Credit goes to john fenty..

Quoted from jonnyboy82

Does the transfer request and the fact alan does not want to be happy have no bearing in this then?

what would we gain from keeping an unhappy player at the club who does not want to be here?,that would rub off on his attitude and the rest of the team..

which would affect his performance and add to this he walks away for nothing next year,i dont want a player at my club which does not want to be here or is not committed to staying with us,the transfer request he made certainley shows he does not want to be here..

good deal imo.

Exactly. I'd argue the last time we had a player in a similar situation like this was Michael Reddy who if i'm not mistaken had interest from Luton and Bristol Rovers. That time we decided to keep him and despite him being completely knackered we still possibly missed out on a good deal for a player who had had half a good season in Division 4.

As much as i'd have liked Connell to stay i think you have to be realistic and say whenever the first half decent offer came in from a league club Fenty would accept it. Just so happens Swindon are the first to do it. Face facts, we're a non league side now and to get 100k for a 28 year old player with one good season in an otherwise patchy goal scoring career is good business for the club.

I just hope Fenty somehow hasn't copulated the deal up somewhere, it wouldn't surprise me if he had.

Quoted from Denby

oh sorry, well done everyone at the club, we might lose best part of £1m every season but at least we've made a 10th back to help pay off disastrous signings.  excellent forward thinking.  this has all but destroyed any chance we had of returning to the football league any time soon

so because alan connell has gone you have automatically say we wont go up..

alan was never on his own going to get us promoted he would have helped but not done it on his own,there are 10 other players who help toward that..

how do you know the money is not already being lined up as a replacement for alan?

Quoted from 1600

Who knows we might return but it certainly doesn't help.

we might, just like alfreton might, just like southport might

Quoted from jonnyboy82

so because alan connell has gone you have automatically say we wont go up..

alan was never on his own going to get us promoted he would have helped but not done it on his own,there are 10 other players who help toward that..

how do you know the money is not already being lined up as a replacement for alan?

when you lose your best player it makes your team worse than it previously was, and last season we were 11th best in the division.  maybe we'll sign an awesome replacement in the next month, or maybe we'll use half of the cash to pay off rob duffy

Great bit of business, getting 150k (alleged) for a player who obviously did not want to stay. Just cos he scored all those goals last season doesn't mean he would have done next. If he had stayed and only scored a handfull, Fenty would have been criticised for not accepting the offer when we had the chance. Anyway, the players S&H have brought in hardly make me think that Connell figured in their plans anyway. Good luck to Connell, and thanks for the cash Swindon.

Quoted from Denby

when you lose your best player it makes your team worse than it previously was, and last season we were 11th best in the division.  maybe we'll sign an awesome replacement in the next month, or maybe we'll use half of the cash to pay off rob duffy

or maybe he wont be that missed with liam hearn already signed and another striker coming in..

if fenty would have turned this down and connell does not score for his first few games i wonder if you would suddenly change your mood and "say we should have sold him its clear he does not want to be here"

At the end of the day its a good deal all round. . .Before he signed for us he was scoring four or five goals a season. We have made a profit on a player in his prime. Rather sell him now for a fee than let him leave for sod all

Quoted from jonnyboy82

or maybe he wont be that missed with liam hearn already signed and another striker coming in..

if fenty would have turned this down and connell does not score for his first few games i wonder if you would suddenly change your mood and "say we should have sold him its clear he does not want to be here"

connell's ability, at this level, is without doubt.  perhaps he first thought about leaving when those new managers of ours starting substituting him when he was our only goal threat

Quoted from Perkins

Great bit of business, getting 150k

Now we're making up the numbers are we ?

Think what most posters, who are slagging us off for not keeping Alan here, are not considering is that Connell handed in a transfer request as soon as he found out Swindon were interested. Had we denied a move away for him then this would in turn unsettle the player and cause a dip in form. After all he stated as soon as the season ended that he wanted a return to the Football League.

What we have done in a sense is bump up the final fee we received for him by turning down £50k and other 'derisory' fees and I believe to get six figures for a player in the BSP is good business. All that needs to happen now is Fenty needs to hand a cut of that over to Sco-Hurst to find a replacement.

Sorry to see you go Alan, but not gutted.  Onwards and Upwards and Goodbye.  Issue over (thank god)