EDIT: One more name added.
Yes, I know I’m currently in the United States on my vacation. However, NA has finally released his initial cull of players.
Rather helpfully too, I’ve got an hour to kill before I spend five days in Washington DC, so as is traditional at this time of year, here is the list of the released players – with SW19’s thoughts beside them.
In no particular order:
Jason Prior – when he got crocked at Crawley, he always seemed to be down the Ross Montague route. Shame that he never fulfilled any potential, but when he started at Gillingham it seemed the writing was on the wall. And also, it seems like we won’t get a summer trip back to Bognor…
Rashif Yussuff – one of those players who obviously did play but I forgot actually did. Which is half the problem. Could be all right if he wasn’t more injured than not, although that probably nailed him
 Pim Balkestein – a surprse to some, but if you remember that he only came to us because Brentford paid up his contract, it’s not really so much a shock. And to be honest, he was never really the Pim we saw who played on loan for us – one suspects he was another TB panic buy…
Matt Mitchel-King – I actually feel a bit sorry for him, because he was basically an injury prone Conference level defender who made too many little errors for it to be funny any more. Don’t think he helped himself by self-proclaiming himself as a “character” then, er, didn’t do so.
Stacy Long – no longer got it going on. Another one who was supposed to be pivotal when we signed him, and ended up being a bit-part player in the end.
Curtis Osano – spent most of his time injured, and didn’t give us much hope when Luton fans were high-fiving for getting rid of him.
Chris Hussey – and a good reason why you should never go back. This was not the Hussey of the Conference South days, this was a player whom you suspect wouldn’t have played if Fenlon had been fit. Pretty much said he was off after the Fleetwood game, and to be honest he can see his pro career slide down the toilet somewhere else…
Kelly Youga – was good at Southend and lousy at t’Stanley. Although he was likely bought in as a squad member.
Louis Harris – added to the list soon as I originally published this, and kind of summed up his tenure here. Another one of TB’s panic buys, especially when you consider he was merely recommended (sans scouting) by the hapless Terry Connor..
So, that’s the cull – for now. One wonders whether those on contracts will still be here come the start of the season, or whether they’ll be used as makeweights for proper deals.
Which is why the likes of Cummings aren’t on this list – it’s presumably because they’re still under contract. And that is one thing we’ll have to get used to now – we can’t simply get shot of players that easily these days, so we have to be doubly careful who we sign in future.
Anyway, there’s plenty to chew on. I’m off to brave American airport security, I’ll be back about this time next week…