Now confirmed on the OS. Given my thoughts before on Bayo, personally a=im gutted. All there is to say now is thanks for the memories, and best of luck (at Northampton i imagine!)
Not to fussed about Bayo leaving, I don't mean that disrespectfully but i gave my opinion on this the other day. Like Bayo feels the need too, our club also needs to move forward on from the season just gone. His heart has always appeared to be with Northampton and if he returns then his professional career will also be league two. His future appears to be more BMO if you follow his twitter profile, therefore good luck with that and thanks for what he's done while here.
He will be very, very difficult to replace. Best of luck Bayo and thanks for all the memories, goals, assists and effort.
I think more the reason that he turned the deal down is that he was only offered one year and he wanted two. I can understand why he was only offered one as he can only manage 45-60 mins a game and the longer he plays, the less he can manage. Shame really, I liked Bayo. I hold my hands up and say that I was wrong this time last summer when I slated his signing. His partnership with Cody has been the best I think I have ever seen in a Gills shirt and their understanding of where each other will be is sublime. 10 goals and joint leading player on assists with 6 so shows the impact he had. I just hope that Keds and Cody can gain a similar understanding. Might be a good opportunity to see German step up though.
Now that I've had time to think about it, I think this is really best for all parties. Bayo needs to secure his future and by being a bit part player next year and then being released he would find it much harder to find another club, this way he has had a very good season and had his current club want to keep him, making him much more desirable to managers looking for a target man. For us as well we will have freed up quite a chunk of wage that could probably be better spent, the understanding between him and cody was immense but if it wasn't for that I can't see where Bayo would fit into Taylors style of play. This is probably the best way as I imagine Bayo still likes the fans and we like him rather than another year where he may not be such an asset. Good luck to him at Northampton (inevitable) and wish him the best of luck in the future.
Will be missed for goals, assists and effort, will be interesting to see if he is replaced, cody will miss him. Good luck Bayo.
See I said that he wanted two years and we only offered one. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/sport/bayo-why-i-had-to-17639/
Hard to blame him really, but also as much as i rate him it's hard to blame the club for only offering him one year. Just hope he doesn't go to Crawley.
I dunno. I wanted him to stay,but will he be as effective this time next year,and we would be stuck with him for another year? Probably a deal to keep him this year and have an option for an extra year. Perhaps he was offered that and didn't fancy it. I can really only see a L2 club offering him a 2 year deal, but could they offer him as much as we could (and what he's supposedly on) for 2 years? Be interesting to see where he goes.
All players this time of year who are over 30 will turn down any deal of one year if they can get 2 year elsewhere and its fully understandable, if we had offered Keds 1 year he would have probably left for Wimbledon lets not pretend he wouldn't. Good luck Bayo and has deserved 2 years at a League 2 club.
Really is disappointing that Akinfenwa has left Gillingham, but I can fully understand where Akinfenwa is coming from because a two year contract for a 32 year old will give Akinfenwa the security he is looking for but we were not willing to offer him that, the partnership of Akinfenwa and McDonald up-front is the best I have seen during my time watching The Gills as both players know exactly where they are going to be on the football pitch (the prime example of this was McDonald's equalizer against Walsall where Akinfenwa flicked the ball over his head directly into Cody's path and Cody scored with a first time finish across the goalkeeper). Perhaps Peter Taylor is going to change our system and play a 4.2.3.1 formation with Bradley Dack playing in the number ten role behind Cody McDonald next season, we can build the team around Bradley Dack and Jake Hessenthaler with five in midfield and look to add pace on both flanks, it will be difficult to replace Akinfenwa, but a change in the way we play might be one explanation on why Akinfenwa was offered a one year contract instead of two.
Signed for AFC Wimbledon, no indication of contract length so it surprises me a bit although the rumours were there. Best of luck Bayo, I for now will miss you in a gills shirt.
The story I saw somewhere,was that they were offering a 1 year deal, with a second depending on appearances, but he apparently was going to turn that down, so obviously something has come up to make a compromise
I would be interested to know that compromise, I thought he rejected a 1 year deal with us. I hasten to add i said 'thought' not suggesting he had. Good luck Bayo and thanks.
He will do well at AFC, Matt Tubbs and him up front, going for the classic little and big man up front. I hope AFC do well, since my whole debacle at Gills they are the club I now pick on football games
