So Chico Flores leaves with the longest letter he has ever written and with a grasp of the English language that he never displayed at any time during any interviews he took part in whilst at the club.

Whoever wrote the letter for him clearly did a good job as he said his goodbyes as he heads off to ply his trade in the football powerhouse that is Qatar and to join up with former manager Michael Laudrup.

On the evidence of today's defeat to Villarreal he will be missed. He formed a good partnership with Ashley Williams during his time here and he played a decent part for us over the last two years. That said, if we pull off the signing of Fernandez there is no doubt in my mind that we have upgraded our central defensive options and that we will be better off as a result of the transfer in and out piece.

Chico had a passion for the game there is little doubt of that and he certainly showed during his time here that he had a desire to do his best for the club something that cannot be said of everyone that walks in through the playing entrance. However, with all his good play came the bad play when he went AWOL up the field when there was no need and when he decided that he would react to the noise of the club and try and do things that central defenders often try but very rarely succeed with. Sometimes Row Z is the better option and I am not sure that Chico always realised that.

And then of course there was the plain ridiculous in his play acting. I have supported the club for over 35 years and I am not sure that I was ever as embarrassed as I could get watching Chico rolling round the floor like a fish who had just had his water supply taken off him. Sam Allardyce laughing at him summed that up for me and it was play acting of this type that sadly for me ever really stopped me taking to Chico as a player. It is one of the worst things about the modern game for me and cheating to win an advantage has become far too accepted. Some players are incredibly good at it though, Chico was not and let's not forget his play acting once was greeted with quite a resounding criticism from his own fans during the match which I think summed up alot of feelinsg towards it all.

And there was the training ground problems and rumours of Garry Monk and a brick became the stuff of legend but that was water under a bridge when Monk kept picking him after picking up the reigns that Michael Laudrup left on his departure.

Chico leaves with a tag that means he is one of a very small band of Swansea City players that have won a major trophy while at the club And he leaves - in his words - a lot of friends behind him but this club moves on - thank you for your contribution Chico, my bigger concern now is who we replace you with. It seems we are well down that road already

Photo: Action Images

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