Toon: The Nearly Men.

Posted on September 17th, 2009 | 30 Comments |

Rooney: Toon nearly man
Rooney: Toon nearly man
Inspired by a post on here and goaded on by Bowburnmag, I decided to do some research into NUFC’s nearly men. By that I mean the players we tried to sign and missed out to other clubs. 

The idea was to get together a starting 11 made up of the ones that got away, but I was really struggling.  Seeing as this wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be I’ve decided, in true 21st century media style, I’m going to get the reader to do all the work for me.  Let’s try and make a starting 11 of the best players NUFC nearly signed.  You can’t cheat and say something like Beckham in his prime.  The player must be of the same age and talent as when we tried to sign him.

I’ll start you off with some of the big name signings we just missed out on and you can help by submitting your favourite ones that got away.

Here’s my list of confirmed players we put a bid in for:

Wayne Rooney
Roberto Carlos
Roberto Baggio
Steve MacManaman
Elano Blumer (Elano) – Apparently he was ready to sign for BSA, but this was when Ashley was taking over so all transfers were put on hold.  Bummer.

Over to you. :-)

NUFCBlog Author: Micky Toon Micky Toon has written 6 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by Micky Toon in category: Micky Toon and NUFC 'Blog and NUFC gossip and speculation and Transfers , with tags: , ,
Comment on this post

30 Responses

  2. oh and the page is looking great!!

    Just got back from racing Tuk Tuks around sri lanka and been on for the first time.

    Well done!

  3. Brilliant picture. ‘Tells a thousand words’.

    Weren’t we close to getting the Portuguese ***** at some point as well though?

    Fat and Thin Ronaldos, in black and white would have been canny.

  4. Here’s one we did get – Khizanishvili from Blackburn Rovers. Signed on a 3 month loan. Big Sam will be laughing his stots off I imagine.

  5. Ahhh. This wasn’t finished. I thought I’d deleted it. Oh well. :D

    I was going to go back to it and put in some more names, perhaps a team line up. Never mind, the idea is out there now. :)

  6. MT – not guilty.

    I was about to say your “research” was a bit limited.
    All is clear now!

    Just update it and fill in the gaps.

  7. As it was my idea for the article i’ll chip in!
    Let’s try and keep it realistic as many would’ve been paper talk, but back in the olden days we used to confirm if we had bids in sometimes.

    Dennis Bergkamp (when he was at Inter)

  10. Tino 11 says:
    September 17, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    “Yeah there’s been a couple of pictures of a slightly homosexual nature on the site recently!”

    My fault, Tino. I have a whole library of ridiculous footballer pics, and I can’t resist using them! :-)

  11. Ha, nee probs Worky, the one on this article has to be one of the best.

    I do remember seeing a dodgy one of Pedro many years ago on Fantasy Football on BBC 2 with Frank Skinner.

  12. I have absolutely loads of Kevin Keegan, Tino. Of course, they will be rolled out at every possible opportunity, usually with the flimsiest of excuses.

  14. workyticket says:
    September 17, 2009 at 3:04 pm
    Tino 11 says:
    September 17, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    “I do remember seeing a dodgy one of Pedro”

    I thought ALL pictures of Pedro were dodgy, Tino
    ——————————————————
    True, but this one showed parts that only his wife and Kathy Secker have seen!

  17. summerof69 says:
    September 17, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    “you can add zidane to that list aswell”

    He was linked with Blackburn too, 69, and Jack Walker supposedly said (not totally sure if it was true, like)

    “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?” :-)

  18. It seemed at one point that everyone was coming out and saying – “we were offered ZZ first, but didn’t take them up on the offer” Obviously that was before his numerous accolades and plaudits of the “best footballer EVAR!!!!” type. To me that says the people who were being offered him shouldn’t be smug that the only reason they didn’t have him on their books was because they didn’t want him, they should be keeping their mouths shut as they couldn’t see what a talent he was.

    When I was thinking of players to add, there is a tenuous link to Shearer here. We could have signed him up before he went to Portsmouth, but we didn’t. I know he eventually signed, but we did miss his “Blackburn days”.

  20. bowburnmag says:
    September 17, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    “MT – Portsmouth???”

    If he meant Southampton, that’s even worse than mistaking S________d for Newcastle! :-)

  21. I’m sure he meant while he was on work experience at a local bakery making fluffy, delicious Victoria Sponges.

  22. bowburnmag says:
    September 17, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    “I’m sure he meant while he was on work experience at a local bakery making fluffy, delicious Victoria Sponges.”

    Second and third greatest things ever to come out of Gosforth, Alan Shearer and Greggs the bakers.

  25. 17 workyticket says:
    September 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm
    summerof69 says:
    September 17, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    “you can add zidane to that list aswell”

    He was linked with Blackburn too, 69, and Jack Walker supposedly said (not totally sure if it was true, like)

    “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”

    LOL TO BE FAIR WORKY IM NOT SURE IF ITS TRUE THIS WAS CLAIMED BY AN AGENT ON SKY SPORTS WHO SAID THAT HE BEGGED KK TO SIGN HIM BUT APPARENTLY KK SAID NO THIS AGENT A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER ALSO WENT ON TO CLAIM THAT HE OFFERED CR 7 FABREGAS AND NANI TO BIRMINGHAM FOR 3.5 MIL LOL

  26. bowburnmag says:
    September 17, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    “What was the first?

    You, by any chance?”

    Of course Bowburn. Who else could it possibly be? Michael Chopra? Donna Airheed?

  29. Bah, Portsmouth, what a muppet. I blame it on a hard week at work and I was tired. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.