Glaws say farewell and thanks to Oli Azam

The news that Olivier Azam will not be part of the Gloucester set-up next season has produced mixed reactions from Kingsholm fans. Glaws have decided not to ofer him an extnsion to his contract, and that means tha after ten years the 36-year-old is off to pastures new.

There is no doubt that Oli is one of the most popular players ever to pull on the famous cherry and white jersey and certainly one of the most successful foreign imports ever to play for the club.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that after reading his emotional farewell on the Citizen website, all fans agree in wishing him good luck for the future and thanking him for what he has done for the club and the team.

He was a great player, an entertainer, a showman and a battler. But some appear to believe that Glaws have treated him badly.

Nonsense … Oli has been a star and has quite rightly won many friends on and off the pitch in his days at Kingsholm.

But let’s remember he’s 36 and while he wants to go into coaching, there doesn’t appear to be scope for him to do so at Glaws.

Azam is a professional sportsman, and it’s a fact of life that when professional sportsmen become veterans, their days are numbered.

Fans might think he’s wonderful and remember all that he has done, but Oli himself will surely admit he’s not the player he was when he first arrived at the club all those years ago.

There’s no room for sentiment in professional rugby, and while we can all recognise what a great servant he has been, Oli’s time has to come, just like everybody else.

Is it significant that in his farewell he thanks fans and people behind the scenes at Kingsholm, but he does not appear to thanks anybody in the current coaching set-up?

Meanwhile, thanks for the memories Oli and all the best.