GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
Nah. Doubt it. Probably less than £10m all-in.
Our wage bill alone for that first season was £140m and has got bigger since.
Jesse Lingard
- Thread starter Matt
- Start date
Our wage bill alone for that first season was £140m and has got bigger since.
£10m and he played 12 games in the PL according to someone on here. I wouldnt say thats very impressive - nearly a million a game! And he wasnt very good in most of them
GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
Didn’t say it was impressive. I’m just don’t think it did us any harm in the long run. Plenty of other signings over the years have damaged the club much more over a longer period of time. Lingard was just a temporary sideshow.
I can think of worse players but for the money and also the media backlash it caused, I cant think of any who are worse overall.
We were very close to going down that year as we know and he wasnt deemed good enough to even come off the bench in the latter part of the season whilst picking up his £100k.
I still think our first season back the Liverpool home win was our most important points, gave us the belief we needed in other big games at home.
If Lingard starting helped us win then even just that one result makes him worth it. Even if we'd have won without him, if him helping the dressing room atmosphere and bonding the players helped us get the points needed to stay up, he was worth it
Either way, everything we've done since promotion has resulted in staying up and getting Europe so no complaints from me. For what it's worth I'd completely forgot about Lingard, seems so much longer ago than it actually was!
If Lingard starting helped us win then even just that one result makes him worth it. Even if we'd have won without him, if him helping the dressing room atmosphere and bonding the players helped us get the points needed to stay up, he was worth it
Either way, everything we've done since promotion has resulted in staying up and getting Europe so no complaints from me. For what it's worth I'd completely forgot about Lingard, seems so much longer ago than it actually was!
JonnoSnr
Jack Armstrong
Yeah I think if we're judging this purely on the output vs financial investment he has to be one of the worst and as you say turned us into a bit of a circus.
At the time it came across as a pure vanity signing from Marinakis Jr but thankfully it seems like the reins have been taken away from him and we leave big decisions like this to the actual football people.
YellowBelly Red
Grenville Morris
It certainly pissed the London Press off, which was quite amusing at the time.
GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
And still annoying a few curmudgeons on here evidently. It was fun for a bit. He wasn’t very good. No harm done really.
You can say its not a big deal to about 90% of threads on here. Wouldn't be particularly constructive though.
GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
I’m just responding to your claim he was one of our “worst ever” signings. When I don’t think he was at all. He was a brief and expensive sideshow, during an otherwise successful season, at the very worst.
I'd say we got very lucky that he was only on a 1 year contract. As we havent given 1 year contracts to any other big names players (ever, that I can recall) then I'm assuming that came from him or his camp.
Who's been a worse signing, honestly? He apparently smashed our wage bill, had not long played for England and was pretty dreadful on the pitch. The great run we went on near the end of the season he wasnt even getting on as sub. Great tik toks though!
GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
Emmanuel Dennis, Harry Arter, Joao Carvalho, Andrea Silenzi, Jonjo Shelvey, Neil Shipperley just off the top of my head. Plus countless other lemons we've been stuck with for years during the champoinship/league one years. Even from that transfer window Omar Richards and Giulian Biancone probably cost more and contributed less, though probably not really their fault entirely.
I can't be bothered arguing this further to be honest. We'll have to agree to differ.
Cloughie1975
Stuart Pearce
Agreed-although we had to spend big on gaining a totally unexpected promotion I’m afraid the Lingard signing
was a perfect demonstration of how to waste money.
Hopefully we’ve learnt our lesson.
Okay. All I'll say is the expectation level and wages for those players was nowhere near what it was for Lingard, nor should it have been. He was a proven PL and England player. I'm not arguing that Neil Shipperley was a better player than Jesse Lingard thats not my point.
Shelvey I'll give you, he was equally crap, expensive and embarrassing for the club.
GregorRobertson
Jack Burkitt
Expectation, sure. Everyone was disappointed, myself included. But how much did that expectation contribute to other, actually good, players signing in that first window? We'll never know for sure.
I just don't think his wages were that big a commitment either in the scheme of things. We spent £300m on player wages in those first two seasons - it's there in the accounts. Lingard took, what £10m of that, tops? I know they are obscene amounts of money taken in isolation, but this is the deal with the devil we are doing to enjoy staying in the premier league.
GaryCrosbysStepOver
Geoff Thomas
Yes that was fun. How dare a Northern player refuse a move to the almighty capital? How dare these provincial oiks not know their place?
Haych
Stuart Pearce
He was here for one season, we’re still paying worse players then him now who signed at the same time.
It was a gamble what failed who cares, and like others have said it pissed off the press that little old Forest wanted to give it a go so it was worth every penny.
It was a gamble what failed who cares, and like others have said it pissed off the press that little old Forest wanted to give it a go so it was worth every penny.
Chappers85
Can't Play Left-Back
That's what made it a worthwhile punt. 1 year deal - you do well, maybe keep us up, get a move elsewhere on a free or we give you a new contract. If we get relegated, you're not tied to the club and we're not burdened with your astronomical wages in the Championship, and you can go on a free elsewhere. Was a great bit of business by the club - it was money we had to spend but not getting tied down to anything afterwards. Now it just so happened that Lingard was shit but we stayed up anyway. He probably regrets signing that deal because he got found out and everybody in the Prem knew that his legs were gone and he was never getting another contract like that again. But despite that, given the information we had and where we were as a club at the time, it was a no brainer to sign him.
Chappers85
Can't Play Left-Back
Is that the biggest downgrade ever - Riccy Scimeca replaced by Danny Sonner? It shouldn't, but over 20 years later, I still get annoyed about what happened in the summer of 2003 after thr playoff defeat!
Agreed and if that 1 year deal was driven by Forest thats great foresight. I just cant help but think it wasnt though seeing as we have never done that before or since. Which makes me to believe it was driven by Lingard and his agent. I'd imagine he saw us as a stepping stone and didnt think he would be quite as bad as he was! Its clearly backfired on him.
Gunnarson too. Awful.
Harry Arter and Jonjo Shelvey are literally miles ahead of Lingard in the ‘worst ever signings’ stakes. Those two are in a league of their own. Dennis is worse too with how long we’ve been stuck with him.
The likes of Shipperley, Rosario, Silenzi, Mannini, Jerkan are all worse too. You can’t make arguments about how much this list cost because transfer fees and wages have ballooned since that time, but it’s hard to make a case that Lingard offered less than any of them did.
The Lingard contract was actually not that bad, it didn’t work out obviously and he was terrible on the pitch, but it helped our profile and didn’t cost that much comparatively in this day and age.
GaryCrosbysStepOver
Geoff Thomas
No
The biggest downgrade ever is Van Hooijdonk and Campbell to Freedman and Shipperley. Closely followed by Teddy Sheringham to Gary Bannister.
Rzar
Bob McKinlay
Zach Clough is still miles worse than the lot
It was so bad you can even ignore his transfer fee (which was large) & him still be the worst - he was our highest earner for 5 years whilst being loaned out and unable to even get in Rochdale's team. When you compare to revenues at the time it would be like us now having a player on £300k a week playing on loan to Blackpool with 4 years left on his deal.
It was so bad you can even ignore his transfer fee (which was large) & him still be the worst - he was our highest earner for 5 years whilst being loaned out and unable to even get in Rochdale's team. When you compare to revenues at the time it would be like us now having a player on £300k a week playing on loan to Blackpool with 4 years left on his deal.