Half century for Stan

Stan's first signing Ronnie Jepson

Jeppo had in fact scored for Oldham in his last Boundary Park appearance in the 3-3 draw against the Clarets that left us hanging on until the last match before we survived under Waddle.

Stan’s early signings, just Steve Morgan and Paul Crichton were added before the first game of the season, were brought in to try and get a squad strong enough to at least compete in the 2^nd Division. There were four loans including Crichton as well as a couple of unknowns from Norway in Rune Vindheim and goalkeeper Frank-Petter Kval.

Despite the additions to the squad we were still struggling and just a couple of weeks before Christmas came Stan’s famous "They are not my team" claim after a 4-0 drubbing at Fulham.

It was around that time that things changed in the transfer market with the arrival on the board of Chairman elect Barry Kilby and suddenly Stan was able to go shopping with a bigger wallet than had previously been the case. With the remnants of the Christmas turkey still on the table he smashed the club’s transfer record to bring back former central defender Steve Davis from Luton.

Despite a number of other signings things still weren’t too good and after those now always referred to successive hammerings at home to Gillingham and Manchester City Stan survived to bring in two more players to ensure the team’s survival in Division Two.

Amongst the half century of signings there have been some successful and some not quite so successful but one of these two was perhaps one of the most significant, certainly in my view one of Stan’s best signings to date if not the best. Quite how we persuaded Stockport to part with Paul Cook (initially on loan) remains a mystery but Cooky brought about such a change in the midfield area and such an influence on the whole side that we were to remain unbeaten for the rest of the season.

There were more new signings before the start of the previous season including former Spurs full back Mitchell Thomas, another very experienced player who was to prove an excellent acquisition. Amongst the others were John Mullin who returned home from Sunderland and the season got off to as good a start as we had experienced for some years.

Yes he really did sign for us

I still find it difficult to believe it when a stunned Howard Booth on Radio Lancashire broke off an interview to tell us that we were about to sign Ian Wright from Celtic. I still find it difficult to believe some three and a half years later that it actually happened.

It did happen though and I am still to this day totally convinced that it was the lift he gave us that saw us go from play off candidates to a team that won automatic promotion even though his playing part was mainly as a substitute.

His stay was short, he left us in the summer and retired from the game, but dramatic and eventful. He scored a massively important goal at Gillingham, a late stunner against Notts County but for me the moment I’ll always remember of him is seeing him chase what looked like a lost cause in the last minute at Oxford and creating the winner with a superb cross.

Having built a side to get up and succeeded Stan now started building a side to stay up. There were just three signings during the close season but all had Premiership experience and again he went for vast experience with one of them in former Sunderland player Kevin Ball.

There were a small signings during the season, mainly strikers but it did include a Greek goalkeeper, and Stan broke the club’s transfer record again paying Stockport £1 million for striker Ian Moore. It was a season that exceeded expectations with a 7^th place finish.

We started the first following season at Sheffield Wednesday without any new signings in the starting line up although six new players had arrived by then. Two of them, Alan Moore and Arthur Gnohere, were soon to have an impact as the Clarets stormed to the top of the league.

There were more signings during the season with a second £1 million pound fee being paid to bring Robbie Blake from Bradford City. As our promotion bid faltered in came David Johnson from Forest on loan and just days later Paul Gascoigne arrived from Everton.

David Johnson - his goals almost took us into the play offs

In fact last season saw us bring in only one new player all season and that was defender Driss Diallo although Marlon Beresford did keep signing monthly. The lack of money had taken a grip and at the end of the season it was a case of more players leaving than arriving.

Most of the squad appear to have left by now, many released, one choosing to play for Ipswich and since the new season started one sold and one out on loan. That means there have had to be new signings and this week’s have taken the total to seven to take Stan’s overall total of new players to 51 and that must be more than any other manager, yes he has even beaten Jimmy Mullen.

There’s no doubt that there has been a big turn around, only Paul Weller remains of the squad that Stan inherited with Graham Branch and Dean West the only others who were around when promotion was won.

It’s Stan’s squad now alright, he can no longer lay the claim that it is not his team. But despite the lack of numbers it would be a very big critic indeed who would dare to suggest that it is somewhat stronger than that squad he did inherit just over five years ago.

Below are the 51 signings that Stan has made to date: