Hello dear readers, I hope this finds you well. The current product is still all up in the air, and time will tell if Sergej’s Tigers pull of a minor miracle by making the playoffs, it’s certainly first world problems and I’m pretty happy either way. We’ve made big strides this season and I hope if we don’t go up (and let’s be honest at 10-1 with the bookies as I write it’s not that likely) that the owner stays patient with a manager that’s done an absolutely brilliant job, but more on that in the next few weeks…
So I was sitting watching Newcastle vs Sunderland on the telly on Sunday, or the “missing teeth” derby as I like to call it and the camera panned onto a former Newcastle player as they’d won a dangerous free kick. That player was Ryan Taylor, and even though it’s only ten years since he played for City, I had to google him to make sure. Indeed he did, playing a grand total of 4 appearances in the promotion season of 2015-16 (including one league game) and I honestly don’t know if I saw him play. Moses Odubajo probably saw off the need to play Mr Taylor as he was really never better that year for City, being truly outstanding in our promotion push.
So that got me thinking of players you could barely recall played for us and I’ve put together five for discussion. As ever I’d love your input and if you can add to the thread under this I’d be happy to have you. I’ve done one from the eighties, one nineties, one two thousands, one twenty tens and one twenty twenties… a bit like a pub music quiz… so sit back, relax and prepare to say… “Who?” quite a bit…
1980s
Malcolm Murray
Eddie Gray brought the young Scotsman in from Hearts around the transfer deadline in March of 1989.
That was a strange season indeed as we’d been really poor and down the bottom of Division Two, only to go on a good FA Cup run that saw us eventually knocked out in a valiant attempt against Liverpool, the run also coincided with a great league run with the combination of Keith Edwards and Billy Whitehurst causing opposition defences massive problems. Then after we’d been knocked out, we went back to looking terrible and barely escaped the drop. Eddie was sacked and in came Colin Appleton for the second time.
Malcolm had the double whammy of playing for a team on the comedown from the FA Cup and then the calamitous start to the next year under and outdated and out of his depth former manager. My main memory was he looked like the whitest kid I’ve ever seen, skinny and too easily pushed around. Charlie Palmer or Richard Jobson he wasn’t, and by December of 89 he was jettisoned to Mansfield where he’d stay for a couple of years before returning to Scotland. Blink and you’d miss him, soz Malcolm…
1990s
Paul Wharton
If we throught the end to the decade was bad, then the nineties stood in the shadows saying “Hold my beer”. In truth I could easily refer to fifty city players from this decade as obscure, as even if we could remember them, we probably didn’t want to.
Terry “on the” Dolan brought him in from some sort of bargain bucket after he’d been released by Leeds in the astonishingly bad 1995-96 season. Even by Terry’s standards in that era (Andy Brown, Jamie Marks, Christian Sansom anyone?) Paul was underwhelming. I mainly remember him being tiny and running around the midfield like a mascot and being vaguely aware that in a team or nobodies, Paul might have actually been below average.
Over two and a half seasons he played a grand total of eight times, (I think he was injured in his first full year) and even Mark Hateley (and this is some statement) didn’t want to play him, so off he popped at the end of 1998 to a career in non league. Cheers Whazza.
2000s
Richard Appleby
Ah, younger fans who thought Dougie Sinik was a sicknote… how little ye know… Ritchie Appleby was the Ferris Bueller of injuries and I’m not sure I’ve even seen anything like him. 6 appearances in nearly two years whilst Peter Taylor regularly told anyone that would listen that there was nothing wrong with him. Happy days.
Chubby Kebab-faced Molby brought him in, during his short and unimpressive stint at the club in the summer of 2002 to great acclaim and he was supposed to be the playmaking dynamo we lacked, but like most things the Danish Pastry said during his time at Boothferry Park, he was wrong on a grand scale. Soon Tubs McGee was out and that, was pretty much that for Ritchie, only he was on a handsome wage so wasn’t that keen to
A. Leave or seemingly B. Play.
After lots of internal discussion, Adam Pearson finally paid him off in the winter of 2003. I wouldn’t recognise Richard in a line up and if he was in one, he’d probably have been limping. Good riddance.
2010s
Ondřej Mazuch
So, I can’t really cover Ryan Taylor. Mmmmm… who is else was pretty irrelevant? How about Ondrej? Unlike some others on this list, I actually think there was a player in Ondrej, when he occasionally played, (a whopping twenty games in two years) he wasn’t the worst I’ve seen and you could tell he had something. I mean he played three times for the Czech national team, you don’t do that if you’re Paul Wharton.
Unfortunately that “something” was more often than not “injured”. He seemed to be able to strain his calf by looking at the telly too quickly and was forever in some stage of recovery. It always seem soft tissue based and it was a surprise to nobody when he was released in 2019. That era was such a set of lost opportunities. We had the riches of selling off the Maguires, Robertsons and Clucases (plural of Sam Clucas? Clukai?) and essentially blew it on the likes of Kevin Stewart, Stephen Kingsley, Jackson Irvine and Noaha Dicko. I’m no fan of the Allam’s legacy obviously, but you have to say we spent quite a bit, it just wasn’t well done.
Anywho Ondrej went on to play back at home in Czechia and is probably having a Staropramen and smoking a cigar as I write.
2020s
Fin Burns
Again, with out schizophrenic transfer dealings in the last few years we’re pretty spoilt for choice, but I’ve gone for young Finlay, mainly because as a bag of goods, he simply wasn’t to me as advertised.
Was he terrible? No, I mean not really. But for a 6ft 5 centre back he wasn’t even slightly commanding, he was often quite anonymous and never ever looked like a product of Manchester City, not unless they’ve dramatically dropped their standards. He was just “meh”. Made little impact and was part of a City squad that jumped from one disaster to another under the bonkers German Tim Walter and barely stayed up by the skin of their teeth. Luckily we did, Fin went back home and then on loan to Reading (where I see he hasn’t played much more) and I haven’t given him a single thought again until this very moment.
So long Finley and thanks for the (lack of memories)
Ok, so over to you Tiger fans. Tell me some bizarre and obscure City players over the years, I’ve obviously missed a ton and it’s easy as frankly there’s just so many of them. Have fun with it, up them XG Tigers and I’m off to google where Thomas Mayer is now playing…
Thanks for reading…