Sidibe rejects Gills offer and walks away

Last updated : 25 May 2005 By Simon Head

Sidibe: Walking away from Priestfield

Sidibe, who joined the Gills back in 2002 after failing to agree a new deal at Swansea City, will now look for a move to a Championship club.

It appears Sidibe's agent had hinted that Mama wanted to stay - and that he would sign the new deal at the end of the season, but following Gillingham's relegation to League One, it seems things have changed - and the club have now confirmed that Sidibe has left Gillingham.

Gills chairman Paul Scally was clearly upset at the way the situation was handled, telling the official website: "We've brought Mama to our Football Club and made him a better player.

"Now that we have been relegated, he is not prepared to stay and help us get back into the Championship, as he thinks he can do better.

"In any event we will find another player that will score us more goals."

Mama was a hard-working striker, who provided plenty of nuisance value, but few goals. He made 115 appearances for the Gills, scoring just 15 times.

365 Opinion

Mama's decision to move on has sparked some angry responses on the Gills forums, with fans claiming the big striker has shown a lack of loyalty. Judging by Mr. Scally's comments, it seems we are in the market for a goalscoring striker anyway - and would have been even if Mama HAD stayed. That would have almost certainly meant that Sidibe would have been a third-choice striker at best, so I don't think we can get too upset at his departure. He was a trier - and he improved markedly under Stan Ternent and Ronnie Jepson in the second half of last season, but at the end of the day, he doesn't score enough goals.

If we're looking to challenge at the top of the League One table this season, we'll need TWO goalscoring strikers in the side. Darius Henderson would certainly be one of them - and we'll have to bring in the other. That wouldn't have changed whether Mama stayed or not. We wish Mama the best of luck wherever he ends up. In my opinion, League One is probably Mama's level anyway.