Whatever happens we are going to have to pay something for the last season of his contract. Might as well start negotiating and get it sorted quickly. He is presumably taking a pay cut to move to Southampton so start by offering him a £500000 lump sum. Worse thing that could happen is that Southampton decide to look elsewhere if it takes a while to get sorted and he ends up back on our books.
This doesn't make sense, he did well at Soton, he wants to stay there and they love him there. It's an easy transfer for him. He's managed to kick start his career again and no way will he just want to run down his contract here and potentially let his career tail off. He's on £63k a week here and has a year left, he'll easy be able to negotiate something around £50k a week at Soton and a 4 year contract, plus he'll get a big signing on fee too, which wipes out any potential wage cuts.
If he can get that fine but I think you underestimate the greed of the average footballer if you think he will be prepared to write off potential wages to be playing most weeks.
You're not getting this at all, he has one year left on a £63k per week contract here, and is at the point where he could easily negotiate a £50k per week 4 year contract at Soton. Also he can get a signing on fee at Soton of around £3m easily, which would negate any financial loss from moving. It's not just the lure of playing regularly, he will make far more money going to Soton than with his one year remaining here.
Or he can sit in the reserves for a year, run his contract down and get a higher wage and signing in fee then.
Why would he do that? He's much more of an asset to Soton now and can demand a decent signing on fee after he had such a good season with him. Run his contract down in the reserves for a year, and no one will want him.
I get it - but you are speculating that he will be getting £50K a week and a signing on fee. If he is keen to go to Southampton they can work together to effectively screw us for the first year of his contract so that both he and Southampton benefit.
Or we could just bury him in the reserves for a year. All parties just have to be sensible and a deal can be reached and everyone gets something out of it.
He did well at Soton, so can easily get a place in a championship team. If he ****s us around, just loan him to a champ team again and get a loada his wages covered before he leaves. But that won't happen, Soton want him and he's got a way back into the Premier league here and can negotiate a decent contract with them, in terms of length and salary. And everyone gets signing on fees, that's not speculation.
Or…..and here’s a novel idea. Southampton offer NUFC money and the player a salary that is at least matching what he’s currently earning or higher with a signing on fee? There might be something in this thought. Let’s call it a transfer. I know it will never catch on.
