If it does, then congratulations, your knowledge of the Newcastle Jets is bordering on encyclopedic, and you officially qualify as a long-suffering fan.

Hakansson, for the record, was a Danish midfielder who joined Newcastle for the start of the 2008-09 A-League season, when the Jets were - briefly - flying high as reigning champions.

His main claim to fame was that he was hired to replace home-grown Olyroo Stuart Musialik, who within days of helping Newcastle win the 2007-08 grand final had signed for Sydney FC.

Musialik moved on because then Jets owner Con Constantine, as was his wont, offered a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

Musialik chose to leave. So too did fellow grand final heroes Mark Bridge and Andrew Durant, and hindsight would suggest it's been all downhill ever since.

Months after their departures, Hakansson arrived in Newcastle with high hopes and a two-year contract.

Hakansson was reported to have signed for $150,000 a season, which was $30,000 more than the Jets offered Musialik to stay.

So Musialk joined Sydney, whom he helped win the title two years later, while Hakansson headed home after only 10 games, having failed to make an impact.

In other words, the Jets showed a proven performer the door, tried to replace him with a player on even higher wages, then spent more to pay him out and get rid of him than it would have cost them to retain Musialik.

Is it any surprise Constantine's tenure ended in tears a couple of years later, when he ran out of good money to throw after bad?

It was a similar story when the Jets, under the ownership of Constantine's successor Nathan Tinkler, allowed New Zealand international Jeremy Brockie to leave in 2012.

Brockie scored 11 goals in 41 games for Newcastle, including nine in his second season. The player who eventually replaced him - former England striker Emile Heskey - scored 10 goals in 42 games, despite earning four or five times the coin Brockie was on.

I could sit here all day banging on about the poor recruitment-and-retention decisions the various incarnations of the Jets have made over the past 16 seasons, but for mine, the release of Roy O'Donovan pretty much takes the cake.

O'Donovan, the veteran Irish import, was surprised to learn two weeks ago that he did not feature in the plans of the incoming coach, who is almost certain to be confirmed next week as Arthur Papas.

Papas, by all accounts, wants to assemble a young, mobile squad, and a striker who turns 36 before next season kicks off was apparently expendable.

In contrast, Central Coast Mariners announced on Thursday they had re-signed target man Matt Simon - only five months younger than O'Donovan - for another year.

But to judge O'Donovan on his birth certificate, or even his goal tally in the season just completed (seven in 25 games), is missing the point.

Roy might not be the player he was in his prime, but he was still - in the words of Newcastle football-operations manager Joel Griffiths - "a good person to have at the club, both on and off the park".

O'Donovan is a competitor, a leader, a mentor, and an outstanding professional. You don't last as long as he has without complete dedication and commitment to your craft.

Almost 20 years after he left Cork City to start a career that would include a stint with Sunderland in the English Premier League, football remains a labour of love.

There was a time, not so long ago, when O'Donovan was much maligned after a series of send-offs, in particular the infamous incident late in the 2017-18 grand final.

That he has avoided any red cards in the past three seasons would suggest he has learned from his mistakes.

In what is likely to be a new-look, youthful squad, I'd have thought O'Donovan's experience would have been an asset, especially after the recent retirement of skipper Nigel Boogaard.

Perhaps even more importantly, Roy has a genuine emotional attachment to Newcastle. He's not just another blow-in.

He's bought a house here, his young son attends school, and his family have become Australian citizens.

He was hoping to play out his days with the Jets and potentially settle in, post-football, to become a long-term Novocastrian.

After a career in which he has moved around between 14 professional clubs, he had finally found a place he was happy to call home.

And while he commanded a lucrative salary in his prime, O'Donovan is a realist and accepts that he no longer has the same bargaining power. He was more than willing to take a pay cut to stay with Newcastle, and to play fewer minutes, if that was best for the team.

The Jets should know better than anyone that signing overseas players is a lottery. For every Besart Berisha in the A-League, there have been countless non-entities.

Only five foreigners in A-League history have scored more goals than O'Donovan (56 in 128 games). And don't forget he is now Australian-qualified, so does not take up an import spot.

The Jets must be confident they can find a suitable replacement to wear the No.9 jersey next season.

Whether he plays with the same heart and soul as Roy O'Donovan remains to be seen.