All Change at Roots Hall

Well, a lot has happened at Southend United since my last blog. Steve Tilson has been placed on 'gardening leave' (effectively sacked), Paul Sturrock has replaced him as manager with Tommy Widdrington joining him from Salisbury as assistant manager. And with the new management team has come an almost absoloute turnaround in players. Since my last blog, both goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall and right-back Simon Francis have had their contracts cancelled, with Mildenhall opting to be 3rd-choice goalkeeper at Millwall. He and Adam Barrett have both surprisingly been signed up by Championship clubs. And following last night's 2-0 friendly defeat to Dartford, Sturrock revealed that Franck Moussa, Jean Francois Christophe, Stuart O'Keefe and Francis Laurent have all decided that they want to join the exodus. The reasons for this are unknown (presumably they like being paid on time) but it's certainly disappointing, particularly in the cases of Moussa and O'Keefe who were both products of the youth system and who would've done well in League Two. Christophe won't be missed after having a dire last season and Laurent is an exciting player on his day but unfortunately his off-days are more frequent than those days. But it must be stressed they've only said they want to leave. Whether they will leave is another matter. Except Moussa, I don't think any of them will attract much interest and nor are they particularly high-earners who the club would like to get off the wage bill, as was the case with the other departees.


This came on the same day that Sturrock secured five more players on pre-contract agreements, since the club is still under a transfer embargo. Mohsni Bilel, Sofienne Zaaboub, Craig Easton (who's been named captain), Ryan Hall and Blair Sturrock have all signed for the club and all featured in last night's friendly. They join Peter Gilbert and Barry Corr as new additions. Five of those seven have worked with Sturrock before and it seems that the Scotsman is adopting a policy of signing players he knows and trusts (and even his own family!), with a nice mix of youth and experience. Rhys Evans, another player who is familiar to the manager, played in goal for the 1st half last night and seems likely to join the club. Out of the players who featured at Dartford, only Anthony Grant and youngster Harry Crawford were here last season. Attending Monday night's friendly with Derby will be a case of working out who's who. It's a team of strangers who need to get used to each other quite quickly.

Yet strangely, I have an optimistic feeling about the whole situation. Now that we've paid off our debts (apparently), the transfer embargo should be lifted at a hearing on August 2nd (fingers crossed), all these players who Sturrock has arranged will officially sign and be able to play on the first day of the season and Southend will have a fresh, new team to take on League Two. This huge change might be uncomfortable for some fans but that's football - players come and go, managers come and go. It's only the fans who are constant.

Billy Blenheim