Time to say hello... but we should not forget the farewells

Jan 11 2005 By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

WHEN the transfer window comes around, it is easy to focus on the players arriving at your favourite club.

After all, a new signing is exciting news and gives everyone connected to the club a lift. Well, almost everyone.

So far in the transfer window, Everton have signed James Beattie while Liverpool have brought in Mauricio Pellegrino. In both cases, their arrival has signalled the end of another player's time at the club - Kevin Campbell and Stephane Henchoz respectively.

They are good professionals who have given their best to the team over several seasons. In that time they have enjoyed some notable highs, but throughout their careers they will also have been aware of a clock slowly ticking away until they would be given the tap on the shoulder telling them it was time to go.

It is something every player acknowledges, especially as they advance into their 30s. When they sign for a club, the manager has a date in mind a few years down the line when that person's time will probably be up either through injury, the emergence of someone better, or the gradual erosion of their skills and abilities over time.

When it comes around, there is no thought to what they have contributed to that point, except to say thanks for the effort.

In Campbell's case, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. Yes, his goals saved Everton from relegation when he first arrived, but for a club in Everton's situation to have a player in the squad on such high wages has been financially difficult. I am not surprised they have decided to come to a compromise arrangement in order to remove his wages from the balance sheet. That is especially so with Beattie's arrival.

At Liverpool, Henchoz has been in a similarly anonymous position for a while, in fact since Rafael Benitez's arrival. While he is still one of the best tacklers Liverpool have ever had at centre back, I am sure he will have been aware for a while that he is getting slower as time marches on.

With Jamie Carragher making himself at home at centre-back, I bet Henchoz will have thought to himself that he was not going to get back into the team, barring a serious injury.