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Full agree. Brian Saah along with Downes and Poke were by far and away our most consistent players last season. I shall be sorry to see him go. He took a little while to adjust to League 2 after coming from Cambridge the season before last, but soon proved to be an excellent signing by Martin Ling.

I shall be disappointed if he does decide to leave but no-one is irreplaceable.
Surprised by some of the comments though. Is my memory really bad or is it the rest of you? I know Ellis was good in patches and showed some promise but a better player than Saah? I just don't see it.

Don't think it is poor business at all. Saah had a two year contract but when he came here he was a non league player so how long exactly were we supposed to offer him. He played in a team last year that all but got relegated. Noone would have offered any money for him if he was under contract - anything else is fantasy.

I quite like Saah, one of the more consistent defenders in my opinion. Still, no one is irreplaceable.

brucie wrote:Don't think it is poor business at all. Saah had a two year contract but when he came here he was a non league player so how long exactly were we supposed to offer him. He played in a team last year that all but got relegated. Noone would have offered any money for him if he was under contract - anything else is fantasy.

A top L2 side like him enough to be interested.

Brucie is right. When Saah arrived he was one of the worst players I've ever seen. O.K., he improved, but the memory of those initial months - and later lapses - never fully inspired me with confidence. We can do better.

A top L2 side like him enough to be interested.[/quote]

Sorry USA. Brucie for once is quite right. He is only attracting interest from another club purely because he is a free agent. If he was tied to us he would not attract any interest. He was here last summer. No one put any bids in for him. He stays untill his contract runs out. There is nothing we can do to make him sign if he doesn't want to. he is a free agent. He can now go where he pleases and we can't do anything about it. We couldn't even put in a clause that if his contract ends we can get a fee, That is now illegal under the Bosman rule.


And you all know what illegal. is...............................









A sick Bird.

says it all really!

I will be very disappointed if Saah leaves, although I expect him to go and have thought he might since, Ling was sacked. He has probably been our most consistent player over the last two years and he was unfairly maligned when he first arrived.

I do fear for us next season. The departures of Howe (to be replaced by Benyon - God help us!) and Saah and maybe Downes worry me when Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far. He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Are these links to Everton and Manchester United a figment of the imagination?

No doubt location will be used as an excuse but that hasn't stopped Yeovil (in their own way, even more remote) getting the players that will be performing in the Championship next season.

Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

hector wrote:I will be very disappointed if Saah leaves, although I expect him to go and have thought he might since, Ling was sacked. He has probably been our most consistent player over the last two years and he was unfairly maligned when he first arrived.

I do fear for us next season. The departures of Howe (to be replaced by Benyon - God help us!) and Saah and maybe Downes worry me when Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far. He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Are these links to Everton and Manchester United a figment of the imagination?

No doubt location will be used as an excuse but that hasn't stopped Yeovil (in their own way, even more remote) getting the players that will be performing in the Championship next season.

Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

Ummm - Labadie and Chappell did a massive amount for us when they were brought in before returning early (through no fault of Knill). Benyon was already at the club when Knill arrived.

Unbelievable that you can be critical of his recruitment without giving him time to show what he will be bringing through the door.

It is not even June yet!

Laughable post hector! Truly laughable!

Agree Rich. Saying 'i fear for us next season' is even too negative for me to agree with. We've just endured a torrid season of some of the worst football i have ever seen by a TUFC side and performed by some really bad players. These bad players can and have be shipped off to pastures new whilst the ones like Howe and Saah are replaceable. I do have a slight concern that Knill has to start bringing in quite a few new faces to get us a competetive squad together within 2 months but i'm fully behind him and believe he can do just that. I am truly excited about next season and i fear nothing regardless of who leaves us. We should be embracing the new regime and the shedding of old for the blossom of new. That first game will be played out in front of fans with new optimism and a new found vigour for the club. Not fans expectant of another Ling horror show so we should fear nothing. We get rid of players and we bring others in and hope we have a man at the helm who knows his onions. If he does then crying aside, we'll be treated to a season of largely entertaining football and a really healthy league position. I for one cannot wait.

hector wrote:I do fear for us next season _ _ _ _ Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far.[ He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

Excerpts from a post that has totally gobsmacked me. Unbelievable. It is the 31st May, for goodness' sake give the poor bloke a chance. Unbelievable nonsense.

hector wrote:I will be very disappointed if Saah leaves, although I expect him to go and have thought he might since, Ling was sacked. He has probably been our most consistent player over the last two years and he was unfairly maligned when he first arrived.

We're you watching the first ten games of the first Ling season? Saah was perhaps the most inept defender I had seen turn out for us during that time, and I've had the pleasure of watching Andrews and Camara in a yellow shirt. That said he did make a very quick improvement.

I do fear for us next season. The departures of Howe (to be replaced by Benyon - God help us!) and Saah and maybe Downes worry me when Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far. He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Are these links to Everton and Manchester United a figment of the imagination?

Poor recruitment? Who exactly was going to want to come and join a team in free fall from the basement division, in the middle of nowhere and with 2 months if the season to go? We did very well indeed to get Labadie and Chappell, and both contributed far more than some of the dross they were replacing in the team.

No doubt location will be used as an excuse but that hasn't stopped Yeovil (in their own way, even more remote) getting the players that will be performing in the Championship next season.

They are surely less remote than us? Being crucially closer to the midlands clubs, they have a great pool of talent from good youth systems such as Birmingham to choose from. We're nowhere near anyone else, especially with the descent of Bristol City and Argyle.

Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

Absolutely ridiculous.

hector wrote:I will be very disappointed if Saah leaves, although I expect him to go and have thought he might since, Ling was sacked. He has probably been our most consistent player over the last two years and he was unfairly maligned when he first arrived.

I do fear for us next season. The departures of Howe (to be replaced by Benyon - God help us!) and Saah and maybe Downes worry me when Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far. He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Are these links to Everton and Manchester United a figment of the imagination?

No doubt location will be used as an excuse but that hasn't stopped Yeovil (in their own way, even more remote) getting the players that will be performing in the Championship next season.

Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

dont talk wet.

hector wrote:I will be very disappointed if Saah leaves, although I expect him to go and have thought he might since, Ling was sacked. He has probably been our most consistent player over the last two years and he was unfairly maligned when he first arrived.

I do fear for us next season. The departures of Howe (to be replaced by Benyon - God help us!) and Saah and maybe Downes worry me when Knill's recruitment has been very poor so far. He struggled to get anyone in last season and is not showing an enormous amount of imagination to go for Benyon. Are these links to Everton and Manchester United a figment of the imagination?

No doubt location will be used as an excuse but that hasn't stopped Yeovil (in their own way, even more remote) getting the players that will be performing in the Championship next season.

Just hope we do not resort to the old Batesonesque team recruitment of seeing who turns up for trials. Those players are essentially the players that nobody else wants and you can be pretty sure that a season of struggle will follow such recruitment.

Trying to find the positives in this post.

I guess Saahsy has been one of our most consistent performers, since about Christmas of 2011. Prior to this, there can be absolutely no doubt that he was fecking useless (although my gripe wasn't so much with his defending as with the rest of his game).

Equally, it's not necessarily untrue that it takes very little imagination to go for Benners. I'm not really sure that a vivid imagination is a prerequisite for a manager, but I guess an attribute is an attribute and it's better to have than not.

Geographically and in terms of the things that young men often seek in a location (lager, easy girls, access to airports for endless £9.99 E-Z Jet flights to Malia* and Ibiza), Yeovil hardly represents a better choice than Torquay, and they have managed promotion to the Championship.

Apart from these odd things, I concur with those who have panned the usually vanilla Hector for such an out-of-character post.

Matt.

I find it hilarious that as soon as a player decides to leave, no not even that, begins to consider leaving us, everyone seems to react in an extreme way. Sure, Brian Saah has been quite good this season but he's obviously not that good otherwise we would've had a much more solid defence, resulting in less goals conceded, less matches lost. Now I accept that we could have a 28 year old Paulo Maldini in our ranks and still have a healthy 'goals against' tally, but it damn sure wouldn't be as obese as it has been this year. Saah will be missed, but as plenty of others have pointed out, easily replaced. At League 2 level nobody is irreplaceable.

Bring on Knill's 'contacts' he's got until we kick off the season to make us a decent side again, and anyone that whinges this early about no signings is a moron. How many of the big clubs, with the exception of Neymar to Barca, have made first team signings this early on? The suns only just bloody come out, how can you expect the summer transfer window to be busy already?! It isn't football manager.