Moroccan Departs - Destination Unknown!

By CCFC Sid
August 10 2003

I'm in a minority here, but I'm glad to see the back of Chippo! In his first season at CCFC, he was awesome - after that, dire! He wasn't happy being played out of position, but that was the case from day one - and his displays were still good enough for Newcastle to have made a multi-million bid.

On the odd occasion he did play in his preferred central position he was totally anonymous. He was far more attack minded than defence, yet over the last few seasons rarely created chances for others, and his goal tally was terrible. This wasn't down to a lack of chances for him - just terrible finishing! Against Norwich (h) and Grimsby (a) he missed two chances that could challenge Ronnie Rosenthal's `Worst Miss Ever Award' versus Aston Villa, and in the home match against Notts Forest last season he missed enough chances to have seen him finish second top scorer for CCFC for the entire season! There were plenty of stories as to why his form plummeted, including an alleged fall-out with best pal Mustapha Hadji, after YC found himself a female (I stress the word "alleged"). Some may doubt this, but in the first season the two Moroccans never passed to anybody else, and always arrived at the ground together. After the "alleged" bust-up they NEVER passed to each other again, and always turned up separately on matchdays. The rumour that they did not want to be on the same pitch as each other looked believable too. A typical CCFC from `riches to rags player' - he could have earned us a fortune, but ended up leaving for nil....