At 31 he is not going to be even close to getting a top 4 coming in for him. I would be surprised if anyone capable of anywhere in the top 10 going in for him either. I think it probably is money but surely at his age it is too late for him to be demanding the top salary. I just feel that it is a little bit more than that though as I seem to remember he has had a couple of chances to move on when he was in the championship which he didn't take. Although none were Premier league as far as I know.
If he wanted more money he could ask for an improved contract given Norwich's fantastic league finishing place, but that would take place behind closed doors. At 31 he can't realistically be thinking of an England call-up, so moving clubs to go after that dream is highly unlikely. If he wants more money in the last legs of his career I say fair play to him...plenty have done it...he might only have been made captain as an incentive to stay at the club (like Fabregas at Arsenal- lol). Somebody said the club had given him a break, but you have to consider what he has given the club too. 60 goals in 120 matches according to wikipedia...he maybe feels they owe him something more than captaincy and player of the season trophies for where they are now.
Yeah my comments weren't aimed at you really, sorry they came across that way. As for Holt, even if it is just a bargaining chip to get a better contract, so what? This will surely be his last contract so he's probably thinking about his retirement fund. He probably feels like he's given the club his best years and maybe hasn't been paid as well as some others and now he wants a slice of the premier league pie. I say good luck to him.
I generally feel that most players don't owe their clubs any great amount of loyalty, because they generally cannot expect the same in return, but this is a wee bit absurd. Holt is in the Prem because of Norwich (and vice versa), and it's not a situation where he has outgrown the club...he wants to cash in and took about the least considerate route possible.
They are starved of Saints related action. This sort of thing will carry on for a few months. As it happens, I don't blame him for trying. He's 31, and time is running out. Like Rickie, he had played all of his career in the lower leagues, bar the one just gone, and he was considered one of the leading strikers during the last season. What with all the England talk, regarding him, I wouldn't mind betting that he believes that a transfer to one of the bigger clubs might get him noticed more. Also, he'd get a better salary, etc, etc... I can't blame him for trying. He's paid his dues. If Liverpool ever came calling for Rickie, who could blame him if he just wanted to give them a try, instead of thinking... what if..[?] for the rest of his career..? These things aren't based on pure logic, and obviously neither are things like England team selection [Stewart Downing..?].
Because it's May, when many teams have not even finalized their budgets, and because this seems to be the first anyone has heard of it. I don't know that it's not a last resort, but it seems to have progressed rather quickly and quietly to demanding out.
Why would anything be made public before an agreement is reached? We got news that our players had signed new contracts not that they had been offered one, then their agent said it wasn't good enough, then they were offered a bit more, and after two or three more rounds of negotiation, they signed; it just doesn't work like that. If there's no agreement, there's no news, no matter how much negotiating happens. I'm going to speculate as much as you are and suggest maybe he wanted a pay rise last year and was told that they couldn't really afford it but if they stayed up they would have more money and he would get a better deal then, now they've stayed up and they've reneged on the deal. What if you were in a position like that? Personally I would probably request a transfer too. Now I don't know that that's the case, but it's a possibility which no-one seems to be considering.
I'm not stating anything as fact, merely pointing out that it doesn't seem terribly likely that a team would hint to one of their best players that they would give him improved wages, and then shut down that possibility one week into the close season.
Never said you did state anything as fact, quite the opposite! That seems a lot more likely than a fan's favourite in the twilight of his career, and enjoying the best period of his career, suddenly putting in a transfer request out of the blue without a reason.
If that be the case it is more likely that an additional amount was probably offered but he or his agent found it to be derisory and probably not in or near the figures suggested in the first place. The Norwich board are not known for welshing on their promises. Although they are as tight as we are fiscally these days and they are not the highest payers, just as we won't be. I would have thought though that they could equal a team like Everton in terms of player pay. Which is probably our bench mark as well.
