Every team has had its fair share of hopeless players. Not just players who are there for the money or can’t be arsed to perform but players who try really, really hard and are genuinely terrible. Usually they are tried out for a game or two and their hapless displays are such that it causes them to be dropped to the reserves or quietly booted out the door pretty sharpish.

This illustrious list includes infamous players such as Sean Dundee who flopped at Liverpool, Massimo Taibi who made a couple of major errors at Manchester United and Drewe Broughton who has flopped everywhere he has played and for the life of me I can’t understand how he is still a professional footballer.

At Hinckley United, in the Blue Square Bet North, the manager has decided that they are all hopeless and transfer listed the whole squad.

Unusual? Definitely. Following the decision, manager Dean Thomas told The Leicestershire Mercury, “I have circulated all of the players’ names around the leagues to let other clubs know they may be available. They have had enough chances. It’s a ruthless approach but it is necessary. I have got to slow things down, steady the ship and start getting results.”

“I am here to win games of football and if the players are falling short then that is unacceptable. I make the decisions here, we had to address the issue and I have to be satisfied with the side that we have got.”

Hinckley were 20th at the time of the mass listing and have since picked up another three points and now lie in 15th. With no transfer window below the Blue Square Bet Premier there is always a lot of turnover of players between clubs but this move is even pretty drastic compared to other. Player confidence is a fragile thing and it remains to be seen whether it will ultimately work out. The players remaining might well be thinking when it is their turn and equally players who move to the club may be even more desperate to impress.

Then again they could’ve really sucked.