Yes you can take one extreme example like McQueen or the multiple examples of players who get ****ed by signing extensions to deals at the wrong time. Take VVD for us, I don’t know who told him it was a good idea to sign a new 5 year deal a few months before Liverpool came in with serious interest. Transfer fee is pretty much completely decided by how long a player has left on his contract, so by signing the extension it put him and Saints in a position where a move was extremely unlikely unless the scenario which unfolded happened (him basically on strike and Saints still getting a ridiculous fee for him) Salisu has been improving all season and is now starting to get some recognition from around the footballing world. He doesn’t have too much time left on his deal so why would he put himself in a position to price himself out of a move by signing a new deal now? The only reason would be if there was no interest at all from bigger teams. Yes we’d still get a big fee if we sold him with 12 months left on his deal, but we’d get a bigger one if we sold him now and with little chance of relegation this season is (say) £50m now better than half that or less in summer 2023. Under previous owners we know the answer, under the new ownership it is yet to be seen.
Interesting that you counter my apparently one extreme example with (checks notes) one extreme example. There are going to be numerous examples on both extremes
Give me another example like McQueen, I’ll wait. Grealish, Milner, A Young off the top of my ahead ( and all from the same club ironically) all missed out on moves initially because they signed longer deals with their current clubs. Sure they all got their move eventually but not at the earliest opportunity. Im sure if I did some digging I could find examples of a player who signed an extension who then fell out of form/flavour of the month and then didn’t get a move. I remember Chamberlain saying something along those lines when he left. Something like players come in and out of fashion/demand so quickly in football that you have to take the opportunity when it is there as it might not come again.
That last paragraph could equally be used as justification for a player to sign a contract extension. I was asking you for more than one example because it just looked odd to talk about an outlier case and then only provide one example. You’ve given some others so fair enough. I don’t know the ins and outs of those because I don’t remember that far back and don’t follow Aston Villa. I initially never suggested there were other cases like Sam’s (realise I did in the second post though) I am equally confident there will be such cases. There are loads of stories of players who suffer serious injuries and were able to fall back on having a decent contract. For example, and I know it is going back a long way, but since you seem to know lots about Villa - do you know what happened with Luc Nilis? I legitimately don’t. I know his career was ended a month into his contract though. Did he collect his wages for the entire length? I can’t think of any reason why he didn’t
I will challenge the Grealish one definitely. He didn’t get “****ed” by his extension. He wanted to sign it. He got a massive massive wage and didn’t really want to leave at the time as he was a hero at his home club If that is how you define a player getting “****ed by signing a contract extension” then of course you will say there are loads Granted the circumstances are not at all similar for Salisu as he has no connection to Saints at all
But likewise the “well could get career ending series of injuries” could be used as justification for taking opportunity to move to a big club when it’s there and earning as much money as possible. Or for a club to say “what’s the point in signing player X, he could be ****ed after tomorrows training” No idea who Luc Nilis is, not really comparable to nowadays with the advances in treatments for injuries. Doing your ACL used to be a death sentence to a career pretty much, but now players recover from them virtually all the time
Assumed you might as all your other examples came from Aston Villa He completely snapped his leg and it got infected. Infections seem to be the issue - issue with McQueen and I think Rodriguez. Jay came back but was never the same player again. He was inches away from a move to Spurs but instead got West Brom and Burnley. Not a career ender of course but a significant earnings restricter Players clearly don’t think like you though. Not in the slightest. Otherwise 4 or 5 year contracts just wouldn’t exist. Or at least 4 or 5 years extensions wouldn’t. But they are signed all the time
Van Dijk obviously thought that he would just earn a few more quid with us for 3/4 months then just leave in the summer no questions asked. Release clauses have become more common place in England in recent years, which seems to be the compromise. Harry Kane another example of signing a contract extension btw. But yeah we won’t agree on this, so probably just better to agree to disagree
To be honest Ern nobody looks good in claret & blue. They've got to be the ****tiest shirt colours out there. No offense. And if you are trying a wind up, at least spell the guy's name properly
While it's true that the Borja family would be a good match for the seediness and general lack of morals (or competence!) of your chairmen, even West Ham's former penchant for old, decrepit strikers probably doesn't extend to a pope that has been dead for five centuries. He did once wear the claret, though.
Newcastle’s long term prospects might be better than ours. Not sure their prospects this season are. God, I really hope they go down.
It is also worth adding to this that very few players actually get hampered by having long contracts. Generally, if a player wants out, he gets out. VVD proves this point if anything, he had a huge contract and we wanted to keep him yet he still got his move. I can only think of Harry Kane as an example of a player that has been forced to stay despite clearly wanting out - and even then he might move this summer. The only reason Kane wasn't allowed to move is because he loves Spurs and doesnt want to tarnish that relationship (even though he came close). We all knew he would back down. Salisu wouldn't have that problem. He would be best off signing a long deal with a release clause of c.£60m - that way everyones a winner.
I was going to say the same in an earlier reply (I might have done). VVD was used as an example - he still got his massive move and no one will be able to convince me Liverpool offered him lower wages than when they were tapping him up and thought they could get him cheaper. He lost 4 months of increased salary and that is it. And potentially got a larger signing on fee as those can be in proportion to the fee (I’m sure not always though)
