Monday 10 February 2014

Obika: my debt to Kermorgant

Up-and-coming striker Jonathan Obika gets to pick his dream team in the Football League Paper this week and one of choices for striker is Yann Kermorgant (unfortunately, the other is 'Judas' Defoe).

Obika says, 'I enjoyed playing with Yann at Charlton. He liked being the target man and the lay-offs were always crisp and perfect. He's very good in the air and so we linked up well. I definitely picked up a lot of very good attributes from him'.

I think Rick Everitt summed up the way that many Charlton fans feel about Kermorgant when he wrote in The Voice of the Valley 'Kermorgant was not the best striker ever to play for Charlton ... but he came to us when we were in a dark place and sparkled like a diamond lit by a torch.'

In the same issue, Steve Dixon makes it clear that Yann wanted to stay at Charlton. According to the one time Valley Party candidate, Katrien asked to see Kermit on his last day at Sparrows Lane and said that she had not realised how popular he was with fans. She rang Roland to try to retrieve the situation, but it was too late.

5 comments:

Boneyboy said...

Didn't realise how popular Yann was with the fans = not listening to SCP ?

Wyn Grant said...

I think if I was parachuted into a Belgian club as de facto chief executive I would have difficulty getting my bearings at first, leaving aside my difficulty with the language (which she does not have).

Anonymous said...

If that is true then I feel a whole lost worse. I can't believe that someone of her intelligence and knowing SCP's view on Kermo that this can true. Incroyable!

Wyn Grant said...

D'accord. My hunch is that Roland wanted to carry out the usual clear out he performs at a club he has bought. Katrien picked up on the social media concerns, but by then it was too late. Whether she spoke to SCP I simply don't know, but I think that he interacts more with Roland. It may be that the Belgian lawyer and the Breton footballer were not on the same wavelength, but I doubt that was a major factor.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine a Young Football manager doing a great job in an international legal practice , why would you expect anything better the other way around.
Clearly Katrien did not listen clearly enough to SCP.
But Hay OBIKA gives a chance.
Millwall Yeovil and Barnsley ?