Time has run out for the Basildon Boy at the Sky Blues!
It's not as if he hasn't been warned, but Andy Thorne, manager of Freddy Eastwood's present club, Championship Coventry City, has run out of patience with the former Southend United striker and feels it's time he moves on in what was his final season of four at the West Midlands club.
Thorne told www.coventrytelegraph.net: “I have had a chat with him and told him it is time he found another club. I need all hands on deck and it’s just not happening. I have spoken to his agent as well because it is time to move on. I can’t use him at the moment because he’s a passenger and I need all the help I can get with everyone pulling in the right direction. He’s a good lad, a good kid, but it’s time for him to find another club.”
The one part of your game you want right with a guy who played for Wimbledon in that famous eighties side is fitness!
Freddy has not had a great record at City scoring 18 goals in 117 appearances, and after completed a week of intensive training at Lilleshall in September was also involved in extra running sessions at Ryton.
This was all after he suffered a hamstring strain in the Sky Blues final pre-season friendly against Norwich.
Thorn said back then: "Freddy's a great kid and a good lad but his level of fitness isn't good enough. He's gone there because I need him to be available for selection and at the moment he needs to be in better condition than what he is. We know what he can do and we need all hands on deck. He's in the last year of his contract and I have seen people drift out of the game. I've had a chat with him but only Freddy can help himself now. With the numbers we have got it is disappointing that we've had to go down this route but no-one can help him apart from himself."
Let's face it, Freddy has always made it clear the game is not the most important thing in his life, but what a waste of talent at only 27.
Still, he's been involved in a couple of one milliom pound transfers since leaving Roots Hall, the first to Wolves whose manager Mark McCarthy didn't appreciate his work rate at the time before offloading him to Coventry three years ago, and it certainly looks as if he's burnt his bridges a second time.
Thorn said: “I have been waiting for him to get himself right since we came back in July. We’re in October now so I have been waiting for three months.”
Disciplinary action has also been taken against the forward when Freddy walked out of the Ricoh Arena before the Championship game with Derby County when he heard he wasn't in the squad.
Oh dear!
Eastwood would certainly do a fine job for someone, forget a return to Southend, we couldn't afford him, with Thorn adding: “We’ve had some interest from League One clubs but they can’t take him because of his wages.” Maybe Crawley then!
Not that Luggy would put up with his present antics any more than Thorne, and if you'd want to swap Blair with Fred, the very idea!
Anyway, if he wants to make the effort, something many felt he didn't show when relegation threatened the Shrimpers towards the end of our Championship season in 2006, there's still plenty of years left for the Basildon boy if he wants to put the work in.
However, with Freddy, you never know.
'That' free-kick:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFysv6je59M
The Eastwood Files
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Freddy Eastwood | ||
| Date of birth | 29 October 1983 | ||
| Place of birth | Basildon, Essex, England[1] | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Coventry City | ||
| Number | 10 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1997–1999 | Southend United | ||
| 1999–2002 | West Ham United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2003 | West Ham United | 0 | (0) |
| 2003–2004 | Grays Athletic | 55 | (34) |
| 2004 | → Southend United (loan) | 4 | (4) |
| 2004–2007 | Southend United | 111 | (49) |
| 2007–2008 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 31 | (3) |
| 2008– | Coventry City | 108 | (17) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2007– | Wales | 11 | (4) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 April 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 20 August 2008 |
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(Player info supplied by Wikipedia, for the whole article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_Eastwood)