That too. At Highbury wanting to go home.

I used to work with a bloke called Graham Swoops so that would have really confused me

Rumbelows Cup 2nd Rd 1st leg

HARTLEPOOL 1. Honour
PALACE 1. Bright

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Walked in after a post-school shift at my part time job just as Sky News were reporting it Wright's move. It was like Sky News were deliberately timing it for my benefit. Absolutely sick as a dog, Had no clue it was coming. Collapsed into the armchair in the lounge.

Funnily enough, 30 years on my mum still has that armchair and I paid a rare visit there a fortnight ago and was recalling the 'Wright-inspired' collapse into that chair :sob:

Marco’s brother playing for Hartlepool

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Talking of Marco…

30 years ago today

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He had an impossible role to fill the boots of Ian Wright. Possibly (with the benefit of hindsight obviously) the only one then that could have done it was Shearer who was still at Southampton, but we didn't fully know then what a goal machine he would turn out to be. Despite his previous goal scoring credentials I remember feeling a bit sorry for MG - I was wanting him to be as good as IW, but knowing he never would be.

I was only young at the time, but what was the general reaction when we signed Marco? He came with a good pedigree, and I think was purchased off the back of recommendations from people Sir Steve respected.
Think we were also linked with likes of Deane, Shearer and co.

If only we had signed Alan Shearer - maybe we could have achieved what Blackburn did in the mid-90s. You also wonder what might have been if we had helped to realise Stan Collymore's potential who was with us at the time.

This is before my time but was Gabbiadini that bad? Of course, he was no Ian Wright but his scoring record for us was about once every three games which doesn't seem too bad.

Always had the feeling Collymore needed to leave to become what he did. His first ever goal came against someone like Lincoln in the league cup, scuffed effort from the edge of the 6 yard box that somehow made it over the line. He struggled with the big characters we had in the squad, like Bright and Wright. And had to go elsewhere. Despite his flawed character, he still had a good career, and I think leaving us helped him in achieving that.

Think we offered Southampton £3m for Shearer but there was no way we'd ever have got him with United sniffing round and then Jack Walker put his money where his mouth was. At the time people were amazed at the wealth he has amassed and that Blackburn would be at the top for years to come.

Certainly the Marco signing was one that was exciting and was looking forward to seeing how he fitted in.
The links to Deane puzzled me asI saw him as very similar to Mark Bright. Shearer was the youngster that could come good. But the fact we were looking at those two makes those we turned down interesting.
We agreed a deal for Dion Dublin from Cambridge and did not follow it up. We also turned down Andy Cole from Arsenal reserves. I often wonder with all the success on taking untried players. Why we did not take the risk. Bright was still there we had goals therefore in the team.
We did not and from this saga turns out to be the start of the decline

Just catching up with this thread again.

Went to the Oldham game, by the football special and a bus transfer I recall. I remember the toilets at the ground taking decrepit to a whole new level. Very enjoyable game watching the boys turn it on and prove too strong for the opposition as they often did in these tight games at the time. Had no idea when Wrighty and the boys celebrated that it would be the last time we saw Wrighty in a Palace shirt.

I still remember vividly leaving the office on Monday evening with an Arsenal fan and seeing the Evening Standard Headline: "Arsenal sign top London striker for £2.5m" or words to that effect and not even picking up the paper (you paid for it in those days) thinking it would not be one of our strikers. My Dad told me the bombshell news when I got home. Gutted did not come near to how bad I felt.

Shearer never wanted to come to us, saw us as beneath him even then.

I was very surprised Collymore was never given a chance through the middle. He always looked threatening and incisive when he come on down the wing and looked ready made to play up front with Bright.

I was even more shocked when we sold him to Southend for £150K after a successful loan. We ended up recouping more by way of his 10% sell on to Notts Forest for £2.5m! Not the best decision by Sir Steve, especially given his degree in Economics.

As for Gabbidini, he was young, a fish out of water in London, in a team of strong personalities (maybe like Collymore who could not take the piss taking) and never really adapted to playing as a partner for Bright. But by ****, he was excellent at Anfield 2/11/91 :supergrin:

My memory is that we were only £250k short of what was needed for Shearer as Noads refused to pay £3m for him. I remember the back page speculation afer Wright when we were going to bring in Shearer, Deane and Tommy Wright and sell Bright to chelsea.

Gabbiadini was a good goal scorer. But he wasn't a player for that team at that time.

Didn't Smith publicly take a few swipes at Marco? I believe Marco also had a very strained relationship with Gray.

Marco was decent but he just never settled in with the rest of the squad. From interviews i've heard over the years from Thomas and Bright in particular, Marco arrived with an attitude that he wasn't going to work to ingratiate himself with the squad and that if they didn't like it they could lump it. Here was the guy replacing a someone who was not only a great friend but the heart and soul of the club; it was going to be tough to win the lads over even if he pulled out all the stops, but with the attitude he came in with, it was always going to end in disaster.

I do believe him and Gray came to blows. I know Brighty took him aside after a few weeks and said that he needed to do more to win the lads over, but it just never happened. He was a decent player - no Ian Wright - but you could see he had real qualities in front of goal...but as i said, he was no Wright and so the fans never really took to him either.

Having watched Collymore bang in some corkers in the reserves, I felt he was the natural successor and expected Coppell to give him his moment, but he just didn't seem to fancy him. Again there was a personality issue with Stan, that we now know had its origins from a predisposition to depression. Salako told a story once that on the training ground there was an incident between Stan and Walley Downs. They locked horns over something and Downes offered him out in front of the rest of the squad but Stan totally backed down. Salako said Stan was finished at the club from that moment - there was no way back for him, within a squad that had that old fashioned hard knock atmosphere, where if you didn't stand up for yourself you'd lose the respect of your team mates.

It's a shame as it was a real missed opportunity as the answer to the gaping hole Wright left was right under our noses.

I used to go Plough Lane to watch the ressies a lot around that time too. Time & time again, Colly would do feck all for the first 40 minutes, then would grab the ball on the halfway line, beat 6 defenders & score. I saw him that same goal about 5 or 6 times. Then he'd do feck all for the 2nd half :p

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