Shrimper

We gave you Mohsni....

Welcome to Essex, Rob :)

The trial at Celtic never happened. Think it was agent talk. West Ham offered a certain amount which was below what we were looking for. I think we'd assumed that West Ham would come back with more seeing as they were throwing money around that summer but they didn't do so. Bil went on strike. He got a trial at Forest but they sacked the manager on the same day so that didn't happen. Moved to Ipswich on loan but they sacked their manager and the new guy got rid of him to make room for other loanees. He eventually came off of strike as we had an injury crisis then got sent off on his return for a karate kick. Mohsni is both one of the most popular and unpopular players to play for Southend. I find it difficult to dislike him as he's an infectuous personality who is always in the middle of the action and has a huge amount of time for the fans. Others will always hold the numerous fallings-out with his team-mates and several costly red cards against him. Plus not everyone will forgive a player who goes on strike.

Urgh, could have done without this memory surfacing. As bad as Bil says he was he was actually worse. To be fair to him, he's no central midfielder.

You're absolutely right of course. Thing with Bil is that pretty much every other player, whether at Rangers or Southend, has been at a proper club since they were kids. We found Bil basically playing park football. He didn't spend his formulative years at a Professional Football Club and therefore will never really be a Professional. He's always the big boy playing with with kids a couple of years younger than him. If Paul Sturrock couldn't train that out of him then I doubt Ally McCoist will. That said he's still great value. He'll cost you a goal here to there but he'll make up with it at the other end (and I maintain he'd outscore Daly up front). I hope he does well.

I did say when you signed him... I watched him for three years and he simply isn't a centre-half. He's a naturally talented player and will do a job wherever you put him on a field (other than centre-midfield as we discovered in April at Wembley) but he's at his best up front. We didn't play him at the back after his first few months in England.

Not wrong. I'm a Southend season ticket holder. Bil may have started his SUFC career at centre half but only because that was where Sturrock decided to play him. He didn't have a position in France where he was pretty much playing park football. Having watched the guy for three years I can assure you that he is a natural centre forward. He's a monster in that position where his sheer power and ariel ability makes it next to impossible for limited defenders to deal with and IMO would score a huge number of goals for you if played there.

Mohsni isn't a natural defender either though. He's a centre-forward.

Not sure about that... Sturrock liked Mohsni personally but had no end of problems with him for two and a half years. Red cards, and stupid costly mistakes in big matches, fall outs with team mates (although I personally would blame his team mates for most of those) and two multi-month exiles from the squad for various indiscretions. Bil has a lot of anger issues, he gets frustrated when he feels that he's being victimised and in one incident after a local derby with Leyton Orient he had to be restrained after going after someone with a pair of scissors. That said, he's a hell of a player and he's the type who it's difficult to watch play for your club without loving him. Stick him up front and Scottish lower league defenders will simply not know how to play against him.

I think Bil would do well for you and I'm sure would be a big fan favourite. He's not played centre-half for a couple of years (other than his first game back after his strike last season in which he got sent off for the tackle in post 41!) but he's a monster of a man and has massive potential at both ends of the pitch. He was spotted playing amateur football in France three years ago so has a lot of rough edges due to not having been brought up at a football club and having watched him for three years I still can't tell you what his position is (other than definitely not central midfield) but what I can tell you is that if you sign him you'll get a lot of goals, a lot of cards and a lot of strops, for better or worse. We may be doing some kind of swap right now as Kane Hemmings is on trial with Southend right now.