CONFERENCE: Farnborough say 'Au Revoir' to Sascha

Fans' favourite Sascha Opinel has today signed for Crawley Town FC in a deal that brings a substantial transfer fee to Cherrywood Road, as well as Robert Traynor.

The Directors of Farnborough Town FC reluctantly made the decision to grant Sascha his transfer request following a number of meetings and discussions in which the popular Frenchman expressed his desire to move on for both personal and professional reasons.

It was a tough decision for the board to make and led to a split 2 to 1 vote in favour of allowing Sascha the opportunity to continue his career elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly there were a number of enquiries made for Sascha. However, Crawley Town FC met the valuation placed on Sascha by Farnborough Town FC and Sascha agreed personal terms on Thursday, and completed his medical this morning (Friday 14th January 05).

It is believed that Sascha will go straight into the squad for Crawley Towns FA Trophy fixture tomorrow against Worthing.

Our newest recruit, Robert (Bobby) Traynor, began his career at Brentford before spending a loan deal at Chelmsford and then joining Crawley Town in July 2004 where he has played in 13 of their games this season.

Bobby can play either in the midfield or as a forward and has the ability and potential to become a key member of our team. He will be in the squad for tomorrow's FA Trophy game away at Barnet.

The clubs managing Director Tony Theo commented that: "It is a sad day to see Sascha leaving the club especially as he is a player I have a great personal relationship with but once a player expresses their desire to leave you have to consider their wishes and support them and ultimately take the best interests of the football club into consideration."

"It was a very hard decision we took in allowing Sascha to leave but once we had discussed all the options with him I had no other option than to recommend to the other board members that we should allow him to move on.

"We wish Sascha and his family all the best for the future and offer our personal thanks for his hard work, dedication and loyalty shown to Farnborough Town Football Club during his time with us."

Sascha will be back at Cherrywood Road on Saturday 22nd January when Crawley Town visit us for our National Conference league fixture.