Brammer’s Blog

The departures of Kyle Letheren, Marciano Van Homoet, Diego Leon and Dennis Souza seem to have passed without comment this week.

Normally the ‘retained list’ sparks huge debate amongst supporters, but it has to be said the departure of this quartet has come as little surprise.

Dennis Souza has been a big disappointment this term following the successful impact he had last season. The big defender has become error-prone at the back and seems to have lost a lot of confidence. He certainly didn’t help his cause by refusing to sit on the bench against Palace in March having been dropped from the First XI. I suspect that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Simon Davey was concerned.

Spaniard Diego Leon has never quite looked comfortable in English football. There is no doubt about his technical ability – some of his passing and movement has been sublime at times – but he simply didn’t have the physical strength or pace to compete in the hurly-burly of the Championship. It was no coincidence that probably his best game for the Reds was in the FA Cup tie at West Ham where he was afforded the time and space to do what he did best and embarrassed a good number of so-called ’superstar’ Hammers. Alas Diego’s departure also means we say a fond farewell to Mrs Leon, who arguably put in more eye-catching performances at Oakwell than her husband!!

As for Marciano Van Homoet, well the best you can say for him was that he had pace and was able to get forward down the flank to support attacks. However, his pace couldn’t mask the fact that his tackling and distribution wasn’t good enough for this level of football and he was never able to secure a consistent place in the starting XI.

Finally – and perhaps least surprisingly – the Club have released goalie Kyle Letheren. Unfortunately the abiding memory most Reds fans will have of Kyle is his nightmare performance against Wigan in pre-season where we conceded 6 goals. With Heinz Muller and Luke Steele ahead of him in the pecking order he was never going to make the breakthrough, and his stints at Donny and Grimsby this season indicated his future lay elsewhere.

As always it will be interesting to see where these players end up next season, although I can’t imagine our paths will cross in the future as no doubt most will return to the Continent.