There needs to be a buyer for that to happen. And one with a contract he wants. The club dont have all the cards, as much as we might like them to.
I suspect the club arent blind to the homegrown need some of us discussed earlier. If Dan is out they are scraping the barrel or need to buy.
I think he signs. Regis will want him and he will get his way imo.
I like Neil but I think he and/or his agent have not been smart in their negotiations over the last year or so.
Seems as though he's been offered more money last summer. Don't know how much he was offered but seemingly not enough to tempt him.
He was then also given the captaincy last summer, I don't personally think that it helped him as he's not a natural.
If he's on a low salary prior to last season and wanted to keep his options open for this year, he could have signed a longer term contract last summer with more money in Championship and a release clause in the event that we didn't go up and possibly an agreement to a Premier League wage if promoted.
He would now have benefitted from being on better money for the last 12 months, got a better promotion bonus by virtue of being on that better salary and more security now.
As things stand, it seems that he's minded/or being advised to see his contract out and leave for nothing next summer. That's within his gift to control as you say, he could refuse a longer contract here and also reject moves elsewhere.
Dan has seen first hand, the fragile nature of the professional footballer with Ross Stewart and Jack Clarke.
In his shoes, the Stewart situation would have had me reaching for the pen last summer to give myself that security of a semi decent wage.
If he has appealing suitors offering the money he wants then his agent needs to get him that move or get him the best contract he possibly can now.
I'd hate to see any kid, never mind one of our own, get a bad knock and have little money to fall back on. There are no guarantees that a Southampton would be sat offering him a wage hike if that happened to one of our players again.
It needs resolving quickly and his agent needs to get him sorted be that here or elsewhere. If it was one of my lads I'd be urging him to do exactly the same.