Hero today, gone tomorrow.

Derby County may be helping define the term ‘season to forget’ but a quick look at last weekend’s team sheet shows they have a squad whose time at the club may also be easily forgotten. Of their 16-man squad the average time since each player signed is an incredibly low 8.8 months, that’s 35 and a half weeks! Where are the players that the club has developed and helped shine? – the players the fans could count on when the chips were down. Where then are their heroes?

Remember Crystal Palace’s relegation? Their supporters had fans’ favourites like Andy Johnson who battled and helped fight their cause and admirably hung around when their fate was confirmed. Last season Sheffield United had Paddy Kenny and Rob Hulse. Who can Derby fans say are their ‘heroes’?

Whose name will the fans chant as relegation is confirmed? I wonder which players the fans identify with and trust to stay put and help fire them back up. I doubt the Derby megastore fears selling out of Savage, or Carroll or Robert shirts.

In Exeter City’s case our heroes are few and far between. We have very few players who fans dislike or journeymen the fans find it hard to trust, but the high turnover of players, especially the farewells to quality players, have meant there are slim pickings at times. The Exeter City 2006 club calendar features 25 players; the fact that only four of them are still at the club highlights just how little time quality players seem to stick with the club.

Danny Woodards, Lee Philips, Billy Jones, Jon Challinor, Chris Todd, Jamie Mackie, James Coppinger have all departed in recent seasons. Will Matt Taylor, Danny Seabourne and Dean Moxey be next?

At half time on Monday at Weymouth we all scratched our heads when discussing who our favourite player was. This time last season some fans might have pointed to captain Chris Todd, hard-working striker Lee Philips or the energetic Jamie Mackie. The traits they all had in common were they had been at the club for a while, were potential heroes in the making and seemed to bond with the fans. The only thing they have in common now is they are becoming someone else’s heroes at clubs just down the road.

Exeter City fans seem to be like the archetypal heartbroken lovers. We have been hurt too many times. Just as we start to make that connection with someone, when we find someone as committed as we are to making our relationship flourish they leave us and it’s back to square one.

But in the case of our latest departures, they not only broke off our long-term relationship, they cheated on us with the next-door neighbours and made the short trip to Torquay and Plymouth (in Mackie’s case)! Even our scout, groundsman, goalkeeper and assistant manager couldn’t resist the lure of our exciting love rivals and followed suit. No surprise then, that we struggled to think of any favourite players!

The example often given in today’s football climate is that of the worker moving for a pay rise. The comparison is clearly made (unlike my marriage analogy!) between a lower league footballer making the move up the football pyramid and a standout employee (in this case let’s say a lawyer) being offered a higher level job at a huge firm and making the move for the increased wage.

This got me thinking. Imagine you’re a lawyer and star of their small firm, admired and trusted by the other workers and the customers, where your name is known throughout the region. Would you gamble it all for a pay rise at a huge firm? Where you are ‘just another employee’, with the possibility of never getting the interesting big cases and being restricted to medial tasks? The ‘obvious’ choice to leave and make that step up in your career and earnings might not be as blatant as it seems. Take the case of Jamie Mackie for example.

Mackie was a player who always gave the clichéd ‘110%’ every time he pulled on the red and white shirt, the only thing that was missing was that killer instinct in front of goal. Despite only scoring 8 goals in 69 games for the club before this season he always wore his heart on his sleeve, he was always the player to gee up the crowd and the first to celebrate. The only problem came when he hit a purple patch.

12 goals in 27 games before his departure, including a stunning man of the match performance in the televised Boxing Day derby meant that Mackie had a string of admirers, myself included. Following that game I really believed Mackie had the potential to take the club places and become a real legend but in a move that disappointed many City fans he was keen to not only leave but leave in January and leave to Plymouth (where he has yet to start a match).

I wish Jamie Mackie all the best in his future career but demanding a transfer, especially to your arch rivals probably wasn’t the best move. What Mackie perhaps should have done was to commit himself to the club whenever possible and say it was in the club’s hands whether to sell him at Christmas or in the summer. Then when the large bid came in the club couldn’t refuse, Mackie would have been off and no ties would have been severed.

If Mackie’s move to Argyle doesn’t turn into the best career move he has ever made I would happily have him back, I believed he had the potential to help bring this club back into the Football League again, especially since the money earned from his departure was not spent on a replacement. But to return to the (stretched) marriage metaphor, Mackie would have to swear his undying commitment and maybe, just maybe, we would have the possibility of having a real hero on our hands.

I hope the next generation of potential Exeter City heroes value commitment and loyalty over a big money move. How refreshing it would be to have a player of real quality who genuinely loved the club and would happily spurn big money moves to sign a long-term deal. Or would players really spurn the chance to be that ‘big fish’ in a small pond and become a club hero for a place on the bench at a Championship side?

Also available on the Times Online blog

~ by Peter Evans on March 28, 2008.