James Constable

[Kernow Yellow]

This club gets worse and worse [...] bloody Eastleigh prove a more attractive proposition.

Nice spin there Ty. How about Eastleigh (a club who played in front of 600 people in the Conference South last season but are throwing money around) have seemingly offered him more money than any league club. Because a Non-league club value him more highly than league clubs do. I wonder why that is?

It's funny, we release one striker and he is snapped up by an upper level League 2 club, and our fans guffaw and say how well rid of him we are.

We offer a deal to another striker but he drops down out of the league because seemingly no league club wants to pay him what he wants, and our fans blame our (million-pound-a-year-losing) club for not continuing to overpay for his services for the sake of sentiment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with much of what's happening at our club at the moment - the performance of our manager and chairman (and marketing team) have left a huge amount to be desired in the last few months. But I have no problems with the way OUFC have dealt with this situation.

[amershamwrighty]

I agree with KY's analysis. I'm a bit worried that the 'out' door is getting a bit of wear and tear but Beano's time was going to come to an end sooner or later and these things can never be perfectly timed.

[SmileyMan]

A good player over the years, but this season, especially the second half, he just didn't look sharp enough for a promotion push from L2. I wish him well for the future.

[Matt D]

maybe, and people at the club are paid to make an unemotional assessment about the value of players, but i find it hard to look at this unemotionally this evening. really sad there wasn't a way to make this work for both him and Us.

an absolute talisman for Us in our promotion season. in terms of footballing quality or skill, perhaps he doesn't rank alongside the beauchamps et al of our history, but in terms of character and contribution, his name absolutely deserves to the alongside theirs as a club legend.

far from his most important goal ever, but still my favourite for Us - for me, it epitomises his qualities: http://youtu.be/s1AiX2UJjm0

[Jimski]

One of my favourite Constable moments was away at Crawley one season in the Conference. He missed a late penalty shortly after we'd equalised to make it 1-1, then got all fired up, and scored a stoppage time goal to give us the win.

He was an excellent player for us, but I feel he'd started to fade in the last season or so. So I wouldn't have minded if he'd stayed, but I'm not too cut up to see him go now either. Best of luck to him at Eastleigh.

[Snake]

This one is really interesting and few will know the facts about who offered what and when, but things move and before you know it the new strike force will be in place and it will all be forgotten about. A modern day legend gone, who may or may not be over the hill – we shall see.

And now I dislike Chester even more for going bust half-way through a season and denying Beano the all time record.

[GodalmingYellow]

This club gets worse and worse [...] bloody Eastleigh prove a more attractive proposition.

Nice spin there Ty. How about Eastleigh (a club who played in front of 600 people in the Conference South last season but are throwing money around) have seemingly offered him more money than any league club. Because a Non-league club value him more highly than league clubs do. I wonder why that is?

It's funny, we release one striker and he is snapped up by an upper level League 2 club, and our fans guffaw and say how well rid of him we are.

We offer a deal to another striker but he drops down out of the league because seemingly no league club wants to pay him what he wants, and our fans blame our (million-pound-a-year-losing) club for not continuing to overpay for his services for the sake of sentiment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with much of what's happening at our club at the moment - the performance of our manager and chairman (and marketing team) have left a huge amount to be desired in the last few months. But I have no problems with the way OUFC have dealt with this situation.

Speaking of spin there KY, I see you are filling your replies full of assumptions and treating them as facts. E.g. "continuing to overpay for his services". In making such statements, you presumably are fully aware of what his contract cost, what the replacement offer was for, the appropriate level for a six consecutive season top scorer in league 2, etc etc.

Strikers score goals when they are provided with service. Of all OUFC strikers, Beano scored the most, despite a shocking midfield with almost zero creativity. No one can ask for more than that. Complaints about missing a few chances ignore that L2 players make mistakes. We can't afford Wayne Rooney believe it or not. we can't even afford Wayne Rooney's housekeeper. There are not many better League 2 strikers than Beano when given service.

Its a dark day in the history of OUFC and with so few first team quality players on our books, even saving Beano's probably average wages isn't going to bring in the volume of quality players we need.

Some people on this board need a reality check about where OUFC are. The best and most successful clubs do not sell their best assets, let alone give them away, let alone push them away.

And anyone who doubts Beano's desire to stay needs to listen to this interview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yppy6

[SWA]

I've heard on good authority that Eastleigh's pay offer almost doubled what we were prepared to pay Beano.

[ty cobb]

Give it a rest KY you've far more conjecture in your post than mine. Did Eastleigh (who as you say get crowds of 600) prove a more attractive proposition than us (crowds circa 5000) for our top scorer of the last few seasons? Yes they did. You have no idea whether other league clubs offered him something, Eastleigh are quite local and being a league below are likely to offer more money than other league clubs as they need to pay a premium to attract good players to their tiny ground. Aren't the backers at Eastleigh the same ones that were involved here for a period of time? Seems to me they're making more of a go of things that IL. The fact of the matter is that Beano proved himself better than the very long list of players who were brought in alongside him in that time.

And Myles I already know you much prefer those classy players who stroll through games not scoring than players who actually finish as our top scorer in a season. Do you think Beano or Wilder are bottlers for deciding to move elsewhere - your post seems to suggest it does.

Good timing as well with season ticket renewal forms landing on the doorstep, the club asking us to display loyalty is a bit much at a time when they are showing none to a player who always gave their all, loved the club, turned down other offers and had an end product season after season.

[Eric Pollard]

I doubt that Beano is our 'best asset' though now GY. In the medium term our best assets will be our young bloods.

Beano is true legend - my kids, my non-supporting OUFC mates who know me well know who he is and are aware of his back story.

But from a football perspective in May 2014 as OUFC's number 9 , on balance, he's probably had his day. We will NEVER get promoted with JC as our main spearhead.

The PR has been handled catastrophically as per; Lenagan is starting to get form on this and it's not helpful.

But PR at the end of the day is a sideshow. What we all want a competitive team that can get amongst the prizes. Let's see how the squad measures up in August before concluding that the club is going to rat s***t ad nauseam zzzz.

Interesting point also about Smalley going to Plymouth and Beano going to Eastleigh. The football world would not appear to value Beano as our main 'asset'.

[Myles Francis]

Ty, I absolutely do think Wilder bottled it and there is plenty of evidence to support that position.

In no way do I think Beano has bottled it. I fully understand both his and the club's position on this. Oxblogger's latest has it absolutely nailed. Beano's value to us was not as great as his value to Eastleigh. He made the right decision for him and his family. Nobody is to blame and nobody has acted disgracefully.

As for the players I have a preference for, I like all sorts. I like midfielders who have the ability to create chances for the strikers, and I like strikers who have the ability to convert a decent number of those chances. Sadly, Beano's goals:chances ratio was getting worse, hence the decline in his value.

I am very sad to see Beano go from a sentimental point of view, and it would've been great if he could have officially got the goal scoring record. He was a true legend and a real ambassador both on and off the pitch. But time moves on, and it would be foolish in the extreme to spend over the odds for a player who appears to be on the wane.

[Kernow Yellow]

Did Eastleigh (who as you say get crowds of 600) prove a more attractive proposition than us (crowds circa 5000) for our top scorer of the last few seasons? Yes they did.

That's simply wrong. It's obvious from his interview that Beano would prefer to have stayed with Us. It's Beano that proved a more attractive proposition for Eastleigh than he did for Us, not vice versa.

You're right I don't know the details of past or proposed contracts, but nor do you. Yet you're quick to jump in and slag off the club regardless. It's funny how the people on here who are most critical of Us operating at a loss (and rightly so) are quick to forget all that when it comes to issues like this.

Oxblogger has it about right, I think:

http://oxblogger.blogspot.com/2014/05/f ... e.html?m=1

[The OXman Cometh]

We have a striker who can score goals in div 4/lge 2, we let him go so create a need for a 'better' striker, these 'better' strikers cost money but as a club we dont have any money, so where are the mythical strikers going to come from to score the goals?

Sorry, he may have had his faults but letting our top scorer go looks foolhardy from where I am sitting. GW & IL have made a rod for their own backs and are going to have to pull some rabbits out of the hat now.

As for Dean Smalley, lets play devils advocate here and suggest he was signed by his 'mate'.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

I've heard on good authority that Eastleigh's pay offer almost doubled what we were prepared to pay Beano.

What we were prepared to pay are the key words here. I wonder what level of pay cut we 'offered' him

[ty cobb]

Did Eastleigh (who as you say get crowds of 600) prove a more attractive proposition than us (crowds circa 5000) for our top scorer of the last few seasons? Yes they did.

That's simply wrong. It's obvious from his interview that Beano would prefer to have stayed with Us. It's Beano that proved a more attractive proposition for Eastleigh than he did for Us, not vice versa.

You're right I don't know the details of past or proposed contracts, but nor do you. Yet you're quick to jump in and slag off the club regardless. It's funny how the people on here who are most critical of Us operating at a loss (and rightly so) are quick to forget all that when it comes to issues like this.

Oxblogger has it about right, I think:

http://oxblogger.blogspot.com/2014/05/f ... e.html?m=1

It's not wrong though is it as he's lining up for Eastleigh next season and not us.

And slagging off the club. What by saying it's getting worse and worse? Well it is isn't it? We've let our top scorer leave on a free transfer to a club who get crowds of 600. We let our manager go to a club rooted to the bottom of the division and we have been in free fall ever since. We've re-signed a combination of some pretty average players together with the development team and have yet to see any new signings while other clubs have been pretty busy getting business done early.

I agree we need to save money as a club. I would suggest letting the fan favourite leave yet re-signing some pretty average players is not the best way to go about it. I'd much rather Kitson leave than Beano, I just cannot understand this decision he had a good couple of years left him in and the lack of goals more recently has been due to the poor service not because he's suddenly got rubbish - like I keep saying nobody else has managed to bang the goals in which suggests to me problems elsewhere on the field rather than problems with Beano.

From the interview it sounded like Beano wanted a couple of years, was prepared to take a pay cut (as Richard Hill - does he still have that fantastic hair? - said) yet we wouldn't enter into negotiations. He was worth a two year contract.