This doesn't look good

Absolutely this. I love watching Stewart play and there will be a load of fans saying “give him 50k a week” because it’s not their money. If, as is expected, he’s been offered a significant increase and he’s still dragging his heels, hoping for more, then see you later. Sell, invest, move on.

mind, if he goes to Swansea I’ll be booing the **** out of him when he plays us! Not exactly a step up or even sideways!!

 

I'd be more concerned about the time he's taken to get over a relatively minor soft tissue injury. He could be totally knackered now.

If the offers too good to refuse then take it

 

That would be the sensible approach assuming the kid has his head screwed on

 

I'd be pretty pissed off if we sold him to another Championship club

 

That is why I said doubt, not know, tbf. It does always seem much harder to get players out of clubs mid season though, just hope we are as tough, sure we are. The worry I would have with the unknown 20 year old from France is they might only play as much as the 2 we signed in the summer. If we sell Stewart we better have someone who is ready to play week in week out at this level, as well as a third option who could be an unknown 20 year old.

 

IIRC we signed Stewart mid-season. It can be done as long as the recruitment team are prepared. I firmly believe the club will have plan B in place IF Stewart refuses to sign a contract

 

We did. Offered a decent amount for someone who was on a free 6 months later. He wasnt ready to go though, at that point. Sure he came in injured, and then played bits and pieces due to Wyke form. I agree with you the club will have a plan B if he goes. I just hope everyone is sensible and he stays till the summer, then we can worry about plan bs and cs. Plan A is a good one for me - he stays. Hope he sees the light, he is a hell of a player.

 

Aye, he came with a niggle that ended up being a longer injury than expected. He then couldn't get in the team ahead of Wyke (understandable at the time) but still looked good when he did play - scored 2 from 3 starts.

Agree that staying to the summer would be the best option all round, but it wouldn't shock me if he DID go in Jan but am happy the club are better organised these days - there will be no last min crazy bidding for Will Grigg.

 

Very true, but every time I watched him play, he looked 5 levels above Wyke. Wyke did a great job for us that season, but I’d have happily benched a 20+ goal striker to play Stewart even at the time

 

Decided this morning I will worry about it if we sell him.

Same as if we buy an "unknown 20 year old from France" it didn't work out to bad buying that unknown lad from Watford and we are way way better at scouting and data now

 

I think we would all agree Stewart is a far better player. He certainly showed signs of it when he got a chance early doors too. Not sure I would have dropped Wyke personally at the time, and he did end up with 30+ in the end so hard to grumble. Stewart had scored a handful of goals only for Ross County, mainly in div 2 in Scotland when he arrived. He has become hot property in a season and a bit with us, maybe in large part to our coaching. I hope he has a bit of loyalty, at least to the summer.

 

I probably put that wrong. I meant if the system didn’t allow them both, I wouldn’t have been angry at the gaffer for putting Wyke on the bench.

 

The bit I'm not really understanding is the clubs that are being mentioned to me aren't really an upwards step, if it was Everton or a team of that nature I could understand, Scottish Premier isn't even championship standard, other than the draw of 2 champions league games a season with celtic

 

“It’s 100% about focusing on Sunderland and getting back to making an impact.“

There we go. Give him the new 1yr deal & revisit in the summer.

 

I've been saying for weeks we need to be looking for a new striker in January. Not claiming to be ITK, but we simply can't match other wage offers from other clubs.

 

Especially to a team like Boro that struggles to get over 20k fans to a home game.
I'd like to think we'd be more than capable of matching the wages they'd be offering for him.

 

Told you lot months ago, we can't match £16500 + bonus p week, Everton or Rangers, not celtic or swans

 

can't match 16500 a week what a **** show

 

If its Everton and he is only going to get 16.5k p/w I'd be sacking my agent.

 

He is after £5000 win bonus and a goal bonus, that's from his agent from over a month ago.
The Everton deal is a px with Simms