He was only relevant given that he will be Maher's partner at Gillingham, and that you alluded to the fact that Thurgood "could do Maher's running for him". Thurgood can run until the cows come home, but he'll never be in Maher's class.
I'd compare it to the Whelan-Gridelet combination, which was one of the better midfield pairings I've seen. Whelan had the class but no longer the legs, Gridelet had the legs but not the class. As a partnership it worked well as their relative strengths balanced out their weaknesses.
Without a Thurgood to do Maher's running, Maher won't be effective.
I'm just intrigued at the fact that:
(a) despite Maher being one of our classiest performers in the Championship last season, you (and indeed Tilly) have deemed him surplus to requirements.
(b) everyone must go to training sessions at B&L, since you're all completely up to date about how Kev is playing now.
(c) you in particular, YB, are always at pains to point out how entries in the club's history books and the club's traditions are paramount. I recall, for instance, how in 2005-06, you were insistent that you would far prefer for us to win the League One title and get relegated the following season than "do a Col Ewe", by finishing second, but staying up for an extra year - on the basis that they could never take the L1 Title away from us. Dare I suggest that there's a touch of sentimentality there? After all, which club is going to have the more lucrative season this year, thereby helping to secure its long-term future (if we were to take a ruthlessly pragmatic view of football).
Yet, when it comes to a player who has been a lynchpin of the club for a decade, we can chuck him out with yesterday's newspapers the minute he becomes surplus to requirements....?
Football and sentimentality go hand in glove. Why then are we not permitted to be a bit shocked about the departure of one of this club's most dedicated servants in recent years - especially without the benefit of having said goodbye to him properly, after a competitive fixture (rather than a testimonial)?
:confused:
Matt
I agree Maher was one of our classiest performers last season, (along with incidentally Gower, who is again getting stick). But that was last year. What has changed since the QPR game?
1. Maher's fitness. Maher never use to miss games through injury, he use to play 90 minutes without fail. He incredibly missed Southampton away when he would have had a couple of months off afterwards to recover. Given that he's now the wrong side of 30, you've got to start wondering how many more games he's got left in him.
2. Nicky Bailey. Bailey is one of the best players I've seen in a Southend shirt. His best position is as a holding midfielder and for me he is the first name down on the team sheet.
3. Our style of play. This has developed and changed a little in Maher's absence. The team has adjusted to Bailey and McCormack in the middle and frankly have looked better with Bailey and McCormack in the middle rather a midfield based around Maher.
4. Franck Moussa. Moussa looks like a younger version of Maher to me. Given the choice between the 31(?) year old Maher or the 19(?) year old Moussa, I'm going to go for the younger player. Maher stands in the way of Moussa's emergence. Rumours of training ground fights aside, I'm struggling to see how the club could satisfy both next season.
Now, I don't know how Maher is training, I'm going mainly on his last performances and on the fact that Steve Tilson doesn't see fit to include Maher in his match day XVI. I can see why Maher doesn't make the starting XI and I can see the attraction in having a more mobile central/wide midfield option on the bench ahead of Maher (although there have been occasions when I'd have loved to have Maher at his peak come on and slow down a game - this will have to be Moussa's role going forward).
As for sentimentality, that is fine for fans, but the manager and chairman need to be able to rise above that. Are you really suggesting picking Maher to start one last game just so that fans can say goodbye? I'd be fine with inviting him back next season if he's retired to come onto the pitch and wave goodbye properly but that has to be a limit to sentimentality, or else Paul Clarke would still be playing centre-back (as we'd have offered a two year deal instead of a one year deal and he'd have never gone to...... Gillingham). I really don't see how keeping on a player past their best helps. I'd rather remember him as the instrumental midfielder and captain of the double promotion side rather than as the midfielder and big wage earner who weighed us down when we attempted to bounce back up.
