Town boss Paul Jewell says skipper Grant Leadbitter’s agent has told him that the 25-year-old is happy to take his time before deciding on his future. Leadbitter, who was targeted by new Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cotterill when he was at Portsmouth in the summer, is out of contract at the end of the season and able to talk to other clubs from January.
Jewell, perhaps hinting that the Blues might consider selling the £2.65 million September 2009 signing from Sunderland if a deal can’t be done, says that ideally he’d like to see the midfielder agree a new deal, having turned down Town's initial offer: "I spoke to his agent at the back end of last week and he said Grant is happy just to see how it goes.
"Fair play to Grant, he’s not banging on the door, he’s not sulking, he’s just trying his best and seeing what happens.
"I spoke with his agent and Marcus has spoken to him. We’d like to sign Grant but we’ll have to see what happens in January - whether we can come to some arrangement or what.
"Grant has never indicated to me that it’s a big issue to him. We’ve got a lot of players whose contracts are up this year.
"It’s a difficult time for a manager to try to balance it up [with things] in the air but no one’s knocked on my door and agents haven’t been ringing me up asking me what’s going on.”
Town have 18 players whose terms are up this season. In addition to Leadbitter, Mark Kennedy, Tommy Smith, Shane O’Connor, Carlos Edwards, Ibrahima Sonko, Ãvar Ingimarsson, Lee Bowyer, Josh Carson, Colin Healy, Luke Hyam, Jason Scotland, Tamás Priskin, Ronan Murray, Cody Cropper and Cormac Burke all have deals which end on June 30th next year, although some of those contracts include options for a further season.
Jack Ainsley and Jamie Griffiths, who recently returned from his loan at Plymouth, have six-month contracts, which are up at the end of December.
While the Blues boss admits that the longer the season goes on the harder it can be to tie soon-to-be-out-of-contract players down, he says the situation can work to everyone’s advantage with players who want to remain at the club having to prove themselves: "If the players want to stay here, then it’s up to them to prove they deserve it with their performances.
"The better they play, the better it is for everybody. It makes it more difficult for us if they want to go somewhere else, but if they want to stay here, it makes it easier for us to sign them.”
Meanwhile, Jewell says discussions continue regarding Josh Carson's new contract: "We’re trying to sort out a new deal with Josh, we have been for a while.
"When he came back from pre-season he didn’t come back in the greatest of shapes. He was told and he’s knuckled down, has worked hard, he’s got himself back in the fold and he came on the other day and scored a goal.
"He’s a young player, 18, and we can’t expect him to play week-in, week-out, but we think he’s an outstanding prospect for the future.”