Macca: 'It was a terrible season for everyone involved with Southend'
Charlton central midfielder Alan McCormack was another of the former Southend gang of four, along with Adam Barrett, now at Crystal Palace, Steve Mildenhall, now at Millwall, Simon Francis, could now also be looking south of the Thames, whose wages were just a little high for life in League Two, not that chairman Ron Martin paid them in League One anyway, and all buggered off.
The Addicks themselves have already sold Jonjo Shelvey, Frazer Richardson, and ex-Shrimper Nicky Bailey, to bring in some dosh, but Macca still feels he's safer at the Valley, and who can blame him?
Macca told www.southlondonpress.co.uk: "It was a terrible season for everyone involved with Southend. No one on or off the pitch can say they had a good year. It's very hard for any player to stand out in a side that's struggling. We went through a bad time and, with all the complications off the pitch at Southend, it made it really hard on the players mentally."
Of course the turning point that led the Dublin-born midfielder to eventually handing in 14-days notice along with ex-Captain Adam was not being able to pay the mortgage.
Macca continued: "Every day the fact we weren't being paid was on our minds, whether we wanted it to be or not. We went two-and-a-half months without getting our salaries and, when I left, we had only been paid once since Christmas. That's difficult. If you're having a tough time on the pitch but off it everything's fine and you're being treated in the right way then you can cope with that because it's a massive help. But I suffered mentally because of all the problems and I can't say otherwise."
A tough time for everybody.
The Macca Files
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alan McCormack | ||
| Date of birth | 10 January 1984 (1984-01-10) | ||
| Place of birth | Dublin, Republic of Ireland | ||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Charlton Athletic | ||
| Number | TBA | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002-2007 | Preston North End | 11 | (0) |
| 2003 | → Leyton Orient (loan) | 10 | (0) |
| 2005 | → Southend United (loan) | 7 | (2) |
| 2005-2006 | → Motherwell (loan) | 24 | (2) |
| 2006 | → Southend United (loan) | 8 | (1) |
| 2007-2010 | Southend United | 130 | (15) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:10, 1 May 2010 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). | |||
(Player information supplied by Wikipedia, for the full article go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_McCormack)