NAISMITH RETIRES.

[Justin time 182]

Thought he retired when he joined us.

[AJ 1,218]

Never understood why it never worked out as he always looked decent for Everton. Never seemed to care once things started going downhill

[cambridgeshire canary 6,715]

He will never be forgotton.. As a good way to remind us that spunking all your money on one player is not always the best idea

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,431]

Shall we have a whip round? 

[Petriix 2,835]

31 minutes ago, AJ said:

Never understood why it never worked out as he always looked decent for Everton. Never seemed to care once things started going downhill

His legs had already gone by the time we bought him. He wasn't getting a game for Everton and didn't have what we needed either physically or mentally. I'm fairly certain that at the time our recruitment was rather impulse driven rather than the current stats and attributes based approach: 'Aye, he's a good lad' was Alex Neil's answer to performance analysis.

While I will maintain that selling Buendia was the best business we've ever done, buying Naismith was undoubtedly the worst. We signed him on a 3.5 year deal reportedly with no relegation wage reduction clause in January 2016 so we were still paying him one of our biggest ever salaries for two years after we were relegated until we paid him off for the final year, presumably stumping up the majority of his wages due.

Over £15m in total blown. It nearly bankrupt us and stands as a stark lesson for all those who claim we 'lack ambition' by refusing to make the same mistake again.

Edited June 16, 2021 by Petriix

[Uncle Fred 526]

3 minutes ago, Petriix said:

His legs had already gone by the time we bought him. He wasn't getting a game for Everton and didn't have what we needed either physically or mentally. I'm fairly certain that at the time our recruitment was rather impulse driven rather than the current stats and attributes based approach: 'Aye, he's a good lad' was Alex Neil's answer to performance analysis.

While I will maintain that selling Buendia was the best business we've ever done, buying Naismith was undoubtedly the worst. We signed him on a 3.5 year deal reportedly with no relegation wage reduction clause in January 2016 so we were still paying him one of our biggest ever salaries for two years after we were relegated until we paid him off for the final year, presumably stumping up the majority of his wages due.

Over £15m in total blown. It nearly bankrupt us and stands as a stark lesson for all those who claim we 'lack ambition' by refusing to make the same mistake again.

Signing him was not ambition it was absolute stupidity 

[Petriix 2,835]

3 minutes ago, Uncle Fred said:

Signing him was not ambition it was absolute stupidity 

How do you propose to tell the difference in advance of making a signing whether they're going to cut it or not? Which signings would show ambition and which ones would be stupid?

[Mello Yello 2,289]

5 minutes ago, Uncle Fred said:

Signing him was not ambition it was absolute stupidity 

Desperation, I thought.....

[Uncle Fred 526]

1 minute ago, Petriix said:

How do you propose to tell the difference in advance of making a signing whether they're going to cut it or not? Which signings would show ambition and which ones would be stupid?

I think Webber, Brentford etc etc all use data to narrow down quality signing , prior to Webber Christ knows how these players where chosen 

[Uncle Fred 526]

1 minute ago, Mello Yello said:

Desperation, I thought.....

Indeed 

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

3 minutes ago, Petriix said:

How do you propose to tell the difference in advance of making a signing whether they're going to cut it or not? Which signings would show ambition and which ones would be stupid?

Goals, assists, character, work rate, willingness to move, family, expectations, age, sell on value, position played, etc etc. The stats are abundant and obvious hence why so many other signings go so well. Not making a big signing because you messed it up soooooo badly last time is plainly daft. If you think you'll keep doing it badly, find another job.

[Uncle Fred 526]

3 minutes ago, Kenny Foggo said:

Goals, assists, character, work rate, willingness to move, family, expectations, age, sell on value, position played, etc etc. The stats are abundant and obvious hence why so many other signings go so well. Not making a big signing because you messed it up soooooo badly last time is plainly daft. If you think you'll keep doing it badly, find another job.

Don’t get me started on rvw as well

[Petriix 2,835]

2 minutes ago, Kenny Foggo said:

Goals, assists, character, work rate, willingness to move, family, expectations, age, sell on value, position played, etc etc. The stats are abundant and obvious hence why so many other signings go so well. Not making a big signing because you messed it up soooooo badly last time is plainly daft. If you think you'll keep doing it badly, find another job.

Or maybe recognising that a £1.6m player could be better than a £15m player...

[CANARYKING 637]

Hope he enjoys retirement, you and I bloody paid for it.

[norfolkngood 1,086]

If i Remember rightly ? i Don not think Naismith wanted to move here but the offer was to good to refuse 

i thought he would be a great player for us , thats why i am not a scout ! 

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

15 minutes ago, Petriix said:

Or maybe recognising that a £1.6m player could be better than a £15m player...

Yes they could be but the vast majority of times better players cost more and end up in top leagues.

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

11 minutes ago, norfolkngood said:

If i Remember rightly ? i Don not think Naismith wanted to move here but the offer was to good to refuse 

i thought he would be a great player for us , thats why i am not a scout ! 

Took ages to come, clearly did not want to be here and never settled. RVW bought to play on his own up front and wasn't that player. Both utterly ridiculous signings. Bad judgement calls that our recruitment team would not do now.

[Foxy2600 301]

Walking into Air Azores Head Office restaurant in Lisbon and making small talk, I announced we’d just bought Nelson Oliveira 

you could hear a pin drop until the uncontrolled laughter .... Naismith looked good until he arrived at Carrow Road

[Van wink 2,994]

Best arm waver and pointer we have ever had

[Terminally Yellow 2,448]

18 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Best arm waver and pointer we have ever had

Andy Hughes and Carl Robinson would beg to differ,

[Van wink 2,994]

It’s a tough call

[Justin time 182]

1 hour ago, Uncle Fred said:

I think Webber, Brentford etc etc all use data to narrow down quality signing , prior to Webber Christ knows how these players where chosen 

I am surprised you didn’t notice that he is actually IAN SMITH. Nepotism at it’s finest.  Slipped under the radar that one eh Fred.😁

[chicken 2,624]

2 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

He will never be forgotton.. As a good way to remind us that spunking all your money on one player is not always the best idea

He was signed at the same time as Klose... for a similar sum of money... more a case of being part of an example of how not to panic buy and hand out contracts that pay out more than we can afford.

[hogesar 9,658]

2 hours ago, Terminally Yellow said:

Andy Hughes and Carl Robinson would beg to differ,

I raise you a Fotheringham and a cringey FozzyFlick to go with it.

[Lessingham Canary 99]

10 hours ago, Terminally Yellow said:

Andy Hughes and Carl Robinson would beg to differ,

Peter Grant was the No1 for pointing, cant see anyone else coming close.

[Evil Monkey 52]

11 hours ago, Terminally Yellow said:

Andy Hughes and Carl Robinson would beg to differ,

Thanks for the reminder of those two, I'd nearly managed to erase all memory of them.

[chicken 2,624]

11 hours ago, Kenny Foggo said:

Yes they could be but the vast majority of times better players cost more and end up in top leagues.

That just isn't particularly true. I would suggest the split is much closer to balanced than you'd think. Often because at some point, someone chucks money at a player from a lower level league and they don't always make the step up or across into a new country or league. I mean, I am pretty sure you only need to look around premier league squads to see £10m+ players not even making the match day squads on a regular basis.

I mean, I know they are my pet hate club for breaking FFP, cheating their way to the PL and being a very small club propped up by a wealthy owner, but just look at how much Bournemouth spent on players and tell me how many of them have been worth it?

£8m for Grabban? Ibe £15m? Afobe £10m (how on earth were Wolves convinced to pay the same amount to sign him back?)? Gradel £7m? Begovic £10m? Solanke £19m? Mepham £12m?

Sure, they have Ake who they signed for £20m and sold for £41m to be on the bench for Man City.

And there are a number of other high profile players who much money was splashed out for and never lived up to the fee. Part of that is because if it's a top league club after a player, it is assumed they know what they are looking at...

Fulham paid £22m for Mitrovic. Joelinton cost Newcastle £40m and yet Saint-Maximim was half that price and is arguably at least twice the player. Some players have been both - best example is Fernando Torres to Liverpool for £20m being a sensation, then to Chelsea for £50m and being a relative flop for them and not really worth that investment. Shevchenko for £30+m was also a flop really. 

The premier league era is littered with big money flops - arguably as much if not more than big money successes.

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

2 hours ago, chicken said:

That just isn't particularly true. I would suggest the split is much closer to balanced than you'd think. Often because at some point, someone chucks money at a player from a lower level league and they don't always make the step up or across into a new country or league. I mean, I am pretty sure you only need to look around premier league squads to see £10m+ players not even making the match day squads on a regular basis.

I mean, I know they are my pet hate club for breaking FFP, cheating their way to the PL and being a very small club propped up by a wealthy owner, but just look at how much Bournemouth spent on players and tell me how many of them have been worth it?

£8m for Grabban? Ibe £15m? Afobe £10m (how on earth were Wolves convinced to pay the same amount to sign him back?)? Gradel £7m? Begovic £10m? Solanke £19m? Mepham £12m?

Sure, they have Ake who they signed for £20m and sold for £41m to be on the bench for Man City.

And there are a number of other high profile players who much money was splashed out for and never lived up to the fee. Part of that is because if it's a top league club after a player, it is assumed they know what they are looking at...

Fulham paid £22m for Mitrovic. Joelinton cost Newcastle £40m and yet Saint-Maximim was half that price and is arguably at least twice the player. Some players have been both - best example is Fernando Torres to Liverpool for £20m being a sensation, then to Chelsea for £50m and being a relative flop for them and not really worth that investment. Shevchenko for £30+m was also a flop really. 

The premier league era is littered with big money flops - arguably as much if not more than big money successes.

There maybe a lot of players that did not live up to the billing. But the market dictates the price & 100% better players cost more money. Buendia / Maddison / Godfrey are examples of that. Cheap players? Did you see the lot we bought in last time in the top flight? Not one worked, not one.

No one is saying its easy, no one is saying it's 100% fool proof but if you ask Farke or Webber if money is crucial to the hoped for success of a signing... 100% they will say yes.

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

PS. But its not all about money as stated.... fitness?charachter, willingness to move etc etc. Money helps with the two key elements .. money to the seller, wages to the player.

[NWC 239]

Naismith had just scored an amazing hatrick against Chelsea not long before we signed him IIRC, and I remember being really excited and positive about the move. But as they say, the devil is in the detail, and although £8million even at the time is not a lot to spend on a premier league goal scorer, the wages were the crippler. 

Here it is - excellent finishes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vynzv2dBZEA