Whatever you wonder, brace yourself (or just carry on reading) for the final installment of Fratton Faithful's "Where Are They Now?"
Kostas Chalkias (a.k.a "Cost Us Chalky Arse")
|
Ah yes, the wonderful Kostas Chalkias. Quite possibly the worst goalkeeper to ever wear a Pompey shirt yet he has a European Championship medal. Chalkias will only be remembered for such silly things as hitting Henry's free kick into his own net, spanking Arjan De Zeeuw for his own goal against Villa and his uncanny ability to play an offside trap by coming miles out of his goal.
You can't help but have sympathy for the poor bloke though. He was thrown into the pressure of a South Coast Derby on his debut and even though he lacked ability he was always made a scapegoat when we lost a game. He was released in January this year and joined Spanish second division side Real Murcia. Chalkias couldn't have done too well there either as he was released in the summer.
The 32-year-old is now back in his homeland with Greek first division side Aris Thessaloniki as their number 1 goalkeeper. Aris currently lie 11th out of 16 in the Greek league.
Giannis Skopelitis
Always gave 100% effort but just lacked quality at the highest level. Skopelitis was found to be on loan instead of being a permanent signing and was sent back to parent club Aigaleo in January. The 28-year-old is still there and he is having a better time than Chalkias as Aigaleo lie 4th in the Greek league.
Alexander Rodic
Remember this guy? He was heralded by Milan Mandaric as a "great young player with a big future ahead of him". His future was so big that not only did he never score for us but his "big future" has ended up at the mighty Bulgarian club Litex Lovech. He's already 26 too which isn't young in a footballers career.
Sander Westerveld
The former Liverpool man never had the best of times at Pompey did he? Countless blunders meant he moved to Everton emergency loan before joining Spanish segunda side Almeria who have conceded 11 goals in 10 league games.
Laurent Robert
The moody Frenchman cut his loan spell short at Pompey to join Benfica who were in the Champions League at the time. Robert has fallen a lot since then as he left the Estadio Da Luz in the summer to join newly promoted La Liga side Levante. He has only made 2 appearances so far for the club and has been linked with a return to Newcastle recently.
Gregory Vignal
Another French flop signed by Alain Perrin. He moved to his homeland in the summer to play for Lens. He already has a red card to his name at his new club.
Brian Priske
|
Probably the only successful signing Alain Perrin actually made. Brian is currently playing UEFA Cup football with Club Brugge. He is enjoying a successful time with Brugge as they are currently third in the Belgian League. In fact, Priske will come up against Tottenham this Thursday in the UEFA Cup so that could be worth a watch for us Pompey fans.
John "Scummer" Viafara
The clue is in the "name".
Zvonomir Vukic
The Serbian promised much but failed to deliver and was loaned to Partizan Belgrade in January 2006 before re-joining Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer, the club we initially signed him from.
Azar Karadas
Karadas rejoined Benfica after an unsuccessful loan spell at Fratton Park. A deal was agreed by Benfica and his old Norweigan club Brann to send him back there however Karadas would not let Benfica write off the bonuses they owed him and so a final fee could not be sorted and Karadas missed out. Instead he was loaned to German second division club Kaiserslautern where has got one goal in 5 appearances.
Collins Mbesuma
Mbesuma could never get fit for us and was loaned to Portuguese club Maritimo in the summer. He has scored three goals for the team so far.
Dario Silva
|
Unfortunately, as you all probably know, Dario was involved in a nasty car accident and had to have his leg amputated in his homeland. He is said to be thankful that the accident happened when he was 33 and near the end of his career and whilst he is still coming to terms with the outcome of the horrific incident, Silva aims to rebuild his life and go into coaching.
And that's it. Alain Perrin is doing alright for himself at Sochaux as they currently reside in the top half of the Ligue Une table whilst Zajec is thought to be suffering from motor neurone disease.
Who knows? There might be a volume V released on Fratton Faithful in the near future knowing how quickly Harry Redknapp goes through players!