods he was so good. Shame we couldn't afford to buy him.

I loved van ( the barbarian) Buyten, it shows that for such a player who him and dunny form such a beautiful partnership and even kept the rags quiet at COMs, it shows how fucked up we were money wise, wernt like we where taking a gamble on a overseas unknown either

[hartfordsheartbeat]

[quote="hartfordsheartbeat"]

You didn't think about your name sake? As a kid idolised him (& Joe Corrigan), during his first stint with the club.[/quote]
Ah but i haven't forgotten him. He was a super player. What about Alex williams, city born and bred. Think he still works for the club.

[gillie]

Bobby Mcdonald he was one hardnut and always gave everything whilst playing for us.

[Breks]

Jeff Whitley, I'm sure he's now a car salesman.

[bayblue]

Jeff Whitley, I'm sure he's now a car salesman.

A young Tommy Caton, RIP

[Dubciteh]

Anyone from the side that got us out of League 1. Morrison, Wiekens, Cooke, Weaver, Bishop etc etc. And not forgetting Big Joe and David Bernstein. Without them all we can only speculate....

I'm pretty sure Bishop rejoined after we got promoted back to Division One, as it was. Not that that detracts from your point.

EDIT: Just checked and I'm wrong. Odd, as I'm normally bang-on with dates.

He was born on the Cantril Farm housing estate in Liverpool and on leaving school in July 1981 he joined Everton, turning professional for the 1983–84 season under the management of Howard Kendall – who had taken over during the same summer that Bishop had first joined the club.

However, he failed to break into the first team at Goodison Park. After spells at Crewe Alexandra, Carlisle United and Bournemouth he signed for Manchester City in 1989 for £465,000 in a deal involving Paul Moulden.[2] Bishop was a good passer of the ball and in his 24 appearances for Manchester City in his first spell helped the team demolish their local rivals Manchester United 5–1 scoring City's third goal, on 23 September 1989.[3] Despite being popular with the Manchester City supporters he was sold by then manager Howard Kendall to West Ham United.

Bishop joined in the same week as Trevor Morley and Colin Foster, as manager Lou Macari continued to rebuild the West Ham squad. He spent the majority of his career at West Ham, playing 284 times between 1989 and 1998, scoring 16 goals and becoming something of a cult figure. In 1998, having become surplus to requirements at the Boleyn Ground, he returned to Manchester City. His second spell at the club saw the team relegated to what was then Division Two, but then promoted to Division One and in the following season to the Premiership. Bishop was an integral player in the team which earned promotion to the premiership but only played ten times for the club in the top flight. He transferred to Miami Fusion in March 2001 and played Major League Soccer (23 apps 0 goals), before finishing his playing career with a stint at the New Orleans Shell Shockers in the USL Premier Development League. He now resides in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife and three children.

from the ever reliable wiki

Ian Bishop was top class, signing him on a free was a great bit of business.

Van Buytan was class too but he was always out of our league we were lucky to get him even for 6 months!

[BobbyJ1956]

Gerard Wiekens. Good guy, never let us down and was a consummate professional in three different divisions - one of which was below his ability level and one of which was a bit above it.

Decent thread.

He had the ManU striker whose name I've suffered a memory loss on (they're getting more frequent) in his pocket during the last Maine Road derby.
He brought his dog with him to England and had to put it into quarantine. Forgotten the dog's name too.

[SomeMichaelGuy]

Would have to go for Sun Jihai as well, though how anyone could forget him I don't know.

[Wooders]

Albert "the eagle" Riera!