I wonder if Roeder's hands were tied on this to some degree.

Huckerby spoke out against the board more than he spoke out against the managers and I wonder if Doncaster et al felt he was too much of a mouthy thorn in their side to renew his (expensive) contract. Maybe they offered Roeder the ultimatum: Lose Huckerby and have that little bit of extra flexibility in the transfer market this summer. If Roeder uses that carefully, we might all decide in hindsight that, despite the board's apparent lack of respect for Hucks and despite how much we will miss him, the decision that's been made is for the best, regardless of how and why the board came about it.

And yes, keeping the fans waiting will boost ticket sales for the laughable X Factor day. At the end of the day though, legends are legends and business is business.

Not that Roeder will be too fussed; Huckerby or not, be looking to build a team that can become familiar with each other over the next few years and will, at some point, have had to have done that without Huckerby. So he's hardly going to be gushingly sentimental over a player he hasn't had a hell of a lot to do with. It's for us fans to deliver the eulogies and Roeder to get on with replacing him. I don't care what Roeder's opinion on club history is; if he can keep us moving in the right direction next season then he's doing exactly what he gets paid for and delivering exactly what we expect when we watch City play.

Posted By: tim berry on May 6th 2008 at 23:01:23

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