In this featured series for the Maine Blues I will look at people who have departed the club on free transfers and where they have ended up after leaving City. I will select the most interesting players, for instance I will not look at older players as less could have happened with them.
This is the 2003/04 edition.
Vicente Matias Vuoso:
When Kevin Keegan signed this striker from Independiente for £3.5 million on the eve of City’s promotion to the Premier League fans of the club were intrigued and excited to see the Argentine in action. Vuoso however never broke into the first team and he ended up launching a scathing attack on Kevin Keegan before leaving. He told sky sports news ‘I find it strange he doesn’t play me, what was the point in signing me, did he expect something else from me’. He departed the club for Santos Laguna and scored a goal every two games for the club in his first spell there. He has since became a journeyman around the Mexican League, yet he has scored goals wherever he has gone and is currently playing for Atlas. This was a bizarre saga for City fans, and we will never know why it didn’t work out for the Mexican international who has 6 goals in 15 appearances for his country.
Brian Murphy:
The Irishman was released in 2003 as a twenty year old, he has since had a relatively successful career despite not making a league appearance for City. He had spells at Peterborough and Swansea before joining Bohemians. The Irish club sold him to Ipswich and he served as a backup keeper for the club before joining QPR where he made 2 appearances in 5 years after serving as the understudy to the likes of Julio Cesar and Robert Green. Murphy was released in the summer and is still currently looking for a new club.
Tyrone Loran:
The Netherlands Antilles international joined the club from Dutch club Volendam for a small fee after impressing manager Kevin Keegan on a short term trial. Loran however only lasted a year and never made a competitive appearance for the club. He joined Tranmere but struggled with injuries and ended up moving back to Holland in 2005 where he joined RBC Roosendaal. He impressed there and earned a move to NAC Breda. The final record of him is in 2011 where he joined De Graafschaap, he has since been a free agent and is a popular lower league pick-up on the cult game Football Manager.
Paul Ritchie:
Ritchie was a no-nonsense Scottish defender who was signed by Joe Royle in 2000 after a short spell at Rangers. Previous to that he had made over 100 appearances for Hearts in a six year spell. Ritchie never broke into the Man City team, he had injuries but he wasn’t rated by Kevin Keegan. He was loaned out to Portsmouth and Derby before permanently joining Walsall in 2003 then Dundee United in 2004. After a spell in Scotland he went to America with the Carolina Railhawks, he only made one appearance but he worked as assistant manager under Martin Rennie and earned his coaching badges. He moved with Rennie in 2011 to Toronto FC but he was sacked alongside Rennie after a year in charge. Since then Ritchie has been coaching kids in both America and in Manchester.
Dorryl Proffitt:
Proffitt was a star in the youth team for City, but he was loaned to Coventry in 2003 and he never returned to the club. Dorryl was famously part of the England under 17 team that included one Wayne Rooney. But he had nowhere near the amount of success of the Scouse striker and ended up at Market Drayton town in 2010 and he was last seen in national news scoring the winner for Stoke Sunday league team Baddeley Green against Sneyd fc in the Sentinel Cup final. His 39th minute strike earned the team managed by Port Vale striker Tom Pope a victory in the cup and he earned national attention for the strike. Proffitt was once extremely promising, but he spent his whole career in non-league and his current club is unknown. He has been released by Leek Town FC four times.
Jeff Whitley:
The central midfield player joined Sunderland in 2004 after a decent spell at City where he famously played in the 1999 playoff final. He was a workhorse in midfield and did a fine job for the club in the football league. However his career was marred by alcohol abuse, he told BBC sport ‘at times I wanted to die’. Whitley’s career was cut short due to these sad struggles and he slipped into non-league football before retiring in 2010. Whitley has since turned his life around and he is a car salesman in Stockport and he delivers talks to professional sports teams about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. Such a turnaround for the Northern Irishman is great to see, he holds a special place in City’s history.
Stephen Paisley:
Paisley was signed by Joe Royle from Irish team Cherry orchard, however he never made an appearance for the club and was released in 2003. After that he played for many top flight Irish teams including Shelbourne and Bohemians. He is 31 years old and believed to be playing local football for St. Mochtas in the Leinster senior league.
Lucien Mettomo:
The Cameroonian international was signed by Kevin Keegan for £1.5 million when City were in the Championship. He left in 2003 to join Kaiserslautern of the German League, after that he bounced around Europe with spells in Turkey and Switzerland before joining Southampton in 2007 on a short term deal. He didn’t make it there and the final record on him is at Greek club Veria FC whom he joined in 2008 and played around a dozen games for. He is an active member of Cameroonian football development and has done countless interviews with the Cameroonian football website which you can read online.
