by Richi Royal »
18 Jul 2008 21:25
Sad to see Kitson go. Is a rare breed of footballer where he is tall, yet better on the floor than in the air. He was along with Shorey and Marek our most creative player and kept us fighting for survival as long as we did, without him we would have been long gone IMO, especially in early season.
However, 5.5 million is a good deal, fair play to Hammond who negotiated that price, i have zero confidence in anything he does / says but he has got us a good price. As has been said he is rather injury prone and if Kitson had said he wanted to leave (which has been reported) then we had to let him leave as he can be disruptive. TBH i don't think it is a good move for Kitson, he does not play well in 4-5-1 which is what it will be alot of the time and does not play his best with hoof ball which stoke seem to be specialist in. But he is not our player any more so i don't care.
The 5.5million however is only a good deal if it is reinvested, it is a rubbish deal is we sell one of our best players for a pile of money in the bank. I don't believe we will get a good replacement, from Coppell's comments about staking a claim and the fact he sent Lita out on loan despite us only having 3 other strikers in the heat of the relegation battle. As Ferguson said you can never have to many strikers. I wouldn't be surprised if an average striker came in to sit on the bench/ provide competition for long. But i stand to be proved wrong, if for example we sign Ben Watson/ Olofinjana (sp?) and Rob Hulse. Add to the fact Kits was one of the top earners and there should be enough wages along with Little , Oster, Stack, Etc to fund these players.