Stearn to Sutton

Has been on social media, cue discussion on either poor treatment or wasnt same player when started. Strange move given the travelling.

It is only 118 miles. I think Watkins travels further than that.

I see Sutton are charging less than £5 a game for season tickets (£99)

Disappointing that he is going but not really a surprise to anyone I would think. I am sure that Howells and Britton will easily be able to find a player to replace him who can score more goals from infrequent starts and lift the crowd...

BenE wrote:I see Sutton are charging less than £5 a game for season tickets (£99)

At last some sanity - http://www.suttonunited.net/seasontickets - for watching football at this level.

Luton Roman wrote:Has been on social media, cue discussion on either poor treatment or wasnt same player when started. Strange move given the travelling.

I think the comments will fall into three broad categories - outraged, sarcastic and reasoned/constructive.

For what it is worth I think the way he has been used as an impact sub has worked very well and yielded an excellent return. It is pure speculation that he would have been more successful had he started regularly.

That said, knowing nothing of what went on behind the scenes, I was never unhappy when he started and am sorry to see him go. And, of course, you always stood a chance of getting a good photo from him.

The third goal against Dover was a moment of pure joy I won't forget in a long time.

I'll miss the manner he always lifted the team and crowd, but of recent I think behind the scenes pain was affecting his attitude to other players in the team.

A great loss, but the best thing for Ross Stearn the player.

Will limit man of the match selection now ;-)

Steve Whites Missus wrote:The third goal against Dover was a moment of pure joy I won't forget in a long time.

I'll miss the manner he always lifted the team and crowd, but of recent I think behind the scenes pain was affecting his attitude to other players in the team.

A great loss, but the best thing for Ross Stearn the player.

Will limit man of the match selection now ;-)

Yes exactly. I'm just disappointed one of the most inspirational and exciting players has gone. I changed my view that he was/is probably more influential as an impact sub than a starter but I thought he often came on far too late. Lobbing him on with 10/20mins to go when chasing games appeared to be counter-productive, as it seemed he tried to do too much to overcompensate for the short game time.

Is clearly a live wire of a mun though and we don't know what he was like do deal with behind the scenes.. However, I don't think public comments like 'he needs to do more off the ball' after he scored a hat-trick and Britton cataloguing the mistakes he made in a game (when questioned by Kerslake about his lack of starts) were the cleverest of man management techniques. Will be interesting to see how he's handled at Sutton and best of luck to him.

Always seems to be the way when we sign someone a bit different. Fans love them, "manager" hates them (Kerry Morgan? - though Ross is a far better player).

Its a sad indictment when (arguably) your best player leaves the club - for a team which finished below us.
Bromley scored 79 goals this season whilst we scored 59 (11 by Stearn in the league - 2nd highest scorer)
If we have any aspirations to win the league next season, we had needed to find 20 more goals. Now we need to find 31 goals.
Stearn was sub 36 times this season.
Our loss.

Very sorry he has gone but I think most of us realised it was coming.
As has been said he provided something a bit different and lifted the crowd. Pretty obvious he was not the easiest player to manage and some good man management skills were needed, I have to question if our management team had those skills.

Our loss ! so pleased for Ross though,he needs to be playing on a regular basis and that was not the case at Bath City.He has the skill and passion to succeed if managed in the correct way,lets hope that happens at Sutton.We have to question our management team for their skills or lack of them.Whoever wears the no 7 shirt beware ! just ask Scott Murray!

The biggest indictment of our management, outside of some of their player acquisitions, is how they have handled Stearn. I can only for the best for him at Sutton and, for the club's sake, that we get as good or better replacement. Considering the convoluted manner in which Hemmings and McCootie eventually ended up coming good (although they did), I am not wholly confident.

As far as his ability, impact and worth to the team is concerned, whether he could have done better or not, we have lost our second highest goal scorer to a team below us and 120 miles further from the player. The facts of that don't look good.

Perhaps he was offered more money.

Perhaps he's moving to London.

comrade powell wrote:Perhaps he's moving to London.

Definitely not, he's just bought his first house in Bristol, doubt he's moving to London anytime soon!

To be honest, I'll miss bits of Stearn, he did have the ability to excite, and on form was unplayable, although whether he was better as a starter or impact sub is debatable. One thing I really won't miss about him was how he'd bollock Dan Bowman constantly and for the slightest mistakes, thought tearing strips off of a young player wasn't helpful

That was what put me off him last season - he came across as a bully. To be fair, I saw no repeat of it this season.

Cue Stearn scoring against us in both our games against Sutton next season !

comrade powell wrote:To be fair, I saw  no repeat of it this season.

Really?! I noticed it more this season, he tore into Bowman again in the Sutton game at home, and away at Havant he started moaning to Artus (I think), although Frankie told him where to go, are two examples in the last few weeks of the season.

As Steve says, it will be the most nailed on hat trick(s) against us though...

Firstly, he may have been offered more money but I think we all knew he was off at the end of this season.

He may be moving to London but I am not sure that even Sutton have got enough cash to cover that. It's the best city in the world but bloody expensive.

I was wondering if his job was taking him to London. As I couldn't care less about players' private lives, I don't follow them on social media (or anyone else!)

Maybe I had become immune to his ranting at Bowman this season. The best retort came last year at Dorchester, I think, when he tried it on Ball who simply turned his back on him.

If he ends up at Sutton, good luck to him. But if he carries on like he did at times at Twerton, then he may not even play against us.

Let's move on...

I get the feeling that a few of their players are based out this way well, say more Oxford/Swindon than London), pretty certain Kevin Amankwaah is. I don't think they even had a coach when they played at TP.

It does seem fitting in a way that his final involvement on the pitch was shouting at Chris Allen after he slightly over-hit a pass in the closing minutes of the Staines match.

But it was that heart on the sleeve attitude that no doubt helped endear him to so many fans.

Sad to see a goalscorer go, but i echo others feelings about his interaction with some of the other players. Came to my attention in the away game at Tonbridge the season before last where he harangued Pratt and Watkins to the point that there appeared to be genuine ill feeling there. Preece (i think) squared him up about something in the same game, too.

A team is always greater than the sum of it's parts, so if a part doesn't fit properly then it needs to be changed....

Interesting to read what the Sutton manager said in their local paper -

and Ross scored 16 goals in 20 appearances for Bath City playing on the wing.

“He’s been selected for the England team and he’s been under-used by Bath – he would be great for us.”

Bit of spin there, but an interesting summation nonetheless.

If Bowman was that bothered about Stearn then I don't think they would have been as successful partnership on the right as they consistently were. Stearn was hard on other players but he was also hard on himself. I also think that some of his barracking of other players came out of frustration at his limited game time. We all know that he often tried too hard in his minimal time on pitch.

That Ross Stearn is a chippy little bugger is fairly beyond contradiction but there have been many great players who have been like that and managed much much better. As an example, I expect it was a pain in the arse to be in the same team as Roy Keane with his exacting standards for himself and others but Alex Ferguson managed him well and got the best out of him for Keane and the team.