IN T' NET
An occasional Basketball Diary ... (from Yorkshire, in case tha'd not noticed)
HOME; Archive 2006-7; June 07; November 07;
The departure of Mohammed Woni from Everton could hardly have been announced in a more low key manner than it was in the official Preview of the Tigers' game at the end of November. “We cut Mohammed Woni last week ..." was the only official notification that we had (and even BBL don't seem to have cottoned on, as he's still listed on their roster).
His axing from the Everton team, though, came as no surprise as far as I was concerned - in fact not only had I been expecting it since the start of the season, I was actually very surprised that they'd signed him in the first place.
That feeling was based not just on the fact that Woni had played for 23 different clubs since 2000 (make that 24 now), though at an average of three teams a year that doesn't engender enormous confidence in his staying power.
No, the main reason for my concern was the memory of the only time I've seen him play, during his last brief visit to England, where our last view of him was as he grudgingly made his way to the locker room after being ejected from the game in the fourth quarter of the Patron's Cup Final!
Indeed, Woni has (and already had, even before his previous visit to these shores) a reputation for not exactly seeing eye to eye with match officials. I must say that I disagree ... he appears to me to see eye to eye with them all too often - quite literally, and physically!
So, after three League games for Liverpool in 2005-6, with 62 points, and one Patron's Cup Final (followed, if I remember rightly, by a lengthy ban - though that didn't really matter, since he'd already departed under a cloud), and now six games, and 21 points, for Everton (under the same coach, Henry Mooney), it seems we may have seen the last of the Ivorian in this country.
The Met Office wishes to stress that there is no connection between the high winds we have experienced in the past week and the huge collective sigh of relief among the BBL match officials.