In the last fortnight Sarries have said goodbye to two long-standing club servants - and one more looks likely to follow suit.

Various fingers have been pointed, and unsavoury rumours raised - but in the absence of anything concrete, I'm simply going to pay tribute to three guys who have had a massive impact on my time as a supporter.

Richard Hill is not someone who really needs an introduction. The best player (yes I'm saying it) in England's Grand Slam and World Cup winning team of 2003. A double Lion - and so effective there that the Australians resorted to crippling him so they didn't have to play against him.

And at club level, he could have won all the trophies of a Johnson or a Dallaglio. But he chose to stay with Sarries.

One domestic cup was all he had to show for 19 years - mostly surrounded by mediocrity - fighting on through two knee reconstructions, Hill finally hung up his boots in 2008 in the impressive but hardly fitting surroundings of a Stadium MK.

To think he was seconds away from ending it in a Heineken Cup final instead.

The club as a whole seemed to move into a post-Hilly era - new CEO in Edward Griffiths, and lots of homegrown youth in the playing squad.

It felt for a while there was a big hole in the club. But in a true mark of the man's loyalty, he came back to Sarries - taking on a corporate role, but also working with the next generation of academy prospects - players, like Hill himself, that you can build a team around.

Two such players were Adam Powell and Andy Saull - along with Alex Goode, our brightest stars. Powell's quick feet and acceleration; Saull's raw pace and work over the ball. And what was obvious in both was their absolute heart - Powelly punching above his weight in every tackle, Saully putting his head in some pretty nasty places.

There were the front-men on all the Sky features, or the PR videos - the ones who looked like they were loving everything.

In Adam and Andy we (well I) saw two guys who could be at the core of the club for a decade or more - guys who could define our transition away from big names and poor results, towards a young, English, dynamic focus.

But it never quite materialised.

The potential was always there - just rewatch some of the games in early 2010, especially the second try in the final against Leicester.

But the core of the squad became older heads like Steve Borthwick and Wikus Van Heerden, Ernst Joubert and Brad Barritt.

This year - compounded by a succession of long-term injuries - both Powell and Saull have found themselves out of first-team action and in need of a fresh start. And last week, it was abruptly announced that Richard Hill would be leaving the club.

Don't get me wrong, these last few years have been more successful than anyone could have imagined back in 2008. And at the moment we seem to be developing a cracking core of young English players who can take the club forward longer-term - George, Kruis, Fraser, Spencer, Taylor.

But when it comes to Adam and Alex I can't help but wonder what might have been. And when it comes to Hilly, well it's a hammerblow that we've lost him.

These are three guys around whom a club can build its whole identity. For me, as a young supporter, they did just that so I'm pretty sad they're all leaving.