Well, I thought that my week was simply going to be covering Torquay v Cheltenham on Thursday, then back up to sunny London to see Luton and York suffer the bowel-churning agony that we endured this time last year.
And then this morning we found out that Sam Hatton had been released.
To be honest, those we’ve let go before today haven’t been particularly shocking. This one, on the other hand, is. While there was (and continues to be) speculation about Jack Midson, doubts about whether Sammy Moore will actually stay if somebody calls, and even a question mark over Seb Brown, this one is the genuine jaw dropper.
See, if there was one player guaranteed to be here, it was the man that SW19 often prefixed with “much-maligned”. He was here from the Ryman Prem days up until our first turbulent season in League Two. In a close season that had already seen thirteen players released, he was the one still standing.
His status had got to the point that if AFCW ever got into the Premier League, Sam Hatton would have been there. If we plummeted back to the Ryman Premier, Hatton would have been captain. Had there been a nuclear attack, the only two guaranteed survivors would have been the cockroaches and Sam Hatton. Only death, or TB quitting was ever going to see him depart, and even the former wasn’t a guarantee.
Until this morning, that is.
It seems like the photos of TB, the Franchise shirt and the chorizo have finally faded out and are no longer suitable for blackmail. None the less, it will still be strange not to see him in an AFCW shirt next season though, as it only leaves the management team itself with a direct link to those horrid days of the Ryman Premier. However, him being kept on beyond the initial cull was a surprise in itself.
Why? Think about who else we released in defence – although it would be quicker to name who remains. Only C-Mac (because of injury) and MMK are the defenders still at the club, and if the likes of JS, Gwillim and Brett Johnson got let go, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Hatton would have been cut too.
Only the most deluded of sycophant would have believed our back line was anything other than shite. Hatton was no exception, in fact the now-disappeared Barnet “highlights” showed him getting skinned like a, well, non-league player. Which will be the last memory of him in an AFCW shirt, unfortunately for him.
Was he really L2 quality, as some are now saying? The proof of that will come when he signs for his next club – if he goes to an Aldershot or a Barnet or a Dagenham, then perhaps so. Although how long he’ll stay there remains to be seen. If however he finds himself in the Conference, chances are that he won’t see League football again.
And there’s no guarantee we’ll be facing against him next season – we now have to get a RB to add to the other positions at the back (ie, all of them). One has to see what deals will be done – and that’s before the infamous PFA Released Player List gets published when all the contracts expire. Last time, there were 600+ players on it…
If we’re looking at that list, then other teams looking for a RB will be, too. And you can bet those who turned up to our games to scout our players will have somebody better in mind in that position than the guy we released today. Even this time last season, this guy took to Twitter to deny he’d spoken to us, so I don’t believe replacing Hatton will be a problem.
I can see him ending up at somewhere like Cambridge, or at an ambitious-and-maybe-big-spending side like Woking, or Dartford, or even FGR. He was at his best in the Conference, and that’s most likely his level. I doubt he’ll be without a club for long, more so than some of our released players anyway, and perhaps not a lowly one at that.
But will we miss him? Not really, we can do better and probably will. Of course, some will lament the fact they can’t abuse him any longer, and he always seemed to be a scapegoat regardless of what he did. Maybe some fans didn’t like him because as an individual he was pretty quiet and didn’t really mix socially afterwards? Which wouldn’t say a lot for the attitude of some of our supporters if true.
It is a shame to see our longest serving player go though, even if it’s for the best. His departure does at least show how far the club has come since we signed him (and his long hair/aliceband) as a young looking soul. Remember that he came from Stevenage along with Jason Goodliffe, and in that relatively short space of time, a lot has happened for all parties.
The question now is, who will become our new bete noir? Maybe one of the new signings to come in? Perhaps one of them may have accidentally got off at MK Central, which will be enough ammo for some. Perhaps an existing player like Luke Moore? Or maybe even Haydon the Womble? After all, if we’re culling those who are slow, leaden footed and unable to communicate…