However, whilst Stockport could engineer Kevin Francis into a footballer many years ago, we couldn't do the same with Sako, and despite the odd moment, he was never really good enough.

The writing was on the wall when his football cv showed a free transfer from Torquay United. With the greatest of respect to our Devon friends, when you're told you're not good enough by Torquay, you don't often go on to make a successful career in the game.

He'd figured for the Gulls as a midfielder, but he had a more attacking role with Dale. One week we had Rickie Lambert up front, and then the next we had Morike Sako. The difference in class couldn't have been more apparent.

It wasn't all doom and gloom from the "big man". He grabbed our first winning goal of the season, when he turned and finished against Grimsby and he grabbed a brace in a 5-0 hammering of Darlington.

But the moments were far too far apart, and whilst he caused problems, it wasn't always for the opposition and it was no surprise when he was released when his short term contract expired at the end of December 2006.

After leaving Dale, he had trials at a number of clubs and turned down a similar short term contract at Bury to move to Germany and play for St. Pauli.