Town boss Paul Jewell says he’s confident that midfielder Josh Carson will sign his new contract with the Blues. The Northern Irish international’s agent Kevin Moran was due to meet the Town manager on Monday but the meeting was cancelled because of the wintry weather.
Jewell said: "I was supposed to meet him on Monday but he couldn’t get here because of the snow. We’ll definitely meet up one day next week.
"There’s still a little bit of work to do but I don’t think it will be a huge problem. I had a meeting with one of his agents at Milsoms a couple of weeks ago and Kevin was supposed to come and see me on Monday but he couldn’t because of the weather and on Tuesday I wasn’t here. I don’t envisage it being a major problem and I’m confident that it’ll be done.”
Carson, 18, has been offered a two-year deal with an option for a third season.
He says that while there are nine other players currently out of contract none of them appears in any hurry to have their futures sorted: "Similar to last year, the players are not knocking on my door and don’t seem to be sulking about it, they’re just getting on with it.
"It’s not an ideal situation for everybody but it’s the way it is and the most important thing is not my contract, not my players’ contracts, no one’s contracts, just making sure that we get up the league and finish the season strongly.”
Carlos Edwards was reported to be frustrated that he hadn’t been offered new terms as yet but Jewell says he has spoken to the 33-year-old, who he believes is fine with the situation: "I had a chat with Carlos last week and I told him that the best thing for him to do to get a new deal or to get a better deal is to play well.
"Carlos was cool with that. You wouldn’t expect Carlos to be anything other than laidback about it. There’s no big drama to it. We’d like to keep him and I think he’d like to stay.
"We offered him a contract last year and he decided to turn that down and take his chance this year, so we’ll see where we end up.”
The Liverpudlian says he’s been impressed with the way the Trinidadian has coped with his off-field issues: "This season’s been quite a unique season for problems and I think one of Carlos’s strengths is that he doesn’t seem to let things worry him.
"He’s just got that laidback attitude and he’s said that when he goes on the pitch all his problems are forgotten. We’d like to keep him but we’ll have to see where we get to with the negotiations.”
Meanwhile, Jewell confessed he didn’t know off the top of his head the terms which would trigger the second season option on veteran midfielder Lee Bowyer’s deal and whether a set appearance figure was involved as per Jason Scotland’s contract.