Please release me

Bye bye Paddy.

The club confirmed at the weekend that Fat Pat has been released from any obligation to even pretend to look interested in football so he can concentrate on shagging anything that moves and eating all the pies without the irritating distraction of the odd ninety minutes in a black and white shirt here and there.

No doubt less chuffed about his release is Jamie McClen, a Geordie born and bred who failed to make the grade at his hometown club but was rewarded for underachievement with not one but two new contracts under Gullit and Robson. Three minutes of first team football in the last three seasons - he'll find it's not a nice world out there beyond the comfort zone.

The emergence of Peter Ramage has seen Republic of Ireland U21 international Stephen Brennan part ways with the club without having made a first team appearance, while Michael Chopra has, like Ramage, been rewarded with the offer of a new contract that looked unlikely a few months ago. Obviously his prolific loan spell at Barnsley prompted a rethink from the board and management, but whether he's good enough to play at the highest level is still very much in question.