Darlo Uncovered

Every Weds The Guardian has a feature called The Knowledge where readers ask the answers to quirky/bizarre/odd football questions. One of today's questions (“Scott Bain signed for Hibs on loan on the first day of the window and left for Celtic on the last day. Have any other players ever joined and left a club in the same window?”) got me thinking: surely one of MG's summer 2017/early 17/18 season signings must have stayed for less time than that. Fewster? Fenwick? Suppose it depends on whether they ever actually signed (and I have to confess I completely lost track of who signed and who didn't last summer).

What about dominik werling? Joined under Davey, never played, departed to play for davey that same summer.

What about that Portuguese striker we signed just before Gray left?

Jose Quitongo has to be a good contender.
Signed by Hodgy in 1995. Played one game, I think it was away at Barnet, then departed for Hamilton Accies and from there had a long nomadic career in Scotland. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Quitongo

Then we had that Czech striker that Gray signed and played one match in the FA Trophy

Gray is addicted to signing players. 4 yesterday for York!!

John McClelland. Quality centre back in his day. made his debut v Pools at their ground. Collided with Crosby and broke his leg in two places. The now infamous stretchergate incident. Approx 60mins of game time for Darlo.

Well, I wonder how Martin will keep 26 or 27 (hard to keep up) first team players happy? Maybe he'll let us have a forward on loan....

Ah Paulo Mendes, we hardly knew ye.

There must be others who have signed, hardly played, and disappeared again, but to sign, not even make the bench, and then disappear is good going.

Was Asprilla ever officially a Darlington player?

lo36789 wrote:Was Asprilla ever officially a Darlington player?

Don't think so, probably took one look at Reynolds and ran for the hills.

JJ Hooper has to be in there, signed on a work exp loan in the northern league, played one game against spenny in the DCC then was never heard from again.

Ashlee Jones played in goal in a 4-0 defeat at Notts County. Whoever told him he was a keeper must have been on glue. I could have kept better than him !!

Big Tim wrote:JJ Hooper has to be in there, signed on a work exp loan in the northern league, played one game against spenny in the DCC then was never heard from again.

He made Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu look like a grafter. Lazy and uninterested not surprised he wasn’t seen again!

Big Tim wrote:JJ Hooper has to be in there, signed on a work exp loan in the northern league, played one game against spenny in the DCC then was never heard from again.

Playing at Grimsby now and they aren't keen on him. Lazy, uninterested and just plain s***.

Brian Atkinson and Sean Gregan managers for, hmmmmmmmm, 5 days?

Big Tim, Flare control officer - Blyth division, half an hour!

Asprilla didn't sign. I remember the excitement at Rochdale away and we were all discussing it. He says George offered him a contract then it was changed when was thinking of signing. £17,000 a week was mentioned in one article!!

theoriginalfatcat wrote:Brian Atkinson and Sean Gregan managers for, hmmmmmmmm, 5 days?

Big Tim, Flare control officer - Blyth division, half an hour!

Did they oustay Kidd?

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Spyman wrote:

theoriginalfatcat wrote:Brian Atkinson and Sean Gregan managers for, hmmmmmmmm, 5 days?

Big Tim, Flare control officer - Blyth division, half an hour!

Did they oustay Kidd?

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Kidd lasted a whole week and a half. Veteran status.

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Was at the match against Carlisle when George paraded Tino around the pitch, and also have the program from Kidderminster which includes Tino in our squad even though he had already disappeared.

Who was more bonkers? George or Tino?

Darlogramps wrote:

Spyman wrote:

theoriginalfatcat wrote:Brian Atkinson and Sean Gregan managers for, hmmmmmmmm, 5 days?

Big Tim, Flare control officer - Blyth division, half an hour!

Did they oustay Kidd?

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Kidd lasted a whole week and a half. Veteran status.

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What always "amused" me about him was that the week and a half were in the off-season (not sure if the players were even back in training) but his reason for leaving was that he hadn't realised how much pressure came with the job!! God forfend that he would have ever have had to actually do anything - think he would have had a breakdown.

dfcdfcdfc wrote: What always "amused" me about him was that the week and a half were in the off-season (not sure if the players were even back in training) but his reason for leaving was that he hadn't realised how much pressure came with the job!! God forfend that he would have ever have had to actually do anything - think he would have had a breakdown.

He'd been an assistant manager as well, so surely he'd have had a fair idea of what the step up would entail.

From memory he was dropped in it by Simon Davey, who went walkabouts after being tapped up by Hereford. Although in fairness, I'd much rather Kidd held his hands up in pre-season and admit it wasn't for him, rather than plugging on and struggling out of embarrassment.

Plus, him leaving brought in Mark Cooper, and we'd won at Wembley less than a year later. So not all bad.

Didn't Whelan make it as far as a warm up and injure himself, never to return?

Whelan definitely made it on the pitch at some point.

Ignoring Hooper, as loans by their very nature can be quite short, I reckon the roll of (dis)honour looks something like this (and this is based on amount of time at the club, not fewest games played):

Werling - 4 months (28/4/10-31/8/10)
Jose Quitongo - 49 days (29/9/95-17/11/95)
Paolo Mendes - 31 days (29/9/17-30/10/17)
Scott Fenwick - 25 days (4/8/17-29/8/17)
Jordan Richards - 21 days (4/8/17-25/8/17)
Jakub Hymr - 15 days (29/10/15-13/11/15)

H1987 wrote:Whelan definitely made it on the pitch at some point.

From memory, Whelan made his debut at Dagenham, had a stinker and maybe pulled his hammy and got subbed off - possibly in the first half. Then when he'd got himself "fit" he did his hammy literally running on as sub from touchline to penalty area.

That's how I like to remember it anyway.

Darlogramps wrote:

dfcdfcdfc wrote: What always "amused" me about him was that the week and a half were in the off-season (not sure if the players were even back in training) but his reason for leaving was that he hadn't realised how much pressure came with the job!! God forfend that he would have ever have had to actually do anything - think he would have had a breakdown.

He'd been an assistant manager as well, so surely he'd have had a fair idea of what the step up would entail.

From memory he was dropped in it by Simon Davey, who went walkabouts after being tapped up by Hereford. Although in fairness, I'd much rather Kidd held his hands up in pre-season and admit it wasn't for him, rather than plugging on and struggling out of embarrassment.

Plus, him leaving brought in Mark Cooper, and we'd won at Wembley less than a year later. So not all bad.

Didn't Davey claim to be 'doing the right thing for his family' by accepting a contract in USA but then mysteriously end up at Hereford almost immediately?

Mullet69 wrote:

H1987 wrote:Whelan definitely made it on the pitch at some point.

From memory, Whelan made his debut at Dagenham, had a stinker and maybe pulled his hammy and got subbed off - possibly in the first half. Then when he'd got himself "fit" he did his hammy literally running on as sub from touchline to penalty area.

That's how I like to remember it anyway.

Prof. Wikipedia puts it like this:
He made his debut for Darlington against third-placed Dagenham & Redbridge on 10 October but he was substituted by Curtis Main before half-time because of a muscle strain injury, in a game which Darlington lost 2–0. He did not play again for Darlington until 26 January, more than three months after his debut, when he came on as a second-half substitute against Northampton Town. However, his comeback lasted only two minutes, before he himself was substituted because of a hamstring injury.

Allan Quatermain wrote:Didn't Davey claim to be 'doing the right thing for his family' by accepting a contract in USA but then mysteriously end up at Hereford almost immediately?

Fifty shades of Gray

"I resign - oh York have offered me a job"

Many kids have been signed and departed without a first team game. Coppinger was a class above others on my viewing of a NUFC v Darlo kids game at Maiden Castle. tore the Mags apart. Not a suprise that the Mags paid good money for him, with Paul Robinson.