James Constable

[SWA]

So, after much discussion online, it is now official. Beano has left the club. He will be stuck 1 short of Graham Atkinson's record of 107 goals.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

A great shame - whatever his limitations (and there were a few) no-one gave more and he would have been a useful member of the squad to have around next season. I hope he will be considered as a club legend in years to come.

We currently have 0 strikers.

[GodalmingYellow]

This is bad news for the club.

Every club needs its heroes. The likes of Joey Beauchamp, Matty Elliott, class of 86, and of course Beano, are really important elements that help fans identify with the club and give supporters an element to connect with even in times of difficulty. Its one of the reasons we pay our dues.

I don't think the club has any heroes of this stature any longer, and the club is in danger of meandering through, clueless to the potential impact of issues such as losing an iconic player like Beano. I can't imagine that Beano really wanted to move on and his Twitter feed seems to support that, and so the contract offer must have been heavily restricted from previous agreements and he must be aware of better offers elsewhere. Very disappointing of the club if so.

I'm really not warming to Gary Waddock yet, not just because of the loss of Beano. I really hope that he is not deconstructing our club unless he is capable of much more than the results he has achieved so far. And so far he has proven himself to be very short of getting the best out of the same group of players that were available to Wilder.

[Werthers Original]

Every club needs its heroes. The likes of Joey Beauchamp, Matty Elliott, class of 86, and of course Beano, are really important elements that help fans identify with the club and give supporters an element to connect with even in times of difficulty.

Good point, Beano and Alfie are the names people chant. I'm a bit gutted that Beano is leaving, though we don't know the details - we may have offered something decent but only for a year, while Rovers are giving him two or three years.

[OUFC4eva]

Beano did well for us especially in the CONference but for me has struggled to score goals in the FL
on a consistent basis for the club to push on.

I'll always remember him fondly but from a purely footballing perspective I simply can't put him into
a sentence with Matt Elliott and Joey Beauchamp when comparing footballing legends that have graced
the Manor and Grenoble Road.He's an average fourth divison striker and will no doubt score goals
for Eastleigh at his new level which for me is his true level.

Struggling with basic hold up play,link up play and awareness especially of the oppositions defensive line
where he is massively prone to being caught offside I think James has been frustrating. He is no header
of a ball either (yes I know there was a headed goal scored at Slumdon but nowhere near enough)

I wish him well and I thank him for his service as he's a nice guy and a good clubman
and it would have been great to score >107 goals.

Meanwhile we move on and we may be able to recruit a couple of better strikers.

[Mooro]

This is bad news for the club.

Every club needs its heroes. The likes of Joey Beauchamp, Matty Elliott, class of 86, and of course Beano, are really important elements that help fans identify with the club and give supporters an element to connect with even in times of difficulty. Its one of the reasons we pay our dues.

I don't think the club has any heroes of this stature any longer, and the club is in danger of meandering through, clueless to the potential impact of issues such as losing an iconic player like Beano. I can't imagine that Beano really wanted to move on and his Twitter feed seems to support that, and so the contract offer must have been heavily restricted from previous agreements and he must be aware of better offers elsewhere. Very disappointing of the club if so.

I'm really not warming to Gary Waddock yet, not just because of the loss of Beano. I really hope that he is not deconstructing our club unless he is capable of much more than the results he has achieved so far. And so far he has proven himself to be very short of getting the best out of the same group of players that were available to Wilder.

Simple fact is that what we have offered him to sit on our bench each week is not as attractive as what Eastleigh have offered him to be a guaranteed starter and marquee signing..(it might even be that we've offered him more than they have but not the guaranteed start)

Don't get me wrong, I very much agree with your sentiments regarding heroes and icons, and think that he would have been a valuable squad member next season and I personally am very sad to see him go, but the clubs have made their choices, he has made his, and good luck to him and thank you for all he's done for us while he's been here....
Does put the pressure on Waddock to find the right strikers though doesn't it?

[GodalmingYellow]

My understanding is that the club offered Beano a pretty derisory deal and that he wanted to stay and tried to negotiate a fair deal, but the club wasn't interested. Bad decision by the club and I agree, Waddock has now got a really huge task to rebuild the team. Of the players we have still on the books who will be fit for the start of next season, only one (Jake wright) would definitely make it into a decent starting line up. That is a very sad and bad state of affairs.

I believe Beano will be signing for Eastleigh as they have offered him far more than OUFC were prepared to do.

[slappy]

We move on.

We've tried every combination with Green, Midson, Potter, Craddock, Smalley, Kitson, and only in our first L2 season did he get 17, then 11, 14 and 12. Not good enough for L2 promotion hopefuls.

I heard a rumour that he had a "best paid player" contract, which wouldn't surprise me under the previous chairman, and that would in my opinion overpay him if true when players like Leven, Duberry, McLean came in on presumably six figure salaries.

So to move to a realistic BSP/L2 striker salary would be a drop and if he was on the bench more, particularly as we need a new main man up front who can find the net.

Eastleigh have a habit of picking up ex OUFC players and staff, fair play they have very rich backers. But they'll never be more than a village team with village support, being so close to Pompey and Southampton, even if they do a Crawley or Stevenage and get into the league.

[Kernow Yellow]

I'm with OUFC4eva and Slappy here. I strongly suspect that he was being very well paid on his previous deal (which was signed at a time when there was significant interest from elsewhere) and he hasn't really lived up to the expectation since then.

While I agree that we'll miss him as an icon and long-standing fans favourite, neither that - nor the fact that he's close to breaking a goalscoring record - should be a reason for keeping him on on terms that we're not comfortable with and which might hamper our squad building.

Beano has scored some spectacular and memorable goals for us, which will live long in the memory - at Wembley of course, and this season at Torquay, Brizzle and Plymouth to name a few. But no-one at this level should be allowed to name their terms, especially not a striker who misses as many easy chances as Beano does. While it might seem disrespectful to be asked to take a pay-cut after his long service, that's the way football works - short term deals at the current market rate based on recent performance; that and whether the current manager rates you of course. It should be noted that Beano's moving down a step, so presumably no other league clubs were prepared to better our offer. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all?

Anyway, farewell Beano, thanks for the memories and good luck at your new club. I'll look out for your name in the results section of the Sunday paper. But I hope we sign players that mean I'm not wishing you were back with Us.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

If his salary was prohibitive and not befitting a player who has not set L2 alight, then fair enough, although it seems painful that we were reportedly turning down six-figure sums for him in previous years only to see him go on a free.

But are we really confident that we will get (at least) three strikers who are better than Beano?

[joepoolman]

Getting a worrying sense of deja vu here, I remember reading that contract negotiations were going to start months ago, and yet now we have lost a man that has been our top scorer and hardest working player for 6 seasons. Does Lenegan ever open contract negotiations when he says that he will?! Beano always showed nothing but loyalty to the club (January 2012 anyone?) so if he wasn't offered a proper contract it's a bit of a joke imho.

Thanks for everything Beano.

Oh and if we're mentioning Beano goals, last minute header vs Wrexham at home near the end of the 2008/09 season was always one of my favourites (apart from the obvious ones).

[ty cobb]

This club gets worse and worse. Our top scorer for the last few seasons (depsite being in and out of the team) a true legend of the club and one of the few players fans like and respect and the chance to break our all time goal scoring record and bloody Eastleigh prove a more attractive proposition.

Ok offer him less money but by the sounds of it we have made very little effort to get him to stay, given the loyalty he has shown us I find this a sad state of affairs.

The break up of our promotion team is nearly complete. The sad thing is I think they would have stood a much better change of promotion than some of the crap we have seen replace it. We have tried to find a better striker than Beano for the last few years through a combination of loans and transfers, none have bettered him why the hell are we letting him go.

[slappy]

Wilder left for a club lower down the league, for a better and longer contract = bottled it, ran away.
Beano left for a club lower down the league, for a better and longer contract = club let him down, he was doing it for the family.

[ty cobb]

I said Wilder left because the club let him down and for his family I don't think anyone sane would think Wilder or Beano are bottlers quite the opposite in fact.

[Myles Francis]

I really don't think somebody who used to wax lyrical over Rob Duffy owing to his ability to score unchallenged from 12 yds should be questioning anyone's sanity.

I would add my +1 to Kernow's comments. Pretty much mirrors my thoughts exactly.