Last night we sent out a question to our followers on Twitter and Facebook asking, who was the worst player to ever wear the white shirt? We got a few replies and some of the names were obvious but some surprised me as they were recent players. The names mentioned were Roque Junior, Tomis Brolin, Frank Strandli and Lee Sharp. The more recent players mentioned are as follows, Stephen Crainey, Paul Connoly, Fede Bessone, Paul Rachubka, Tom Lees, Habib Habibou and Cameron Stewart. Two names I would like to add to this list are Seth Johnson and Kevin Nicholls.
Some of the names mentioned are obvious but I wouldn't say Tom Lees is one of the worst ever, and someone even mentioned Matt Smith which I certainly disagreed with.
I'm going to pick three of the players named above and tell you some things about them.
Tomis Brolin:
The Swede was signed for £4.5million and only made 20 appearances in his two seasons for Leeds. A story Leeds fans would know of is when Howard Wilkinson accused Brolin of not pulling of his weight, this being no surprise as you could see the extra pounds on the Swede. Brolin left Leeds on a free transfer and retired at the age of 29 the following season. He is regarded as one of the worst Premier League players and the worst player to ever play for Leeds.
Roque Junior:
This name might surprise you being on this list as he holds a World Cup winners medal, well not really because his time at Leeds was awful. We signed Roque on loan from Milan and you could say some fans were excited about his arrival, he only made a handful of appearances for the Whites and was sent off on his home debut. The only thing the central defender done during his time at Leeds was scoring two goals against Scum in the League Cup. In his short spell at Leeds we conceded 24 goals.
Seth Johnson:
Seth Johnson was brought to Leeds from Derby for a fee of £7million, and had more money than enough from his ridiculous wage package. His Leeds career was blighted with injury problems and due to this Seth only played 54 league games in four years. When he was fit to play he was left out of the matchday squad, this was because if he played more games Derby got add-ons and we all know what our money problems were like at the time. Johnson was released and later retired in 2007 at the young age of 28.
If you think of any other names that hasn't been mentioned, leave a comment below.
I think the 3 you've picked would be better described as 'most dissapointing' rather than 'worst ever'. Brolin for all his extra weight had real talent, and was often played our of position. Junior, as you say, scored two against Man U so that should automatically exclude him from being mentioned as the worst! Johnson has a bad rep because his of injuries and the infamous wage neogotiations - but when he did play he was pretty good, I remember one game against Everton where he just ran the show and looked like a £7m player if not more.
ReplyDeleteMy nomination for worst would be the staggeringly untalented Tony Hakworth, with an regretful mention of Frank Strandli (he really tried, but just had no ability at all!)
I know what you mean, but this isn't based on the players 'talent' its how they done at their time at Leeds. All these names were put to me by fans on Twitter and Facebook
DeleteAnd he was fat!!
DeleteJohn Pearson was absolute dog dirt!
DeleteJody Morris
ReplyDeletejimmy kebe
ReplyDeleteAlmost forgot about our old pal Kebe, I was excited about his arrival but didn't turn up for Leeds one of the worst I've seen. Although if I can remember right he did have an alright game against Huds, scoring in that too.
DeleteJacob Burns
ReplyDeleteDepends if we're talking money's worth or talent. If this is based on talent i think the top two (Brolin and Junior) are definitely in the top list. I wouldn't have included Johnson, though he was the biggest money flop of all time!. I think there are a lot worse (talentwise) that contributed a lot less in their short times with us.
ReplyDeleteSurprised you didn't include the names of other 'emergency' loan players we had under Peter Reid, Cyril Chapuis springs to mind and there were plenty of others to choose from (Pierre Laurent?).
Peter Barnes always springs to mind when I think big money flop signings (£1M was a hell of a lot in the early 80s).
I could name others like Danny Granville, Paul Okon that would be above Johnson on the talentless list
Yeah the money involved with Johnson's'so transfer was a joke, another name put forward on our FB page recently was Dylan Kerr
DeletePierre Laurent lived in a club house next door to me. He never settled and always wanted to get out of Leeds.
ReplyDeleteYou're showing your young age here! The players you mention were poor but would have looked like full internationals alongside the likes of Brian Caswell, Ronnie Robinson, Russell Doig, David Harle, Ken DeMange, Trevor Swinbourne. With a bit more thought and if I open some of the locked compartments of my brain - I'm sure I could come up with more. Just be thankful you only suffered the above!
ReplyDeleteAs I said before most of the names above were given to our pages on Twitter and Facebook. In my time the only players I know of are ones from the early 90's and onwards.
DeleteAnthony Elding
ReplyDeleteBrolin!
ReplyDeleteHow about lamine sahko
ReplyDeleteLiam Dickinson is the worst player we've ever had and for me it's not close.
ReplyDeleteMichael Ricketts, Julian Joachim and Jermaine Wright are three more for you
ReplyDeleteCarlton Palmer, enough said I think
ReplyDelete