Phil Buckingham on twitter says: On the downside, Bruce admits release clause in Koren's contract. Accepts he's powerless to keep him but hasn't given up hope. Bruce won't confirm figure but it's circa £500,000. Leicester leading the chase. Gut feeling is that he'll go now.
Now Bruce has told everyone surely host of Prem clubs will have been alerted. I hope so, don't want him to go to a rival.
Surely not Leicester? With a chance to play in the Premier League why battle it out in another tough Championship with Leicester!
He only signed the extension to his deal in about February, if he wanted to go surely he wouldn't have signed?
I would not expect anything other from that HDM neg head Buckingham. He has had his nose pushed out of joint as Burnsy knows Bruce much better. Its been on the grapevine that Koren has been offered a 2 year extension which he will accept. But IF Koren wants out then let him go IF a grain of this tweet is true.
Cheers for that Buckingham, we'd just love it if everyone knows that Koren can leave for peanuts. Surely he'd have gone by now though if that was true? It's absolutely nothing to clubs like Reading and Leicester?
Yeah, that's my one hope - Buckingham isn't the happiest of campers. He was insistent in the run up to appointing Bruce that is wasn't going to be him, even though every other source was saying it was. Fingers crossed that Bruce can get something tied up with Koren. My worry is why Bruce has confirmed it. It hardly weakens Koren's hand in negotiations, but given that it came in the Proschwitz press conference, it seems it was simply a direct question from a Journalist. Bruce can hardly lie, and a no comment would have been seized on as a yes anyway. I would hope a Premier League side gets him if he does go. Of course he has to think of his Career and Family - but I can't respect anyone who walks out and into the team of a rival. I just don't like it.
It doesn't matter about a release clause in the slightest. If Leicester want him and he wants to go then he will, whether there is a release clause or not. What we have to do is to make him an offer good enough to keep him here.
He walked home infront of me after the Ferriby game, so know the area he lives - maybe we should all go round and tell him to tell Nigel where to go!
Good points well made. City have done what both Robbie wanted and his agent has been very public over. RK has seen the ambition of the club and the signings Bruce is making. Koren does not come accross as someone who is about to leave. Whatever happens Koren wont be going to Leicester City as a move to them would just be for the cash, imo. Reading will be PL whipping boys,, imo. It would have to be a Swansea - Norwich or Fulham type club i think that would attract Koren much more.
Good point, and also what interests me here is that he's not gone yet. We all know what agents are like - there is no way his agent won't have been whispering the deal to other clubs. With that £500k clause, he could have been gone on July 1st. Signing Koren for that amount would be a no-brainer for a lot of clubs around the bottom of the PL/Top of the Championship. Given the link to Leicester through Pearson, and the way they've been sniffing around, if he was going there, I think he already would be. I think he's open to staying myself - we just need to let the negotiations that Bruce announced on Tuesday happen.
Is Koren a fan of NP? Didn't he play him out of position? Just not sure we'd be a particularly attractive propostion to him. Especially if any Prem clubs are sniffing.
Robbie Koren is also not a fan of Nigel Pearson or his tactics. I discount Lesta out of this full stop.
I guess it depends on who you'd be playing. We had a fairly limited squad in Pearson's full season, and Koren paid the price by going out left. I don't think it's that Pearson particularly considered him a left sided player, just that was where he would be most useful to the team. If you're sorted on the wings, then I doubt Koren would rule you out. As yet we don't know if Bruce considers him to be worth building a team around in the centre of the park.
That is true. NP liked to play him wide left instead of "In the Hole" where Barmby played him and where he was most effective. Koren hates playing wide almost as much as not playing.
If a EPL club came in for him, I could understand him going, but if he is offered an improved contract with us, I think he will stay rather than go to Lesta
