Adam Watts
Watts is a player I felt desperately for, but he falls into the category of excellent loan signing, woeful permanent player.
Adam Watts signed on loan from Fulham in the 2009/10 season via Chris Sutton’s contacts and, at first glance, he was just what we needed. He was a tall and commanding centre back who could organise his defence, tough in the tackle but with a little pace too. He was Chris Sutton’s first signing and he went straight into the team against Aldershot for his first match, a game we won. That in itself was a surprise after a poor start to the season.
After two clean sheets in his first two games, his loan was extended until January 2010, and ahead of that deadline it was announced he was signing permanently. The signing was widely regarded as a bit of a coup as Watts could clearly handle himself more than adequately at our level. It’s almost like Max Melbourne coming in and signing, only Adam had done to our defence, arguably, what Joe Morrell has done to our midfield. Still, he was surely going to shoot up in value.
Not so. Just a few days after the transfer deadline, he suffered a fracture of the left fibula against Grimsby Town. On his return, it was clear he wasn’t the same player as he had been prior to injury, and he was made available for free transfer in May 2011 as we slipped out of the league. Despite this snub from Tilson he still outlasted the manager, even making a handful of appearances the following season in the National League. His last game for City was our FA Cup 4th qualifying round replay defeat to Alfreton.
Re Jae Martin: ‘Perhaps John Beck didn’t know how to spot a player after all.’. And perhaps the supporters didn’t either – I well remember the chants of “sign him up!”
Wasnt Grant Brown originally a loan deal? Surely he has to be no.1.
I had completely forgotten how the Marcus Richardson signing ended up, well I remember Toner but had forgotten it was Richardson. That was a dark day for the club
John Finnigan