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Which player has most successfully proved City wrong in releasing them?

Rosencrantz

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Brendon O'connell did very well after we released him. Did well for Barnsley in the second tier, IIRC.
I was a very disappointed eleven year old when he was released. He was my favourite player at that time. He made his name as a midfielder when he left whilst he played as a striker and right back(!?) for us.
 

Rosencrantz

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Which is what I said.....
You said he needed guiding. You can lead a horse to water...
 

InMyBlood

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Brendon O'connell did very well after we released him. Did well for Barnsley in the second tier, IIRC.
Now coaching at University of Calgary's 'Soccer' team
 

Pobbop

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I was hugely disappointed about O'Connell, particularly as Terry Cooper admitted he didn't even look at him, because he wanted to bring in Langley and Withey, who didn't set the World alight, though it led to Dazza being switched up-front and the partnership with the Weave so guess it worked out.:confused:
 

Boyo

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Jimmy Keohane is playing regularly with Rochdale in L1 at the moment, having been released 5 or 6 years ago.
 

denzil

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Jimmy Keohane is playing regularly with Rochdale in L1 at the moment, having been released 5 or 6 years ago.
I always liked Jimmy Keohane and was a bit surprised when we released him.
 

Colesman Ballz

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Dixie McNeil without a shadow of a doubt !
 

Bittners a Legend

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Was thinking about Ampadu playing at Bristol Rovers yesterday and then realised there was another City connection with Cameron Hargreaves on the home side’s bench. Cameron came through City’s Academy but was not offered professional terms in 2017. He joined Rovers and is now playing in their League 1 side. It strikes me as quite an exception, particularly in more recent years, for a player to be released by City but then go on and play at a higher level. If so that generally points to some good decision making by the Club. So who do Exewebbers think has most successfully proved us wrong after we have released them?

There are notable others who have come on trial and not been offered contracts, like Grant Holt and Kieffer Moore, but the focus of this thread is players who we released having actually been on our books.
Cameron Hargreaves is an interesting one. Presumably a victim of lots of good players in his position. We chose to give contracts to one Archie Collins and to Max Smallcombe (who at the time I think had played for Wales U17s and made a first team appearance). Was his did at Rovers by then?
 

STURTZ

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He was always better than Jamie Mackie.😜
Poor old Ian, still trying to back up his claim that Mackie was a failed winger!

For the record after leaving Jamie Mackie went on to play 60 premiership games, 198 in the championshp and 76 in league 1, playing for 5 different teams.

How could they all have been so wrong? 😄
 

Martin Lawrence

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Cameron Hargreaves is an interesting one. Presumably a victim of lots of good players in his position. We chose to give contracts to one Archie Collins and to Max Smallcombe (who at the time I think had played for Wales U17s and made a first team appearance). Was his did at Rovers by then?
My understanding is that his parents were moving up to the Bristol area and he did not want to live away from home. That was the reason he was "released".
 
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