I have been a constant advocate of Paul McShane on here and elsewhere for a number of years, I feel vindicated and very happy for him, but reality bites and the reality is that unless we cannot replace him with better then and only then should he be extended. The centre-back pairing is second only that of striker in the PL - goalkeeper is a one-off and stands out as a very special position that is not substituted tactically. Paul is great, but we should not throw contracts around too easily; the fact that SB has spoken out indicates to me that he is going to punch his transfer-cash-weight at midfield and strikers. Fryatt and Simpson would be further behind McShane in the contracts queue, as we cannot afford to miss the number of chances we have done for the last two seasons. I will be surprised if we have more than one Egyptian in the squad next season.
"I was really contemplating (retirement), just getting in my car, getting on the boat and going back to Ireland because it was just wall after wall that I kept hitting. "I was giving my all so I could hold my head up and I just want to keep looking forward. "You can train every day at your hardest and not even be considered, which is very frustrating. "Some people at the club wouldn't talk to me at one stage because I was deemed as a bad egg or something because I wasn't playing. "But I kept going and that's what you've got to keep doing, for yourself more than anything." And then I remembered I was on £25,000 a week ..........
