Almost to the day,27 years ago, we made one of our worst signings ever (and it is a rather long list) in the Romanian international Florin Raducioiu writes Michael Talbot.
Harry Redknapp wrote in his 1998 autobiography. “I worked for a couple of hours with Raducioiu on the first day in training and I must admit he impressed me. He was a quality finisher and I really thought he’d be a success
“But the moment we got into anything physical, he didn’t want to know. He just couldn’t face being tackled in any shape or form. Dicksy (Julian Dicks) was anxious to get stuck into him to see what he was made of, but Raducioiu made it clear that he wouldn’t be challenging for anything.”
The final straw came when the Romania striker, who had impressed at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, failed to turn up for a League Cup tie at Stockport.
Redknapp went on to say : “So you can imagine my mood the next day when a friend rang me and told me the previous evening he’d spotted Raducioiu out shopping with his wife in the Harvey Nichols store in London.”