General Ivo Pekalski

[unification]

To be fair it wasn’t his ‘wage demands’, he was still under contract. It’s not fair to call him our worst signing if he never got a chance to play. At least he didn’t actually cost us points, like Eddie Hutchinson did

There’s a difference between worst signing and worst player.

A player reveals themselves to be hopeless by playing – Emiliano Diaz, Courtney Pitt, Mike Salmon etc.

A worst signing is a different category. They don’t necessarily have to be a bad player but often their negative points outweigh what they offer – they can be overpriced (Kane Hemmings for example), overpaid, disruptive, a manager’s favourite or any other category that makes them a white elephant.

I think any Oxford fan calling Pekalski our worst player should be shouted down. As for worst signing, I’m searching my mind for anyone who could qualify as worse.

 

[SwissYellow]

I bet Jon Narbett is over the moon not being our worst ever player anymore...

 

[warksox]

Worth bearing in mind that he was loaned back to Halmstad for 4-and-a-half months, and I wouldn't believe we'd ship him out without getting the other side to fork up for his wages.

Not only that but it is mandatory for all clubs to have medical insurance for their players. So when Pekalski was injured, his salary (or part of his salary at least) would've been covered by insurance.

 

[Oufcrealist]

i actually feel sorry for Pekalski and hope he can get his career back on track. I think it was reported when he signed that he’s suffered with mental illness in the past and nobody can deny that he’s had to endure nearly two years of set backs that can’t have helped his emotional state. Especially in a foreign country, away from his family and close friends. Through no fault of his own he suffered a bad injury - one that Robinson himself said reduced him to tears when it happened to Shandon - at a really unfortunate time. There was then a change of manager and the new manager, rightly or wrongly wrote him off as unwanted straight away. As AbbeyOx says, you do have to wonder what might have been, he’s played for his country so there must be a good player in there somewhere. I wish him well.

Spot on. He didn't do anything wrong. Just a shame we didn't get to see him play a meaningful game.
These things happen. Ask Harry Redknapp who his worst ever signing was.........yes Joey. A player who would be in our all time best team/squad!!

 

[bazzer9461]

Spot on. He didn't do anything wrong. Just a shame we didn't get to see him play a meaningful game.
These things happen. Ask Harry Redknapp who his worst ever signing was.........yes Joey. A player who would be in our all time best team/squad!!

Thought it was Billy Bonds that signed Joey

 

[Yellow Mustard]

I think most of our senior players are on nearer 100K. That said, none of you know what an individual gets

Lots are on over £100k!

 

[werthersoriginal]

Lots are on over £100k!

Well, we don’t know, but I’ve seen it quoted that the average we pay is 2.5K a week

 

[makv]

i actually feel sorry for Pekalski and hope he can get his career back on track. I think it was reported when he signed that he’s suffered with mental illness in the past and nobody can deny that he’s had to endure nearly two years of set backs that can’t have helped his emotional state. Especially in a foreign country, away from his family and close friends. Through no fault of his own he suffered a bad injury - one that Robinson himself said reduced him to tears when it happened to Shandon - at a really unfortunate time. There was then a change of manager and the new manager, rightly or wrongly wrote him off as unwanted straight away. As AbbeyOx says, you do have to wonder what might have been, he’s played for his country so there must be a good player in there somewhere. I wish him well.

This

 

[Discoland]

I, along with a few others, witnessed/ saw probably one of, if not the only time(s) he appeared in an OUFC shirt.... oxford senior cup at CPF (V City) last season
he played around 60 mins ...defensive midfield

Whether that was his first game back or not, he was terrible. No movement, passing was dreadful, looked completely lost.

Compare that to Shandon for example who's had his troubles with his elbow and now ankle. In Ireland he was our best player and at Brentford he produced more in the <10 minutes he was on than Pekalski even attempted in the CPF match. It's hard to blame Pekalski for it all, it was an unfortunate injury but he should never have been here in the first place.

One of Pep's best mates he brought to the club, shame his entire recruitment strategy was delusional considering the list the scouting department had established and was waiting to follow up. For me, that half season under Pep was worse than the dark days of the conference because there was always the thought we'd get back to where we belong as soon as we had semi-decent owners. If we still had Pep, we'd have been looking forward to a trip to Crawley next week to see if we could climb out of the L2 relegation zone.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Thought it was Billy Bonds that signed Joey

True. But one month after signing JB, Bonds position became untenable partly because of it and he left. Harry then took over and was desperate to offload him from day one. Harry has often implied he was involved in the sad saga.