You don't actually buy that story, do you? It seems totally made up after the fact to me. When we signed Phil Adamson both he and Matt were well established NRL/ARL players. Everyone knew Matt was the better player, but Phil should nonetheless have been a good signing. For whatever reason it didn't work out and his career went into freefall.

which could be said for all of the welsh players we signed in the 80s and 90s. A couple have been mentioned on here such as Stuart Evans but I would also include Clive griffiths who we paid £25k for and was pretty useless.

Totally made up story!
Seeing as Tanner didn't even play at the same club as Mark Preston.
Wigan signed him from Grasshoppers as you say, but we signed Tanner from Fylde RU.
Makes me laugh that people actually believe these stories about us signing the wrong players by mistake.

Well I think Scully bought that line as he put it in his autobiography.

whoah there cowboy, i'll raise you Mr Scott Gibbs

I'd be astonished if it was true.

Ok I will remove Gibbs from the list of lousy trogs, he was one that worked out reasonably well, but in a tit for tat retaliation will throw roger Owen into the bag of useless welch gets.

Josh Perry is without a doubt the biggest ever flop that you have signed from overseas,he won't have come cheap either
He's spent more time on the sidelines than some of your season ticket holders

Hence why I said "The story's probably BS"

Shocking thread - x factorish.

Cock

Mike Carrington and Darrell Trindall stand out for me. I think I've done more on the pitch for Saints over the course of my career than Carrington ever did. The fact that Hanley thought that Tommy God needed to be replaced with Tricky shows how much we lucked out winning the GF with him as coach too. Throw in Andy Dannatt (came with a big reputation and probably big money to replace the legend that was Wardie and stunk out the joint) if you want a forward too.

The people listing Stuart Evans (devastating in spells when he was occasionally fit) and Perry (give the guy a bloody chance!) are well out of order frankly.

a doodle

Irony.

As Ski says, the irony of havinf Trent Barratt as your user name and avatar and then posting about flops is just too much to take

Tanner was unspectacular - but he was not mediocre. Tanner's problem was pace - or lack thereof. Which presents certain challenges when you're occupying a wing berth in a post-Offiah era where clubs are falling over themselves to acquire the (often dubious) talents of RU speedsters.

It's difficult to accurately express the sense of utter hopelessness one felt scanning the teamsheet at martial bearpits such as Craven Park or Thrum Hall, where you knew Saints needed plenty of quick points on the board in order to demoralise the local pack of mountain trolls, only to discover your right centre/wing combo is Mark this-ball-is-mine-and-I'll-be-damned-before-I-pass-it-to-anyone Bailey and David Tanner.

That said, Murphy loved Tanner - and not without some justification. He was reliable and made very, very few mistakes (handling, positional play etc). He was an outstanding tackler. Indeed, outside of Gary Connolly and Scott Gibbs I don't think I've seen a better defensive back in a Saints shirt (he absolutely pole-axed Karl Harrison and left him on a stretcher with nothing more than an orthodox front-on tackle). He offered a lot of utility and in an injury crisis could occupy (albeit slooowly) any spot from one to six. Finally, he could kick goals.

Look, by no stretch of the imagination was Tanner a runaway success. But when you take into account the number of games he played, his versatility and the paltry sums it took to sign and retain him I'd argue he was pretty good value for money.

How much did Fielden play last year?


JP - Played 11, 722 meters, 107 carries, 196 tackles
SF - Played 1, 75 meters, 11 carries, 30 tackles.

Saints actually gave Mark Preston a run-out in a reserves game as a trialist and had ample chance to bag him, but by all accounts decided not to sign him as he was "too small". He then of course went to Wigan instead and scored a gazillion tries for a short while while we went and paid big money for the man mountain of Brimah Kebbie instead... We really were run by a bunch of clueless muppets in those days...

Anyway, Tanner was a more than decent player who never let us down and suffered a little from being just too versatile - he would have made a very good permanent #1 in the "pre-pivot" era if not for Veivers being in the way, but unfortunately spent most of his time labouring on the wing where, as already pointed out, his lack of either pace or size/strength meant he could never be more than average. Plus, great first season scoring for fun at a completely dominant and overpowering Wigan side where I could have scored 20+ tries aside, Preston didn't exactly pull up a lot of trees himself career-wise, did he?

It's a nice story though

Based on reputation it has to be michael O'Connor,when we signed him he was a superstar,a goal kicking free scoring dual code international but he really did flop for us,some people say he was injured but we signed him anyway,when you think about some of the players we signed in the 80's and some we turned down it really does make you wonder about the people that ran the club back then.

Another that springs to mind is Gary Grienke no idea how he made a living as a rugby player.

O'Connor's problem was that the fans (egged on by Murphy and company) expected another Mal Meninga.

And Preston wasn't too shabby at Halifax either

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Pat Jarvis. Big time Aussie prop whose only useful function at KR was to carry the sand bucket on (prior to the days of kicking tees).

On the subject of Saints' management years ago, a story which I don't know is 100% true, but sounds about right:

A couple of Saints directors were sent to Rosslyn Park to have a look at a winger called Martin Offiah. When they reported back to the board, it went something like: " We didn't think he was much good but there was a black fellow on the other wing who could bl00dy shift"!

Not it wasnt it was the fact that he was world class in ability and did absolutely nothing in the red vee. Undoubted talent, clearly came for a holiday and put in zero effort.He was 5hite all season.

All i remember of Pat Jarvis we he liked to fight.

Yes they looked at Offiah and he was called an "uncoordinated clown" by them,Widnes signed him not long after and the rest is history.According to his book Jermey Guscott met with the board and decided there was no way he was doing business with them

He had a decent off load game did Jarvis.