No Thanks – David Graham

There will be few arguments with this one, a player who once commanded a £1m fee and who could have been a top lad for us, had he not already declined massively.

Scottish born Graham started out at Rangers before making his name scoring 47 times in 120 games for Torquay United. His form earned him a £215,000 move to Wigan Athletic. He helped fire them to the Premier League before a £250,000 move to Sheff Weds in August of 2005.

His time at Hillsborough wasn’t a happy one. He was blocked from going on a pre-season tour of the USA for a ‘minor police incident’ several years before. At the end of 2007 he was sent out on loan to bottom of the league Torquay after a serious breach of club discipline by manager Brian Laws and his Wednesday career was over. He then turned up at Gillingham for half a season looking half the player he had when first at Torquay. He scored three times for The Gills in 16 appearances before being released in January.

After six months, out of the game he arrived as one of Peter Jackson’s ‘Magnificent Seven’, signings that were meant to fire us to promotion. Rumours were rife that his personal problems stemmed from an issue with alcohol, but we certainly wouldn’t know anything about that. With the arrival of scoring sensation Adrian Patulea he found his first team appearances limited to just nine, with two starts.

His last game for Lincoln was in a 5-1 against Accrington, unfortunately for Graham he was replaced at half time by Patulea who duly scored twice. Graham was released at the end of his six-month spell after failing to shake persistent rumours of his fondness for the amber nectar. Graham had shown glimpses of his quality when on the pitch but he just didn’t get enough game time. He never looked like getting close to being fit and on match days could have been mistaken for a scruffy looking fan in the pub. Very few Imps fans mourned his departure.

After Lincoln, he drifted into non-league with Ilkeston and three separate spells with the world’s oldest club Sheffield FC.

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