With all the Darren Carter and Ryan Shawcross comings and goings – or rather, goings, but not comings – it's been bit of a busy week or so.
The kind of busy week which, amidst the usual pre-season 'hullabaloo', can led to certain events not getting much of a mention by part-time columnists such as your dear old Stanley.
The event which your man here refers to is the departure of Youssef Safri.
Safri's departure is of note for three reasons, which Stanley would refer to as issues of quality, allegiance and team-spirit.
First off, when talking about Safri, you can 'nail on with your eyes shut' one thing, he is a quality player.
A defensive midfield player with the toughness, touch and technique to put him a 'cut above rest' in the Championship. All the Ts ticked.
So therefore, my dear Shirley, his departure must be a major blow to City's aspirations this season? Well no, dear Shirley, Stanley doesn't think it is.
Don't get me wrong – a team in City's position can't simple go and out and replace Safri's quality with like.
But there was a couple of issues with Safri which always led to Stanley putting a question mark next to his name when it came to the wisdom of building your team around your gifted midfield lynch-pin.
Issues of injuries and suspensions were always a feature of Safri's time here, but that is to be fair part and parcel of football. However ,the whole 'playing for Morocco- African Nations Cup in mid-season-I'm feeling tired so don't want to play'' saga left you wondering how much of the 'Love this club…' routine was heartfelt or the, perfectly understandable, savvy chat of a seasoned professional?
Don't get Stan wrong here either, of course Safri should play for his country, it's just that doing so always seemed to cost City in terms of Safri's time on the pitch and therefore undermined any attempt to build a team around this particular midfield general.
A problem, you suspect, Southampton fans will be digesting come the new year following some inevitably rave performances from Safri this autumn before the African Nations Cup looms into view.
Ultimately, and Stanley reiterates the point of quite understandably, Safri's ultimate allegiance wasn't to the club but to his country and to himself. He was, after all, a professional footballer.
A 'gun for hire'.
Something which Stanley doesn't actually have a problem with – it's just that it's very difficult building teams around such players. Unless you're the New York Cosmos.
Furthermore the whole business of Safri's relationship with Dickson, whatever the ins and outs of that may be, certainly wasn't good for the club.
For the necessity of developing the all-important team spirit, that teams like City are so dependent upon for success, perhaps the departure of both players was both inevitable and beneficial.
So Safri is a quality player for sure but you couldn't count on him always being there. In short Safri became a luxury we couldn't really afford.
In many ways this all goes to underline once more how unique Hucks is. A quality player who is always there and when he kisses the badge, well, you know he means it.
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