SAM COCHRANE invariably speaks so well and so convincingly about his football, that I find myself sucked into believing why he has left the champions and joined North.

But is it the right thing to do or, more precisely, should he or any Division One player be free to move at any time they wish?

I find myself increasingly asking what is the point of the June transfer window when so many transfer between July and December?

After all, the GFA have in recent times allowed open season on transfers on the grounds that what a player wants, a player gets.

The island captain clearly was very unhappy with life at Bels, despite lifting the Priaulx Cup six months ago, and something is amiss with the Bels operation if a key player who appeared so passionately committed last season suddenly opts to leave after just one match of their title defence.

The merits or otherwise of Bels’ workings is not my concern, but the one-sided workings of the transfer system is, because the way it currently operates not only has the potential to wreck an individual club’s whole campaign – remember North last season – but spoil also a potentially highly-competitive title chase involving several sides and also in the worst scenario put a single-team club such as Athletics, for instance, out of business.

I would like to know when the GFA would say no to a player wanting away on the grounds that he is merely not enjoying his football.

Because while the move might make him feel happier, what about the misery he imparts on all those valued colleagues he is leaving all of a sudden, not to mention all the hard-working club officials who have bent over backwards to provide him with the best they can offer in an amateur environment.

In Bels’ case what has Leighton Chainey, the Bels coach, and Hilary Sarre, their devoted president, done to deserve this retched run of bad luck with the Cochrane and Bradford transfers coming on top of the cruel injuries to Dave Rihoy and Neil Le Cheminant.

And, if you believe the grapevine which suggests other high-profile Belgraves are feeling restless, it could get much worse in this era of sheep-like footballer movements.

As things stand, if a player wishes to quit a club the GFA will let him/her go as long as if he/she is not a debtor.

The club can hold things up a short while with a letter of protest, but you can bet the transfer will be approved.

The whole issue needs looking at because once a season has kicked off my old-fashioned view is that players should be locked to that club for the season unless there is clear justification for submitting a transfer.

Moves should be limited to players who are being unfairly treated, not getting a game at the level appropriate to their skill, are victimised by a coach or colleague, surplus to requirements or so obviously dispirited that they are prepared to stop playing.

But, the current ‘I’m not enjoying my football’ excuse is not a good reason for being permitted a transfer and clubs need to be supported by the GFA when they want to hang on to players.

Not so long ago transfers could be prevented or delayed for many weeks, by the refusal of a club to let a player go.

In the end, if the player was so determined to depart, his move might go through via an appeals committee.

That process, at least, demonstrated how unhappy the player was, not simply had his head turned by a few mates at the latest most-fashionable club.

My feeling is that Bradford and Cochrane should have moved in the summer’s transfer window at which time Bels could have reacted by openly chasing a replacement within the correct time frame.

The same applies to lesser players at other clubs.

My sympathy today lies with the likes of Chainey, Sarre, Stuart Le Friec, Andy Robert and Paul Franklin, who do so much for Bels and will be feeling sick having lost their captain at this stage.

The Guernsey captain has no doubt thought long and hard about this, because he is clearly far removed from the sheep mentality, but on the balance of things he has erred in going now and not in June.

The current system only lends itself to further illegal tapping up of players and just how many more sheep escape in the aftermath is what both intrigues and worries.

THEY are becoming a rare breed.

Not quite ‘Dodo’ status yet, but like tigers, they are becoming thin on the ground.

The animal concerned: the one-club island footballer.

With Cochrane’s shock move from the champions, Bels, to North, the ever-dwindling number of one-club players among Guernsey’s elite shrunk by one more.

Of the 18 who travelled to Croatia, now only a third are one-club men, they being Rangers Ross Allen and Tom Le Tissier, Belgrave Joby Bourgaize, Northerners Alex Le Prevost and Olly McKenzie, and diehard Dominic Heaume, the Saint.

That players should move at some point of their career is not an issue – it is expected – but it would be nice to think it would be prevalent in players at the tail-end of their careers who wish a new and valid challenge and, not in so many cases, under 25.