Bye Bye Ross

By Keith Ingham

After the weekend when Yorkshire, particularly West Yorkshire showed the world how fanatical we can be about sport, it seems the top scorer of one of the county's clubs Ross McCormack has been 'dazzled' by the promise of riches in the streets of London, West London in fact at Craven Cottage, home of relegated Fulham FC.

It wasn't a surprise he left, but where McCormack decided to ply his trade was. Fulham as I've said have just dropped out of the Premier League and although they have been tipped to challenge next season, people expected the Scottish striker to move to a either a established Premiership team or at least one of the teams going up from the Championship, Leicester and Burnley being linked just after the season ended.

Although as I said earlier it was no massive shock for McCormack to leave it leaves a lot to replace in the squad, not many others weighed in with goals last season. A prolific, at least up to Championship standard striker is definitely needed, because in my view there isn't one anywhere close to that in the present squad. The likes of Matt Smith and Noel Hunt, still without a goal in a competitive game will be asked to step up to the mark if Cellino fails to replace Ross and although Smith had a great first season, Hunt was seen as a massive disappointment.

We still have another couple of strikers I've not mentioned, Morison and Poleon are still on the books but both don't fill this fan with any confidence. Personally I'd sell Morison, as he comes across as somebody who didn't fit in for some reason at Leeds and seems uninterested when I've seen him play. Poleon although given limited opportunities has split opinion, he's a direct player but needs to see what is around him while in possession of the ball. A make or break season for the youngster.

Two deals this week have brought in two Italians, one a keeper (Silvestri) and a midfielder (Bianchi) both have played at under 21 level for Italy. They join Stuart Taylor who joined on a free transfer. The problem now is attracting a high profile marksman to the club. Already linked are old boy Becchio and Troy Deeney of Watford, these are two that would be welcomed as they both have good goalscoring records at this level, although Beechio may be a little 'rusty' after nearly spending his all Norwich City on their bench.

I'll miss the number 44, the pulling on his shirt and kissing the badge when he scored and it might seem worthless now he's gone but at least he had passion in the shirt we, as fans love. The season is around the corner and we wait to see if Mr Cellino can replace him but one thing is certain they are pretty big boots to fill. I'm not going join the criticism of the sale as eleven million is a awful lot of money for a twenty eight year old and maybe last season was his best he'll ever do.

Thanks for the memories Ross and good luck at your new club

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