No Thanks: Gary Croft

Croft was once upon as time a talented left back who commanded a £1m transfer fee when he signed for Blackburn from Grimsby. Sadly, by the time he made his way to Sincil Bank it was a decade later and he was well past his best. He came to replace Paul Mayo at left back in the John Schofield’s second and final season in charge. He never looked fully fit and struggled with both injuries and a couple of red cards in his time.

Once Schofield moved on he still commanded a place in Peter Jackson’s first team, but after just 22 outings in a full season he was never likely to be retained. He was replaced by Aaron Brown ahead of the 2008/09 season and didn’t play professionally again. Being an ex-Grimsby player he never really won over the Imps fans, and I guess very few were sad to see him leave.

He retained his Cod connections and joined the Compass FM commentary team as expert summariser for Grimsby matches. He’s never going to earn a living talking about the Imps, that’s for sure.