How will the fans remember Rob?

The fact that he once turned down a trial with the mighty Barcelona but chose to go on loan to East Stirlingshire suggests that maybe Robert Snodgrass is quite a humble feller?

I for one throughly expected him to leave in the January transfer window if I am honest, the surprise that he was still there on February 1st was almost as big a shock as Graysons sacking was.

Those probing runs down the flanks, his delicate skill on the ball and ability to leave clogging defenders hacking at thin air as he tiptoed gracefully into the penalty area was a joy to watch last season in what was a wretched campaign.

Alas, the captaincy, the offer to make him our highest paid player and glowing public endorsement from Neil Warnock usually reserved for old warhorses like Paddy Kenny who have served so faithfully under the Leeds boss previously was not enough.

Warnock even hinted that Snodgrass even got a privileged audience with the owners-in-waiting who outlined what their plans were as Leeds did all we could to make him stay.

Understandably the reaction about his almost certain, long anticipated move to Norwich has been mixed amongst the United faithful from the understanding to the uncomplimentary.

I have gone through many emotions these past 24 hours. Despite their Premiership status, I struggle to accept Norwich are a bigger club. That old debate, that fills hours of airtime on Talksport, do you base it on fanbase, history etc or present standing in the leagues?

If Liverpool are thinking of spending £15m on Joe Allen, surely Snodgrass could be a player comfortably within their range and surely with enough skill to thrill an appreciative Merseyside crowd who known their stuff football wise?

And yes, I am getting mightily peed off that Norwich keep plundering our most popular, finer players in recent times. Why don't they go the whole hog and rescue Jermaine Beckford and Max Gradel from their respective St Etienne and East Midland misery whilst they are at it?

However I honestly do believe Leeds grew on Snoddy and he genuinely cared for the club. He grew on us and we grew on him. Despite us languishing in the third tier of English football when he arrived from Livingstone, it must have been a stark contrast to the grounds he had been accustomed to, the same kind of places that the mighty Glasgow Rangers will be visiting in a few short weeks time.

Snodgrass witnessed and probably bit his tongue at a strange transfer policy at Elland Road, whereby Leeds somehow managed to lose their top players but still go considerably over budget on wages and transfer fees on players not fit to wear the shirt and an abundance of ineffective short term loan-men.

I believe he was as bewildered as we were!

Although he has chosen to cut short his contract by a year, which is slightly dishonourable, let's face it in some respects the decision to cash in on him is a welcome change from the disastrous Kilkenny, Johnson and Beckford scenarios, letting their deals run down and lose them for free although Beckford was an exception because you always fancied him scoring the goals to rescue us from League One which he did.

I do not think Snoddy and Snoddy alone will be the difference between us winning promotion or staying in the Championship for another season, so best to cash in, under the circumstances.

The fact of the matter is, we have had a summer of turmoil due to the power brokers inability to decide on the future ownership of the club. The saga is set to rumble into its third month now and I am not convinced we will be any the wiser when Wolves roll into town on August 18th!

So who can blame Snoddy for leaving and who can blame Warnock fom cashing in as things stand?

Photo: Action Images

wjohn228 added 23:27 - Jul 26 With all the recent transfwer activity Snodgrass no doubt felt he was too young to play for Leeds given that he is under 30
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