Each week Simon Bunn looks back at a player that arrived in the Premiership with a huge reputation, and often a hefty transfer fee. They were the type of signing that had fans licking their lips and rushing to club shops to get their new heroes name embezzled on the back of shirts. But, after the hype followed the ultimate realisation that they couldn’t quite cut the English mustard.
The immediate aftermath of a major football tournament always produces a chaotic flurry of transfer activity, with clubs frantically looking to snap up the competitions most talked about performers. Often long thought out, carefully planned, scouting strategies fly out of the window as perspiring managers are blinded by the new ‘must have’ fad. It’s the equivalent to watching ‘The Karate Kid’ for the first time, and then parading around your hometown in search of a little old Japanese man that is willing to give you unorthodox lessons in martial arts. It happened after the 2002 World Cup, when the must have item for the new season became a Senegal International football player. Simply because they unexpectedly reached the quarter final stage, the European market went crazy and half the Senegalese team found themselves at some of the biggest clubs around. Ultimately most of them failed to produce the same form that gained people’s attention in the first place, but for a brief moment in time fans, of clubs that had signed these ‘tournament stars,’ began to dream and cover themselves with optimism.
Karel Poborsky’s time at Manchester United is a close example to this. Although, having said that, if rumours are to be believed, Sir Alex Ferguson already had a deal in place to sign the right winger before he exploded into the faces of the watching public during ‘Euro 96.’ If that be the case then Fergie must have nearly choked on his chewing gum in delight, when glued to the TV with a glass of Scotch in hand, marvelling at the performances of his little Czech signing. The Czech Republic had been one of the surprise packages during ‘Euro 96,’ with Poborsky arguably his countries best player. The omens looked good for Manchester United, Poborsky had scored one of the goals of the tournament, audaciously ‘scoop lobbing’ Portugal’s Vitor Baia in a land that was about to become his new home.
The only problem for Poborsky was that another wonder goal, from a Manchester United teammate, signalled the beginning of his downfall. It was barely a month after Poborsky had officially signed for the club when a Mr David Beckham scored a goal from the half way line against Wimbledon.
Poborsky’s somewhat medieval looks only survived one and a half years at Old Trafford. After signing for £3.5m, he played only 32 games in total and scored 5 goals. It wasn’t because his performances were disastrous; it was because he wasn’t really needed. That said if he had done enough to convince Ferguson that he was a better player, than the emerging David Beckham, then he would have been a huge success. But thankfully forEnglandfans Fergie never saw it that way. Poborsky left old Trafford with a League Champions medal and a run to the semi final of the Champions League. But he has to be categorised as a flop when you consider that none of his ‘Euro 96’ magic was reproduced, and the fact that another summer signing at the time, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, managed to carve out a very successful United career despite not being a regular starter either.
The Czech winger went on to more successful outings at Benfica and Lazio before returning to his homeland. At Benfica he became a fan’s favourite after replicating his infamous ‘scoop lob’ against Vitor Baia for the second time in his career. He also remains his countries most capped player.
image: © Piotr Drabik
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