Southend's Best/Worst Ever Sporting Decisions

[Firestorm]

Best
Not hanging around when sacking Bate or Morris
Worst
Sacking Dave Smith

Fans worst decision , hounding out the Rubins which paved the way for AJ to start the debt spiral
Hindsight is 20/20 vision

 

[bigSouthendFanDan]

Best- Signing Freddy Eastwood from Grays and Ryan Hall from Bromley
Worst- Realising Kightly or just turning down good offers for players I.e Bilel

 

[A Century United]

Best: Signing Tommy Mooney

Worst: Swapping Tommy Mooney and Derek Payne for Keith Dublin*




*I have a lot of time for Dublin, and he is a long way off being our worst ever signing but for Tommy Mooney and Derek Payne? Really? What were you thinking, Spud??

 

[bazzashrimper]

At least we got rid of Derek Payne.

Best: It has to be the Collymore signing.

Worst: Dave Regis & Roger Willis for our record signing Mr Poole and Jon Hunt, who had a real youthful class about him (as he proved and Brum went on to turn down 1m+ offers for him). What were you thinking, Spud?

 

[danburyshrimper]

Ricky Otto would have made a fine son -in - law ....... What were you thinking Spud ?

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Best: signing Steve Phillips

Worst: appointing Peter Taylor manager

 

[ozzie]

best;- signing billy best in 1968,from northampton, for nowt worst;-d.bate as manager!!! the 1975-76 blues programme:unsure:

 

[Ricey]

My recent ones:

Best - Ben Reeves goal to send us to Wembley in a final for the first time in our history.

Worst - The whole situation with Brown and Sturrock, it was an embarrassment for the club.

Older ones:
Best - Giving Scott Forbes a chance to prove himself for Southend and him scoring that scorcher of a goal against Canvey.

Worst - Not signing certain players who have ounces trialled with us and gone onto be good players like Leon Britton as mentioned, Paul Benson, Ian Wright, Bobby Zamora and no doubt there is plenty I have missed.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

My best and worst, just based on strikers is;

Best; signing Stanley Victor Collymore.

Worse; keeping on playing Matt Harrold and not giving Hoops those games and runs in the side.

 

[Crabby Shrimper]

My recent ones:

Best - Ben Reeves goal to send us to Wembley in a final for the first time in our history.

Worst - The whole situation with Brown and Sturrock, it was an embarrassment for the club.

Older ones:
Best - Giving Scott Forbes a chance to prove himself for Southend and him scoring that scorcher of a goal against Canvey.

Worst - Not signing certain players who have ounces trialled with us and gone onto be good players like Leon Britton as mentioned, Paul Benson, Ian Wright, Bobby Zamora and no doubt there is plenty I have missed.

Agreed it was embarrassingly handled, but surely as a sporting decision it has been justified?

Also, all those saying the releasing of Kightly, I'd say that had we re-signed him there would've been a good chance that he wouldn't have developed into the player he now is. Think our releasing him gave him the kick in the pants he needed.

My choices...

best sporting decision : Giving Tilly & Brush the managerial positions, when many wanted Stan. Stan would've been the easy popular choice, but most probably wouldn't have worked out quite so well.

Worst sporting decision: So many to choose from. Neville Southall on loan, Emberson, Dreeeeewe's LDV boots, THAT silver shirt (arguably neither sporting decisions). I'm going to go with the releasing of Wayne Gray prior to our championship season. Really think we needed that bit of pace up front if only to keep the opposition defenders on their toes

 

[South Bank Hank]

I'm thinking Best/Worst might be narrowing this down too much...

And anyway, I can't think which of Jupp's decisions THAT DAY was the best: the one to run up-field or the one to take an extra touch!

I do remember shouting "JUST ****ING HIT IT JUUuuuuuuuuYYYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!" before things got a little blurry!

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

Best decision: Signing John Burridge on loan from Villa 6 games - 5 wins and 1 draw, played a big part in promotion that year.

Worst decision(s): signing Micky Tuohy and Peter Abbot, both shocking, would never be strikers as long as they had a holes in there jacksy's.

 

[Jam_Man]

Agreed it was embarrassingly handled, but surely as a sporting decision it has been justified?

Also, all those saying the releasing of Kightly, I'd say that had we re-signed him there would've been a good chance that he wouldn't have developed into the player he now is. Think our releasing him gave him the kick in the pants he needed.

My choices...

best sporting decision : Giving Tilly & Brush the managerial positions, when many wanted Stan. Stan would've been the easy popular choice, but most probably wouldn't have worked out quite so well.

Worst sporting decision: So many to choose from. Neville Southall on loan, Emberson, Dreeeeewe's LDV boots, THAT silver shirt (arguably neither sporting decisions). I'm going to go with the releasing of Wayne Gray prior to our championship season. Really think we needed that bit of pace up front if only to keep the opposition defenders on their toes

Not by a long way.

3 games in, and we are in top 3, we need to be there in 8 months time before that judgement can be passed...

 

[* ORM *]

Best - deciding over 30 years ago that we needed a new ground

Worst - not one brick laid over 30 years later

Or

Best - signing Kevin Maher

Worst - releasing Kevin Maher

Or

Best - rehiring Webby

Worst - rehiring Webby

Or

Best - releasing Barrett

Worst - signing Barrett

Excellent thread topic btw, have green.

 

[Shrimper2thecore]

Best: Signing Eastwood

Worst: Not giving Hooper a proper chance

 

[Ricey]

Agreed it was embarrassingly handled, but surely as a sporting decision it has been justified?

Also, all those saying the releasing of Kightly, I'd say that had we re-signed him there would've been a good chance that he wouldn't have developed into the player he now is. Think our releasing him gave him the kick in the pants he needed.

My choices...

best sporting decision : Giving Tilly & Brush the managerial positions, when many wanted Stan. Stan would've been the easy popular choice, but most probably wouldn't have worked out quite so well.

Worst sporting decision: So many to choose from. Neville Southall on loan, Emberson, Dreeeeewe's LDV boots, THAT silver shirt (arguably neither sporting decisions). I'm going to go with the releasing of Wayne Gray prior to our championship season. Really think we needed that bit of pace up front if only to keep the opposition defenders on their toes

That's exactly the part of the situation I mean. I wanted Sturrock to step aside 3 season in league two is not good enough and I have said from day one Brown is a good appointment and will do well for us. But the whole media circus it created just made us look like a tin pot club.

 

[Shrimpers are Magic]

Hi Shrimpers! I'm a new contributor to the web site as only now gone into the 21st century technically with a laptop and broadband. Whew, what have I been missing!

Been a Blues supporter for many years and hope to be able to contribute to Chit-Chat when I can.

On this topic, I can only say I have two worst, if you don't mind:

1. Signing Bilel Mohsni. He has cost us so much over the past few season and
2. Leaving Ryan Leonard out of the JPT Final in favour of 1 above. Bad, bad decision as we all witnessed on that wonderful day.
Best decision: Signing Phil Brown - big things ahead for us.

Porn mostly

 

[Shrimpers are Magic]

Worst - Replacing Paul Clarke with Dick Bate
Replacing Richard Cadette with Richard Young
Replacing Jim Stannard with Eric Steele
Signing Chris Ramsey etc etc

Best - Replacing Dick Bate with Paul Clarke
Signing David Crown
Calling time on Tilson - brave decision and probably the correct one however unpopular.

 

[undercovershrimper]

Best: Signing Eastwood

Worst: Not giving Hooper a proper chance

He made 44 appearances for us I think he had his chance, he just didnt take it

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Best: Signing Eastwood

Worst: Not giving Hooper a proper chance

He had plenty of chances. It just didn't click for him here, even after his successful loan spell at Hereford he came back and didn't make an impression. These things happen. Hindsight's a wonderful thing.