Goodbye dead wood!

I'm sure i wasn't the only Blue who shed a little tear at the thought of the club having to part ways with several overpaid numpties who've somehow managed to get away with masquerading as professional footballers these last few years. Danny Mills sole contribution whilst picking up the best part of £8m for his efforts was a scorcher against Everton at Eastlands in a game so early most of us were still asleep. He's not played a first-team game for us in three seasons, believe it or not, and hasn't turned out for anyone else since the start of last year, one of the last remaining memories of the often forgotten side of Kevin Keegan's time as manager. His 54 appearances for the club will no doubt go down in legend, one of the greats.

More broadly, Mills will probably be remembered as nothing more than an angry young man. I've been racking my brain for career highlights, erm, well, he did play for England nineteen times, somehow, playing every minute of our glorious ascent to the dizzy heights of the quarter-finals in 2002. He had earlier earnt a big-money move to Leeds, though their stewardship at the time means that can probably be taken with a pinch of salt, they also paid well over the odds for giants of the game such as Michael Bridges, Seth Johnson, Michael Duberry & Dominic Matteo. My own abiding memory of the man will be him repeatedly being tormented by Thierry Henry. Idiot!

Also leaving us is fans favourite Darius Vassell, whose strikerate of 1-in-5 could be at best described as poor. He too is a player who managed to represent his country on several occasions, serving them well enough for short while, running around like a headless chicken otherwise. There was the briefest hope of him looking like a Premier League striker when he linked up with Andy Cole during his first year here, before said player moved to Pompey for an extra couple of gold coins a week, a move which of course moved out frightfully well for the lad. Once Cole had left, however, Dangerous Darius just about limped into double-figures over the next three seasons.

You'll sometimes hear football fans say that they're not always too fussed about a player's ability, so long as they put in a shift, but when you see the likes of Vassell, not afraid to run about for ninety minutes, admittedly with his eyes shut most of the time, you realise that particular sentiment is absolutely ridiculous. Vass, barring that Goal of the Season contender at the Stadium of Light when he gave their 'keeper the eyes and trickled the ball into the far corner with his studs, couldn't shoot for shit. Neither could he judge the offside rule, pass, cross, or, seeing how he's seemingly thicker than he is tall, prove any danger at all from set-pieces. If he does get his move to Turkey, i do wish him luck, in the sense that he's always struck me as a fairly nice chap, and him playing for any football club that isn't Manchester City has to be good news.

Didi Hamann, to give him a little credit, played an quite important role for us the season before last, doing a bit of the donkey-work behind Johnson and Elano. In his pomp he was a fine player, but not here. He arrived in peculiar circumstances, having already signed for Bolton that summer. His last act for the club proved to be a perplexing throw-in assist during 0-3 humbling at the hands of Notts Forest in January. I guess we can only draw the line under short-fix transfers like this now. He was bought, although relatively recently, in a time where the aims of the club were completely different to now. Pearce's instructions then would've simply been to keep us in the division, and on a minuscule budget, whereas now we've got a wealth of options, especially in that position, and anyone deemed not up to the job will quickly be replaced.

The other two senior players being released are Glauber Berti and Michael Ball. Berti, well, for the six minutes we saw of him, will be remembered fondly by supporters. Like Ball he arrived on a free transfer, but sadly couldn't make any impact whatsoever on the first-team. He kept going, though, training well according to the manager, happy to take his place on the bench and come in if needed. Nice of the club to give him a send-off, but he probably shouldn't have been here in the first place. Ball, as we said below, did okay in parts. We all know his shortcomings, no need to go over them, but another signed during more difficult times. His goal at Preston and his stamp on a certain orange former-United winger stand out.

So then, five players, 313 moribund appearances, a massive 24 goals, 41 bookings, and one red card, who've probably cost the club anywhere up to £25m in transfer fees and salaries all told, none of them really doing anything more than putting in the occasional shift. I wish them all the best, well, most of them. Although clubs will always make signings that sometimes don't work out, i hope that these chumps are the last of Championship- standard, over-the-hill journeymen sort.