Simpson truly is a puzzle at the moment. Fron December onwards i thought we'd got the striker who looked like he was at Arsenal. He was unlucky to be dropped at the start of the year after his good form but still looked impressive when coming on as a sub and chipped in with a couple of goals. I thought over the summer he'd be a big player for us, but in he's flattered to deceive so far. I hope it's only a minor blip and a goal will get him going, but we're looking like we're gonna be back with the Simpson of last Autumn before too long. If it continues after saturday or next tuesday nige will have some serious thinking to do.
Generally if it says there's an option there's no "offer" about the extra time on the contract, it's preagreed and will kick in if the terms are met. When there's appearances to trigger it tends to mean the player has been asking for more than the club is prepared to gamble with on a long contract, either due to the player being a gamble like Belaid was, or the player's fitness being a doubt and the club not wanting to be used to get a player fit and then lose him on a free (Garcia could get 6 months with the option of another year when he's back, likewise Hargreaves where ever he goes). There's also the ones where the club just gets to say that they want to keep the player for the extra year. Blackpool had a few players they gave PL contracts to for 1 year with the option for another year so that they weren't stuck paying everyone silly money this year unless they chose to. I think Gilks and GTF are amongst the players they did it with and chose to take up the options despite being relegated so that they couldn't go elsewhere on free transfers.
