In Reply to: Everyone thought he was coming back. posted by ej on February 16, 2026 at 10:30:43
That happens all the time, but Mara made the best choice for his future, and it was abundantly clear that staying wasn't how he was going to develop.
It's entirely possible that Cronin would have had Mara coming off the bench again this year (we were still starting TB at the 5 last year, even when Mara had made it clear he should have been starting the last couple of months, and that was definitely slowing his development).
When you don't start a player who has shown that they should be starting, they are going to leave.