Thetownend.com

you may have heard but there was a snippet of king on the radio this morning saying howard has not been offered a contract as he sees smith and howard competing for the same position.
im guessing hes thinking he would rather be able to offer smith better terms than end up losing both players which to be honest i think is a good idea!
he did say that if smith goes then howard would be offered a contract but after this interview im sure howard will tell him to fuck off so it could blow up in his face!
i hope smith will stay now though if he is going to be offered more!

Now that is an interesting development.

I heard this and am well cheesed off. I think Brian Howard will offer us a better season next time around, with him wide out left and smiffy in the middle alongside migz. This shows that King is useless at his man management skills. He's not even prepared to offer BH a contract....

On the other hand, if we do get Lee Holmes....but surely you shouldn't rest on your lorals (Spelling?).

I think on last season's performance only one of them deserve to be given a new deal, and that man is Smithy.  He had an excellent pre season, then very harshly dropped, comes back into the first team and by the end of the season is second top scorer.  Howard in comparison did nothing to suggest next season he'd have pulled his finger out.  If his ability was as great as his ego, then we'd have something worth keeping.

I really dont care. He was shite last season.

Manybe he'll get his richly deserved premiership move now. :?

smith and migz in the middle with homles out wide and a new speed demon right winger!

now we are dreaming!

actually we still need that holding midfielder first!

stfcfan, If Howard had played as well this season as you think he would next then he would have a contract offer and Smith wouldn't.

If you have a limited budget and think that only one player is affordable a choice has to be made. You can't sign both on at the expense of not being to rebuild the rest of the team.

I hope wherever Howard ends up this acts as a kick up the arse to work harder not to waste his glorious oppertunity of beeing a pro footballer.

Lastly by choosing Smith it obviously shows King knows he ws wrong not to play him, even if he hasn't said as much. I'm shocked!

Pooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook!!!!!

I just think the lads got talent. He's proved that to us in his first season...don't forget when he played AK played him in the centre.

sorry forgot about pooky!

hes a bit like hewlitt except better! ha!

heres the howard story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2005/05/13/stfc_130505_feature.shtml

thats brill news! howard has done nothing this season and piled on more weight! he doesnt deserve a contract! King has made a good decision but lets just hope Smith does stay!

Howard and Smith dont fucking play in the same positions

fat bastard howard = left winger

Super Goalscoring Grant Smith = Central Midfielder

A slap in the face for the arrogant tosser.

There is a God after all  :D

aaah thats a shame that ,well never mind im sure we got someone else who can sit on the bench just as much as brian did last year and you never know they might want to play for the club

Strange one that as he was in the press himself saying that the deal he had been offered was not acceptable as he wanted two years rather than one.

Shame to lose a gifted player but he hasn't been consistant enough and if we manage to secure the services of Shakes and Holmes (perhaps a snippet of hope there) then he would be bench material again.

could just be his arrogance on display again assuming he will get a contract.these players under 24 do we get any compensation?

Only if we have offered a contract!

which we have done apart from howard then...sorry to ask but does the compensation depend on ability or something else

It should reflect his worth to us really, Sol Davis went for about £120,000 under tribunal in the end I think, so I would imagine if any compensation were due we would get 50 - 75,000.  I'd be happy with that. :soapy tit wank:

Is that in pence Tom?

could be more ,rhys evans got a good reputation some reason as sammy igoe,howards sub role not much compo i feel,duke lets leave that one,and smith surely has proved he is valuable so bring on the compo... :D  :D  happy days

:D  I give that figure because the likelyhood of it going to a tribunal for anything less seems unlikely, £50,000 really should be the market value for a young midfielder at our level.

even if he's a fat twat?

Even if he is a fat twat, yes.  If Swansea were to sell Trundle they'd probably get £150,000 - he's fatter.  Brolin cost a few mil, and he was even fatter.  Bobby Howe was fatter than them all and he cost us about 70,000 (?).

You have to take into account that the lardarse does actually have talent, it just happens to be incased by a few pies.

:D  :D

Isn't the compensation dependant on how many years a player has been at the club "developing".? Sol Davis was with us for many years and from a young age, Howard only rolled up last year so doesn't seem likely we'll get much, if anything.

:oops:

I think we could do with keeping him with the desperate situation we are in, especially if Smithy leaves. Although if he is on a big contract it sprobably better to save money.

this is a great money saver: not only do the club save money that would otherwise be spent on howard's wages, they no longer have to order in mcdonalds happy meals at half time nor do they have to order any extra extra large shirts from the kit supplier.

i think howard brought this upon himself - he clearly wants to play centre mid but his best postion and the position he had the most success in at swindon was left winger. if he wants to play centre mid, then let him go to another club, theres no point in hanging on to him, as like last season, there will be no space for him in the team in this coming season.

its gonna cost though to remove the golden plaque with his name on it that is currently glued to the substitutes bench

**Prepares for a massive slating**

An in-form, fit and focused Hpward would be twice as valuable to us next season than Grant Smith, in my humble opinion.

Sorry!

An in-form, fit and focused Howard would be valuable to us next season, yes

twice as valuable as Grant Smith, no

Sorry Dave, I'm with DV85, on this one.

There's no doubting that Howard has talent locked away in there, but there's no way I'd have him in the team ahead of Smith, given the fact that AK sees them as competing for the same position.  

Not only does Smith have a better left foot, but he's also immeasurably better with his head than Howard is, and if we are looking for a midfielder to get forward into good positions then good heading ability is a big, big plus.

Admitedly, he's not gonna take players on, and skin them with skill, but give him an inch of space with the ball at his feet 25 yards from goal, and the keepers got work to do - Howard seems to drag it wide when given the same opportunity.

He is a good player and he has received lots of unjust criticism.

All his criticism this season has been justified!

He is over rated, over weight and now just ... over!

He has always had a high opinion of himself and is too ready to tell everyone.  He even started to believe his own publicity and now has the biggest shock of his life.  

He's hardly endeared himself with his attitude - there's not much sympathy for cocky little gits. More likely to be smiles of satisfaction as another arrogant tosser gets his rich deserves.