Re: Gary Connolly : Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:26 pm  

He was a quality player for us, we should have signed him up, but with 20/20 hindsight, it was actually a good deal as other players came along, like prescott and Newlove.

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:13 am  

People who want someone to blame for Connolly leaving should blame the board of the time. They wanted the transfer fee money and he was essentially sold while in Aus. Remember this is pre bosman so the power was most certainly with the clubs not the players.

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:19 am  

Saints needed the money and sold him, that's what I've always been told.

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:22 am  

roader wrote:

Saints needed the money and sold him, that's what I've always been told.

The sad thing was instead of just saying that the board decided to make Gary a St Helens lad a villain.

People point to the fact he got a big pay rise... so what, he was told he was being sold to at the time the best team in the country and he negotiated a nice deal for himself, I fail to see the problem with that.

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:48 am  

SOme people seem to think this is a profesionel game or something

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:26 pm  

If you remenber we got in trouble over Adrian Shelford. One of the Directors signed him on the back of a fag packet and the Connolly money paid some court costs

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:38 pm  

Loz wrote:

If you remenber we got in trouble over Adrian Shelford. One of the Directors signed him on the back of a fag packet and the Connolly money paid some court costs

Thought the Andy Platt transfer paid for the Shelford affair?Maybe the Connolly money was for something else.
Ahh the Saints board of the 1980s,never a dull moment!

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:15 pm  

Tuco wrote:

Thought the Andy Platt transfer paid for the Shelford affair?Maybe the Connolly money was for something else.
Ahh the Saints board of the 1980s,never a dull moment!

Platt monies were to cover the "Shelford Affair". Those were the days a massive board made up of the
great and not so good business men of St.Helens with Geoff Sutcliffe as what would now be Chief Exec.

Murphy (coach at the time) claimed that the saints board had a signed contract from Shelford in the club safe.

Remember reading the Echo reporting of the High Court Case in Liverpool with the judge describing
the Saints director responsible for signing Shelford as a "most unreliable witness". Ironically the Saints
director was a sitting magistrate in StHelens at the time.
Saints were left with costs of £140Kish. Platt was sold to Wigan for £140K.

Also remember going to Naughton Park for a pre season friendly and a flag being unfurled "Splash Out or Get Out" in front of the saints directors in the away directors box to endless chants throughout the match of "Sack the Board".

Think they sold Paul Round when he was on holiday Connolly was similar.

Happy Days.

Re: Gary Connolly : Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:00 pm  

Gerry Mander wrote:

Also remember going to Naughton Park for a pre season friendly and a flag being unfurled "Splash Out or Get Out" in front of the saints directors in the away directors box to endless chants throughout the match of "Sack the Board".

Hands up I was involved in that along with a certain Steve Ganson and our local ' Saints' press reporter.

Re: Gary Connolly : Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:14 am  

The saints board at the time was not the worlds most professional, however, the fact they actually sold players to balance the books was far better than the Wigan board who bankrupted their club to buy the likes of Connolly.