Agreed. Shame to lose him but the real concern was losing him before the finals/AFC campaign. We have a good defense, as you need for Asia, and we have three great CBs so i could see our defense doing okay but there are few players in our squad that are able to create anything other than Hersi. We have players like bridge and juric that can on a good day, take advantage of these chances, but take players like Hersi/Ono out and we struggle.

Big name doesn't always guarantee quality though, Ono is a very gifted play maker who still had a few years of good football left when he arrived, but many here thought WSW made the wrong decision in not pursuing Ballack instead, who despite the bigger name definitely would not have been able to offer the same sort of on field impact that Ono did imo.

I think they'll find him very hard to replace tbh.

Hardly groundbreaking. It's been fairly evidence all season that he wouldn't be signing on for another - WSW have done the right thing by ensuring that he honours his contract.

Don't go disputing their exclusive track record of #facts, you don't want one of their warnings!

And now they're saying its happened... He'll just have to wait and see :-k

About a month ago.

It's a shame the big 3 marquees and probably all going to be gone at the end of this season. I hope we can all make the most out of what we have left with them.

Agreed, I don't think WSW would find it hard to attract a big name marquee if they wanted to. also so many players off contract this year so plenty to replace him with.

Wasn't this reported as a rumour like 2 weeks ago?

-PB

No, but Popa might feel a 3rd year is pushing it.

Has he been performing poorly?

That's what everyone expected to happen.

To be blunt, I'm not even sure how much Popa would want to keep him next season.

@SocStoppageTime