Sky Blues say 'non' to former Shrimpers Frenchman

Poor old Francis, still unemployed after the ex-head farmer said sorry mate

Former Southend wideboy Francis Laurent turned out 62 times as a Shrimper over two seasons, and could be a frustrating bugger at times, but when he was good he was very good, and he was hoping he'd be a Championship player with Freddy Eastwood's club Coventry City.

Sadly it's not to be as the Sky Blue boss Aidy Boothroyd will not be offering the Frenchman a contract,

So he stays a free agent joining fellow Froggie Jean-Francois Christophe in looking for a club.

Then again it does look as if Boothroyd was interested but like most managers, outside Moss Side, he has a limited funds to work with and can't wait for Francis to regain full fitness and maybe strutt his stuff at a later date.
Boothroyd told www.coventrytelegraph.net: "With the budget as it is and the players I want to bring in, I've decided to let him move on to pastures new. I'm sure he would have done really well but I've got to deal with the here and now. I've got some good players here and I want to bring in other good players to provide competition for places now, not in six months time. I would have loved to have taken him so he could get himself fully fit, earn a place on the bench and hopefully break into the team."

Laurent himself spoke about his time as a Shrimper last week.

Francis told: "I did enjoy my time at Southend and the fans were always very good to me. It was always my dream to come and play in England and Southend made that possible for me, so I thank them for that and it was a hard decision to leave. I think I have the quality to play higher and that was the main reason in leaving. I don't want to say anything bad about Southend but there were some bad situations at the club which were hard to deal with. A lot of other players were also leaving, so I thought it might be a good time to go."

Might be wishing he stayed a bit longer soon enough, then again he's used to not being paid!

The Laurent Files