Pascal Chimbonda

He was blue no doubt he even got a place in the French squad after his performances for us. Mr Whelan even improved his contract mid season. Remember the very late winner he got against Fulham?. Everything was pointing to him being a Latics great and the find of the season. Then he totally dis respected the club and Mr Whelan who took a chance on him when nobody knew who he was. His behaviour to get his Spurs move was disgraceful. Typical French arrogance.[/quote]

Other players have acted far worse in attempts to get moves away and don’t get an ounce of the stick Chimbonda still gets.

Yes it was awful timing on his part but that was it. Poor timing & to be honest it sounds pathetic when I’ve heard people say they wouldn’t have minded if he’d handed it in later that day or the day after. Getting their knickers in a twist for the sake of a few hours[/quote]
McCulloch engineered his move to Rangers – but they are the club he supported from being a child, and where his family were.

And if you listen to McCulloch’s account of it, he was promised the move by Whelan when he first learnt of the interest, but Whelan then performed a U-turn and blocked it.

Chimbonda on the other hand had been plucked from obscurity, and asked to move purely for the money.[/quote]

I’m sure Lee McCulloch does say that but pascal Chimbonda also gave excuses for handing in the transfer request when he did & everyone told him to sod off. It also clashes with what Jewell said at the time. Besides which, McCulloch also admitted in his autobiography that he behaved disgracefully at the time & I remember him giving an interview in the WEP when the transfer window closed where he admitted that his effort & application had dropped but now he’d get back to giving his all.

Personally, I couldn’t give a stuff that Rangers were McCulloch’s boyhood club – he was contracted to Latics & we were in the depths of a relegation battle, yet he tried not only to jump ship but also tried to force Latics to sell him for way below his market value just because it was what he wanted.

If I remember rightly, either Jewell or Whelan came out & said that they didn’t want to sell him a) coz he was vital to the team & b) coz of the situation that Latics were in, but that everybody had a value where the club would listen to offers although Ranger’s bids were insultingly low & there wasn’t a cat in hells chance he was goign to be sold for that amount. Yet McCulloch & Rangers both tried to take advantage of the situation & leave our club short changed. I’m sure that there may have been some informal discussion about if Rangers ever came in for him but there’s no reason why that should mean that Latics should allow themselves to be ripped off
Everyone also knew that Latics were more than prepared to sell him in the summer if he just helped see us through the relegation battle but he didn’t give a stuff for our club or the manager who’d somehow transformed him in to a Premier League left winger.
It was disgusting behaviour from McCulloch & far worse than handing in a transfer request after a game, before you’re even out of your kit. In fairness to McCulloch he knows how out of order he was & apologised when the window shut, when he did leave & acknowledges his behaviour in his book

And virtually every player that ever asks to leave Latics does so because they want more money elsewhere – the vast majority of them don’t get any stick so i don’t see why Chimbonda would get more stick for the same reasons. I get the timing of it was very, very poor & i get that Jewell & the players were hacked off at him for it & so was I. I just never understood why it got turned into so much of an issue over the timing of it. had he handed it in a week later no-one would have batted an eyelid so was still being in his kit worse than a month or more of the way McCulloch behaved? Not in my opinion

Plucked him from obscurity???? He’d just played 2 season’s in the French top flight.

I’ve no doubt Chimbonda knew what he was doing was wrong. You’d be hard pressed not to know it was wrong – I know it was wrong. So does everyone.

Although at the risk of sounding like a broken record McCulloch’s behaviour was far, far worse. He was prepared to leave us in the lurch in the middle of a relegation battle & wanted Latics to be short changed just to suit him & the club he wanted to join coz they thought they could get him on the cheap. He stropped, sulked, tantrummed, stomped his feet & stopped giving 100% to our club to try and get his own way.

Chimbonda handed in a transfer request in his kit after a game

I fail in any way, shape or form to see how the latter behaviour is worse but accept you do and neither of us are likely to change each other’s mind

Super Lee did more than one season with our club and was loved. We brought Chimbonda from being an unknown in England to being a name every football fan knew.
The horrible way he turned his back on us was disgusting.
Super Lee will always be a Latics Mon. Chimbonda always a Judas
Please ref Mon do not compare them.

Mario was probably one of our most classiest players ever. A certain Mr Gomez and more recently Mr Powell and a blast from the past Mr Jeff Wright should be placed up there with Mario.
Again compared with these guys Chimbonda was trash.

Did you see him pay Donny lad, tickets were more than £20 then?

Mario & like Boycie were 100% effort & played for the shirt, for sure.. What Chimbonda lacked in loyalty & effort (at times) he more than made up for in skill. Love him or hate him the bloke was good to watch.

By the way, Boyce is my all time favourite so I’m not disrespecting him by any means.[/quote]

You would have Boycie over Arry, Jimmy?. Cant go that far marrer. Boycie brilliant but Arry, Bainsey, De Zeeuw, Spider, Atherton, And many more from the back 4 over the years way ahead of Emerson. Great player and good lad who never disrespected the club like the Kermit did. All above had the greatest thing shit head didn’t CLASS.

Did you see him pay Donny lad, tickets were more than £20 then?

Mario & like Boycie were 100% effort & played for the shirt, for sure.. What Chimbonda lacked in loyalty & effort (at times) he more than made up for in skill. Love him or hate him the bloke was good to watch.

By the way, Boyce is my all time favourite so I’m not disrespecting him by any means.[/quote]

You would have Boycie over Arry, Jimmy?. Cant go that far marrer. Boycie brilliant but Arry, Bainsey, De Zeeuw, Spider, Atherton, And many more from the back 4 over the years way ahead of Emerson. Great player and good lad who never disrespected the club like the Kermit did. All above had the greatest thing shit head didn’t CLASS.[/quote]

All great players indeed nl, I wasn’t comparing ability, just favouritism. After all only Boyce has lifted the FA Cup for us

Donny still thinks they play for us