Especially when what they say is not true. I would say the best central defenders outside the prem are Pique, Puyol, Hummels, Chiellini and Thiago Silva.
I know, I was taking the piss... In this country, I would say it's between Wes Morgan, Chester, Hobbs and Hudson.
Morgan and Hudson are not even close to James Chester. They are just big units who defend. Chester can actually play. Jack Hobbs in somewhere inbetween. Indeed. lol.
If he wants to do that fair enough. If he is though the club should be offering him a contract which sets out his wages in each division (which I imagine they all do anyway), and also sets a release clause for clubs in a higher division. As someone else has said i suspect the hold up is in agreeing the level the last part is set at, but at least by dealing with it now it would stop him being unsettled by protracted negotiations in the summer. They either meet the clause or we say to him, sorry JC, but you agreed on the fair price for you and they haven't met it so it's a no go, rather than us setting a level of our own accord that he can disagree with and get upset about us pricing him out of a move.
Are buy out clauses standard? Perhaps with all the talk of Prem clubs coming in for him he wants one.
Not in this country. In Spain I think it's a requirement, but the fees are something ridiculous because of how they're worked out. In this country they really only happen when a relatively small/lower league team wants to sign a player that's arguably too good for them (or in Chester's case is expected to be too good for the club's current level in the near future). By giving them an out it ensures they don't feel that signing a multi-year contract is going to hold them back. Koren for example when he signed for us in the position we were in would never have committed to a 3 year contract (2 year's plus a 3rd in the club's favour) on the wages offered if he didn't know that if a top flight side wanted him they could get him without being held to ransom by us. Similarly Ba at Newcastle had one because he wanted to play in the PL and felt he was better than Newcastle but didn't yet have interest from the big boys. It suited him and Newcastle for him to join them, but he didn't want them to hold him to ransom for an Andy Carroll style transfer fee when he'd shown how good he is. With Chester I'd offer him one that only applied to PL teams if we were still in the Championship, and only in the summer window each year.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/292529/? According to the star Wigan, Newcastle and Aston Villa are all looking at making 3 million pound bids for Chester in this window. If memory serves me didnt we have to agree to give Man U 30% of any sell on Chester? If that is right then it would really only be 2 million pounds to us.
According to Burnsy and from what Steve Bruce has said the main issue is about which league City will be in next season. In no way is Chester unsettled and is very cool about it all. Its just some fans and the local media who are trying to make something over a non story. It would be a worry though if his contract ran out this summer. Thankfully it doesn't. Newcastle made good money on Ba in the end. What happened with Ba was always going to, it was just a case of when not if.!! Daily Star on a par with football rumours. All 3 clubs could be relegated this season so i doubt any of them would interest James Chester. As for £3m thats a joke. Steve Bruce has already said that it will take the help of the Bank of England to get Chester this month. West ham defender James Tomkins is interesting Newcastle Utd and Swansea have offered £7m for Blackpools Thomas Ince according to media reports.
I know what you mean but with those two it's true. I think Chester is the best. To put these two into perspective, Leicester fans think Wes Morgan is some kind of super-defender but from what I've seen he's just another good defender who craps his pants and boots it as far as he can whenever he makes a tackle. Bite!
