...this does have the same feel as 1995.
Then our best player and the fulcrum of the side left in Simon Osborn.
This time that rarest of breeds now in our football-tall,good in the air,good link man with other strikers and a decent finisher leaves for a club that is nowadays (forgetting the past for the moment) not much bigger than our own.

The PR coming from the club in recent days has been dreadful.
Apart from the "Kitson has a cold" nonsense to say that if a player wants to leave he can really does strike me as about as negative as it gets.
Why the f*** hasn't the management being pulling out all stops to persuade the likes of Kitson ,Doyle and Harper that we have ambition to make an immediate return to The Premiership?

Surely the line of "stay on board fellas at least until Christmas to see how we are doing.We'll keep you on Premiership wages until that time and if we aren't doing well we won't stand in your way.Also we will be investing in new players" would have shown the commitment that we and the players would like to have heard?
Instead we were as quick as Defoe putting in a transfer request after relegation to come out with the "Steve will have to sell before he can buy" and latterly this stuff about players being allowed to leave.
It surely is very near the time for a statement of intent by the club especially with little more than 3 weeks to go till the start of the season and our best player about to leave and the second midfield dynamo about to go within the year.
Can't you just hear it "Our ambitions are clear because Stephen Hunt has pledged his future to the club.........."?
The one that many of us want to go will stay as Roy Keane finally comes to his senses and realises that he could get somebody decent for £5million instead of our player of the year (what a sick joke).
Groundhog Day tomorrow then-goodbye Dave you have done well for us and you owe our club nothing.
Know any good strikers?
Best of luck dave ...