Synbad wrote:
All he needs to do is meet with Pagan and get Pagan to make a statement.. "Gardiner isnt coming"
Actually I'm with Heady on this. There's not too much wrong with what Smorgon said. At a time when a couple of thousand CFC supporters are shitting their pants at the prospect of Michael Gardiner it was a way of effectively taking him out of the picture.
Would we still take Lenny Hayes? Of course we would. Does he fit the criteria. No. Big deal.
The problem with coming out and saying "Gardiner isn't coming" is that for every other player the club is ever linked to (Medhurst, Polak, Angwin, Hayes, Akermanis, Goddard, whoever) there is then an expectation of a similar clear and defined response. If that's not forthcoming then the supporters and the media start freaking out all over again. Instant circus.
It's standard practice with pretty much every club in the league that you don't slag off players in the open market. Without disrespecting Michael Gardiner in any way Smorgon's made a statement of intent about our trading and drafting perspective for this and possibly future drafts.
There are at least a dozen reasons to remove Smorgon and/or Pagan. This isn't one of them.