Boss Paul Jewell says he’s confident that skipper David Norris wants to remain with the Blues but concedes that the 30-year-old — along with Gareth McAuley and Damien Delaney — will have to make the decision which is right for his family. The Town manager was unable to announce the signing of any contracts at yesterday’s press conference as he had hoped.
Jewell said: "I think Chuck wants to stay here. I’ve had numerous chats with him. He’s the captain and he’s a terrific professional.
"He has to do what’s right for his family, there’s no arguing with that. The three lads that we’re talking about — McAuley, Delaney and Chuck — whatever happens with their futures they’ve all been model professionals.
"They shouldn’t be at this situation, that’s a lesson we have to learn — come next year we don’t want to leave it so late, for whatever reason it was.
"If we want to keep players we’ve got to get them signed up quicker and if we don’t want to keep them, we’ve got to sell them.”
The Blues boss says he finally spoke to Norris’s agent again last week and says he now has a better idea of what has been offered to the midfielder by other interested parties, Portsmouth and Crystal Palace having targeted him in January: "I was trying to get hold of the agent to find out what they are looking for. We now know what they are looking for, whether we can get to what they’re looking for is a moot point.”
Jewell says he’ll make sure the same contract issues don't happen in the future: "There’s no good crying over spilt milk, we’ve got to try and learn about how the situation has come about and redress it.
"If we lose Chuck it will be a blow, if we lose Gareth or if we lose Damien it will be a blow, we don’t want to lose any of our better players.
"But if we do lose them, this club will survive, but we want to keep our better players here and those lads who are out of contract that we want to keep we’ve got to make sure we tie them up earlier next season.”
With that in mind, Jewell revealed that talks have already begun with some of the players whose contracts are up at the end of next season, although wouldn’t be drawn on precisely which members of his squad.
The Town boss says there have been no new developments regarding the Jimmy Bullard situation: "We’ll see at the end of the season. We’ll be trying to do something but it’s a complicated deal because he’s got two years left on a lot of money. That might be difficult to deal but if we could do a deal, we’d love to do it.”
Ultimately, Jewell says he believes the likes of Norris, Delaney and McAuley want to remain at Town but understands that in the current situation they will receive interest from elsewhere: "When it gets to this stage you’re always going to get into a bit of a bidding war because of the Bosman rule. But I do believe the players like it here and genuinely want to stay. Unless it’s a mind-blowing offer, I’d be hopeful that they’d stay.”
Town have also offered contracts to three more senior players, Brian Murphy, Colin Healy and Arran Lee-Barrett as well as to six youngsters.