No Thank You: Anthony Elding
Elding made his name at Stevenage, scoring 70 goals in 119 appearances during a four-season stay in the early 2000’s. the Boston-born striker then earned a big move to, erm, Boston, which now seems a bit crackers, but at the time Stevenage were Conference and Boston were League Two.
He wasn’t there long before moving to Stockport and then, oddly, Leeds United before rocking up at Gresty Road Crewe. He was still riding his success with Stevenage when Peter Jackson brought him in on loan at the end of the 2008/09 season.
He should have been immense. The emphasis there, should you be reading this out loud, is on the word should. He wasn’t. In my humble opinion, he was disinterested and simply at Sincil Bank to pick up a wage, nothing more. He did bag on his debut, a snowy afternoon game with Brentford which we drew 2-2, but after that we got next to nothing from him. Two goals in 14 appearances was the additional input from Elding and he went off to Crewe at the end of his loan.
He’s been a hit elsewhere, Grimsby (as if he wasn’t already a villain at the Bank), Sligo Rovers and oddly, Ferencvaros of Hungary. He’s still only 36 years old too.
Still, if it wasn’t for Stevenage, maybe Jackson wouldn’t have signed Elding and would have played Adrian Patulea (11 goals in 33 games) instead.