Callum Gilhooley Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 Was listening to Sportsound today featuring Alex Smith. He told a cracking story which i hadn`t heard before. Apparently, when Saints were selling Ian Ferguson in 1988 , Terry Venables wanted him at Spurs and offered us money (£600k i believe) plus Ossie Ardiles !! Smith says the BOD at the time knocked it back as they didnt want to sign foreigners !! As i said, i have never heard this story , anyone else ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08q3lwg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whydowebother Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 Ach we nearly got , Belanov, Blokhen & Demenienko not to mention Ronaldhino Just add the wee man to the list of 'almost a Saint' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 1 minute ago, whydowebother said: Ach we nearly got , Belanov, Blokhen & Demenienko not to mention Ronaldhino Just add the wee man to the list of 'almost a Saint' ...and Ian Harte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djchapsticks Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 Read about the Ardilles story in the 125th anniversary book along with Oleg Blokhin story. We also knocked back a young David Platt in the late 80s right before he went to Villa from Crewe. Also remember us going for Bebeto, Benito Carbone, Jorge Cadete and Paul Kitson around the time we tried for Ronaldinho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whydowebother Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 ...and We watched Ian Dep-Harte. [emoji185] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MenstrieSaint Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 Heard the story before , also Spurs were happy to pay the balance of Ardiles pay , and that Alex Smith was happy for that to happen because he thought it would improve Hamilton , Lambert , Walker and Cameron's game . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSS Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 (edited) We tried to sign Keith Wright and Tommy Coyne from Dundee in the mid/late 80's.We offered over 400k but Dundee knocked it back. Edited May 14, 2017 by HSS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St.Ricky Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 2 minutes ago, HSS said: We tried to sign Keith Wright and Tommy Coyne from Dundee in the mid/late 80's.We offered over 400k but Dundee knocked it back. The story I heard was that it was £1m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSS Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 3 minutes ago, St.Ricky said: The story I heard was that it was £1m Maybe it was 400k each,I honestly can't remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintnextlifetime Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 . .there was also the Robbie Fowler fable , but to be fair we probably dodged a landmine there. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalrybud Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 The Ardiles story is old hat. Smith indicating that the BoD didn't want to sign foreigners is nonsense. The deal simply never got off the ground because blue crayon boy made it clear that he would turn down every offer until Rangers came calling. Well and truly tapped by Smith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 We offered Crewe 60k for Platt but they knocked us back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liverpool Bud Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 36 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said: I offered Kylie a shag, she knocked me back ... and the rest is history. You should be so lucky ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whydowebother Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 You should be so lucky ! Aye,better the devil you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdowell76 Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 11 hours ago, Callum Gilhooley said: Was listening to Sportsound today featuring Alex Smith. He told a cracking story which i hadn`t heard before. Apparently, when Saints were selling Ian Ferguson in 1988 , Terry Venables wanted him at Spurs and offered us money (£600k i believe) plus Ossie Ardiles !! Smith says the BOD at the time knocked it back as they didnt want to sign foreigners !! As i said, i have never heard this story , anyone else ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08q3lwg Ardiles was 36 in 1988 and went on to play 20 matches over the following 3 years for different clubs. We probably dodged a bullet therefore, albeit we did go on to waste an absolute fortune on shite in the years to follow. The story I know from the time was that one of the directors was a regular at Arthurlie games back then and wanted Smith to sign one of the Arthurlie players instead. But Smith didn't think that there were any decent players in the juniors anymore. So the story always went that St. Mirren knocked back Ardiles because one of the directors wanted us to sign a junior. Said junior though was James Grady... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windae cleaner Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 26 minutes ago, mcdowell76 said: Ardiles was 36 in 1988 and went on to play 20 matches over the following 3 years for different clubs. We probably dodged a bullet therefore, albeit we did go on to waste an absolute fortune on shite in the years to follow. The story I know from the time was that one of the directors was a regular at Arthurlie games back then and wanted Smith to sign one of the Arthurlie players instead. But Smith didn't think that there were any decent players in the juniors anymore. So the story always went that St. Mirren knocked back Ardiles because one of the directors wanted us to sign a junior. Said junior though was James Grady... Well someone signed Tony McDonald from Arthurlie at the time when John Millar was the player we should had signed James Grady played for Arthurlie 1994-95? Nico Clasen was also in the deal with Ardiles It was a no goer nothing with the board Ferguson was wanting to go to Oldco and that was the end of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windae cleaner Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 11 hours ago, Ethan said: We offered Crewe 60k for Platt but they knocked us back. The story i heard about Platt He got released by Man Utd and Gordon McQueen contacted St Mirren about him The story goes Alex Miller liked him going forward but didn't think much of his defensive duties and ended his interest He then signed for Crewe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 (edited) There was an excellent interview with Alex Smith at the weekend about the cup win. Said Lambert was sent home early on the Saturday night as he was only 17 and added he and Ferguson were both teetotal. Doubt that lasted long for the latter once he ended up at Ibrox! http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/15284724.Alex_Smith_on_St_Mirren__39_s_1987_Scottish_Cup_win__his_Hampden_political_broadcast_and_why_he_sent_Paul_Lambert_home_early/ Edited May 15, 2017 by Stu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdowell76 Posted May 16, 2017 Report Share Posted May 16, 2017 On 15/05/2017 at 10:00 AM, windae cleaner said: Well someone signed Tony McDonald from Arthurlie at the time when John Millar was the player we should had signed James Grady played for Arthurlie 1994-95? Nico Clasen was also in the deal with Ardiles It was a no goer nothing with the board Ferguson was wanting to go to Oldco and that was the end of it Yeh, doing some research, I think my story is nonsense or mixed up with something else. Grady didn't sign for Arthurlie until 1990. It was Davie Hay who signed McDonald in 1991. I think that Grady & McDonald were a prolific goalscoring partnership in 90/91 with McDonald being the top scorer and Grady being the guy setting them up (as well as scoring). We obviously ended up with the wrong guy and Grady went on to Clydebank in 1994. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabinho Posted May 16, 2017 Report Share Posted May 16, 2017 I remember at the time we lost Lambert to Motherwell I read a story we'd been offered cash plus Davie Cooper but went for Jim Gardner instead. Cooper went to the Bankies and played out his career and we all know how it went with Gardner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud the Baker Posted May 16, 2017 Report Share Posted May 16, 2017 19 hours ago, Stu said: There was an excellent interview with Alex Smith at the weekend about the cup win. Said Lambert was sent home early on the Saturday night as he was only 17 and added he and Ferguson were both teetotal. Doubt that lasted long for the latter once he ended up at Ibrox! http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/15284724.Alex_Smith_on_St_Mirren__39_s_1987_Scottish_Cup_win__his_Hampden_political_broadcast_and_why_he_sent_Paul_Lambert_home_early/ Um, he might've fooled Uncle Alex but he did a bit of drinking in a bar near Queen Street while he was still with us - forgotten the name of the bar. Having said that compared to some of the other members of that squad he probably was teetotal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beyond our ken Posted May 16, 2017 Report Share Posted May 16, 2017 (edited) On 15 May 2017 at 9:24 AM, Slartibartfast said: I was so upset that I nearly had tears on my pillow. You sure it was tears? Edited May 16, 2017 by beyond our ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weddy Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 I remember at the time we lost Lambert to Motherwell I read a story we'd been offered cash plus Davie Cooper but went for Jim Gardner instead. Cooper went to the Bankies and played out his career and we all know how it went with Gardner.Surely this would never have happened after the incident with Tony Fitzpatrick... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oaksoft Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 On 15/05/2017 at 6:41 AM, Slartibartfast said: I offered Kylie a shag, she knocked me back ... and the rest is history. When does your injunction expire? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoobs Posted May 17, 2017 Report Share Posted May 17, 2017 we were a massive club in the 80's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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