Boss Paul Jewell says Town owner Marcus Evans and Lee Martin’s agent were deep in conversation regarding the midfielder’s new contract on Wednesday evening. The Blues manager is keen to get the 25-year-old, whose current deal is up at the end of the season, secured for the long term.
Jewell said: "I was trying to get through to the owner for about two hours [on Wednesday] night and he was on the phone to Lee Martin’s agent.
"I’m trying to stay out of the money side of it and let the owner and Simon do that. We want to keep our best players, but also we don’t want their contracts to run out.
"With Grant, Gareth McAuley and Chuck, the players’ contracts were probably left too late and they walked away for free and we don’t want to do that.”
He says Martin, who joined the Blues from Manchester United for a fee believed to have been around £2 million in the summer of 2009, is amongst his key players: "I want to keep Lee Martin, everyone wants to keep Lee Martin, he’s an important part of what we’re doing.
"We want players who are committed and we want players like Lee Martin here for the next three or four years, and beyond.
"Hopefully, him and his agent and the club can sort something out. I definitely want him to stay, so all being well that will get sorted.”
Jewell has praise for Martin and Michael Chopra for their hard work during Town’s good start to the season, and not just in an attacking sense: "As well as passing the ball, we’re trying to close the ball down very quickly as well, play a pressing game. Michael Chopra and Lee Martin are setting that off at the moment and we want that to continue.”
The Blues boss says Chopra, the scorer of the winning goal at his former loan club Watford on Tuesday, has got his season off to an excellent start: "I’ve always thought that he was one of the best players in the league anyway. Michael’s problems in the past have been well documented.
"The club has worked exceptionally hard and spent a lot of time and energy on Michael because he’s a top player, and in fairness to him, he’s bought into that.
"He looked very sharp in pre-season. I know some people were saying after the game that that was his first goal in 12 games, but I wasn’t aware that he didn’t score for the last nine games of last season, I forgot all about that.
"Since he’s come back for pre-season, he’s been in good physical shape, good mental shape and he’s an integral part of our team.”