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Very good points, I never really rated Niculae but I will concede that his inclusion in the European championships raised the status of ICT and perhaps did us a few favours as far as attracting talent who would not normally have considered us as an option. I can't really agree on the point about assists and pulling off other defenders as I never really saw any of that but we all read the game differently and look at different things during the match, he may well have performed in the way you have indicated but in my opinion he was/is the most over rated player to pull on an ICT shirt, in general. Barrowman, I feel, was only ever rated by those involved in signing him for the club. Everyone else saw him for what he really was, a stand out striker playing full time against part time players, a mediochre striker in the second tier of the Scottish leagues and well out of his depth at SPL level.

True but the question was about over rated players, in that case when you consider the hype on signing him (think online petitions etc) and the reputation he came here with (once reputed to be valued in excess of ?1M) then Marius was by far the most over rated player at ICT and the very fact that at least one fan on this website is still singing his praises after returning only 8 SPL goals and two CIS cup goals against lower league opposition goes to show that some are still over rating him. Barreowman was indeed a huge mistake but as the first post in this thread says, never really rated far less over rated by the fans. Apart from the week after our first competitive win over the Sheep.

The original question from Charles was with regard to Niculae/Rooney not Barrowman. Niculae (according to soccerbase) 33 starts 2 sub (35) 8 goals in SPL ratio=0.22866 Rooney fom your figures has a ratio of 0.3125 Dargo is 0.4576 from your figures Backing up my point that Marius was over rated. I'd like to see figures on goals/? spent on the player. That'll teach me to try and do stats when half asleep In regards goals/? we actually made money on the Marius deal (although not as much as we maybe should have) whereas Barrowman/Rooney/Dargo will all have cost the club money to have them here. We probably did make money from the deal but did I not read that Marius is chasing us for money? Signing on fee or a percentage of his transfer or something? It would be too deep to go into but I was thinking along the lines that Marius was costing us the club's highest wage ever and returned little by way of goals but Dargo and Rooney have scored more on smaller wages and signing on fees, Rooney costing us ?50 thousand transfer plus signing on fee would be a lot less than the reputed 100 thousand Marius is looking for. Too much to go into and only speculative figures make it more of a guessing game than fact.

While he came with a big reputation, that may have worked against him. He may have done "very little when here", but he was still our top scorer in his only season with the club. And since leaving, he's played another ten or so games for Romania, scored 13 in his first season with Dinamo and is now their club captain. Seems he's done alright for himself! http://scoutingromania.com/2011/01/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-marius-niculae/

The original question from Charles was with regard to Niculae/Rooney not Barrowman. Niculae (according to soccerbase) 33 starts 2 sub (35) 8 goals in SPL ratio=0.22866 Rooney fom your figures has a ratio of 0.3125 Dargo is 0.4576 from your figures Backing up my point that Marius was over rated. I'd like to see figures on goals/? spent on the player.

Has he signed for Hearts or not? Are you on the wind up?

"What a shi*ty home support" from the guys in the North Stand trying to gee up our own fans, funny and apt.

Niculae, gave us what 10 or 11 goals? Got a call up for Romania and all of a sudden he was the best striker ever? Dargo, Wyness, Ritchie, Hislop, Rooney all better scorers. Not to ention Stewart, Marius by far was the most over rated, he has done hee haw since leaving, did very little when here.

Sad day for the players and their families but they are leaving as club heroes and not staying on until they are longer capable of doing a job for the team, they will always be remembered in a good light by our fans. Good luck to you all.

Why is Neil Lennon not Irish? http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/today/good_friday/synopsis.html

I can see the Jags making it 3 for 1 by winning 3 to 1 today.

I don't think that the use of a crucifix in the picture is of the best taste and could be seen as slightly bigoted towards christianity in general, otherwise a fairly decent jape.

Good luck to Russell in the future, a great servant to the club. I am sure Terry Butcher knows what he is doing, we have no idea of what plans he has to replace Russell but his judgement has proved to be good in the past.

Not really that mad when you consider that the news agencies which are not considered to be of the "tabloid" genre are reporting the fact that Venlo are admitting the contract is just "symbolic". More of a great publicity stunt than madness really.