It is time to say goodbye to Fulham full back Paul Konchesky, and my friend Jon (who has a little Bro-mance for him) will shed a little tear.
One of the few signings by Lawrie Sanchez to be regarded as decent, Paul signed for the Whites in Summer 2007 from West Ham for £3.25m. His time at the Boleyn was cut short with the arrival of Alan Curbishley with whom he’d had a falling out with at Charlton Athletic. But West Ham’s loss was definitely our gain. After muffing up on his debut up at Hull, Konchesky went on to make 97 appearances for the Whites and scored two goals. His first being a thunderbolt of a goal against his old team West Ham at Upton Park in January 2009.
Paul has moved to join up with our former manager Roy Hodgson up at Liverpool for a fee believed to be between £3 and £4million on a four year deal. Coming the other way as part of that deal are two highly-rated Liverpool youngsters, Finnish forward Lauri Dalla Valle and Swedish winger Alex Kacaniklic.
I feel Konch as always been a rather underrated performer for us. Usually more than solid in defence (see how quiet he kept Valencia a couple of weeks ago), he also offered an excellent outlet bombing down the left wing. Hopefully Salcido can fill the gap left by PK. If he can, we’ve got an excellent deal out of this. More money than we paid for Konch and two promising young players (one of whom we had a £3.5m bid rejected for), in exchange for a player in the last year of his contract, and one who had made sounds about moving on afterwards.
Couple of points though – that Hull game wasn’t his debut. That was a good season afterwards, and Hodgson was certainly in charge then. His debut was in the 2-1 defeat at the Emirates, where David Healy’s early goal was eventually overturned by two late Arsenal goals.
Finally, think it’s a little harsh to say that he’s “one of the few signings by Lawrie Sanchez to be regarded as decent”. I’d say Konchesky has been more than decent for us over the past few years. Aaron Hughes has quietly been going about his business as the most consistent centre-back in the Premier League, and Chris Baird was a large part in our success last season. And who can forget Diomansey Kamara’s role in our survival?
Maybe I’m being a little facetious here – Sanchez certainly made some duds! Only one I’d perhaps like back is Steven Davis. Always felt he could do a job for us under Hodgson.
Steven Davis never looked interested for the club. To me it seemed he only joined us for a healthy signing on fee and possibly because he was part of what was essentially a swap deal for Knight. And this was him playing under a manager he knew and got on with.
Baird, when under Sanchez, was shocking. Played in his natural position where he played for Southampton he would constant be found out by opposition, and often by himself. Only under Roy did he become a decent squad player. Kamara has been all but a bit part player for the club since signing and I think he’d need a bit more of a run in the side before he can be claimed to be a success. As I said he’s one of the few as Hughes has been somewhat of an unsung hero for the club.