Soccer: All White rated as club's worst ever overseas signing

Former All White Declan Edge has been rated as Notts County's worst ever overseas signing. Photo / Getty Images

A glossy English football magazine has this month bestowed a dubious honour on a former All White - rating him the worst overseas signing of all time for lower league English club Notts County.

In its latest edition, 4-4-2 magazine named current Waikato FC coach Declan Edge, a veteran of 42 appearances for the All Whites between 1985-91, as Notts County's worst overseas signing in the club's 149 year history.

Edge - who these days works full time in his own football development academy which has already produced a number of youth internationals - is proud of the honour, but noted there was a lot of bad blood left at the club which signed him as a jinky ball-playing teenager in 1985.

Edge said he despised the type of game Notts County played and refused to conform to their "lump it forward" tactics, but would use the honour to his advantage one day.

"Really, I am a legend at Notts County," Edge said. "I'm over the moon with it, and trying to get as many copies as I can."

"If I walked in through the front door at Notts County tomorrow, they would bend over backwards to look after me. I'll use it to my advantage when the time is right."

In a feature on English clubs' best and worst foreign signings, Edge gets the gong for being Notts County's worst ever.

4-4-2's blurb reads: 1985-1987: 10 apps, 2 goals. Some edges are less cutting than others. The Malaysian-born New Zealand international spent two seasons with the Magpies, amassing a grand total of 10 appearances in that time and scoring a paltry two goals. Still, even that was an improvement on the striker's earlier stint in England with Shrewsbury: zero appearances. And presumably no goals.

Founded in 1862 the Nottingham club's greatest accomplishment came in 1894 win they won the FA Cup. The club last played in England's top division in 1992 and currently compete in England's League One competition (the former third division).

"They chucked a 12 month ban on my head, because they played a brand of football that I never liked," said Edge.

"I went to the coach and said I wasn't happy and that I was leaving. He said 'no you're not' and went nuts. They said if I do go they will put a ban on me, and they did."

Edge, who was just an apprentice at Shrewsbury, invited all those sniggering over the 4-4-2 article on Facebook to "put down your number of Football League appearances and goals".

"I really thought Notts County had got over me walking out on them because they played two-passes-then-shoot football. They need to let me go...."

Edge is in his second stint as Waikato FC - where he has populated his team with teenagers playing a possession-style game - and has recently applied for the New Zealand Under 20 coaching job.

"A lot of the time I talk to parents and my young players and use Notts County as an example of how it's important to go to a club that suits your particular style."

While the article has amused many, Edge's response has also drawn nods of respect, with some grudgingly noting two goals from 10 games was actually quite a respectable strike rate for a winger.

"Dec, you were just ahead of your time," said former teammate Greg Larsen. "Probably still are."