Cook: Contractual Situation Will Stay As It is Until the End of the Season - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Paul Cook says the player contract situation will now probably stay as it is until the end of the season.

Twenty-six players, many of them senior pros, have deals which are up at the end of the campaign.

Having previously said last week that he was ready to offer terms to players who have done enough to persuade him to hang on to them, he now says that the position will be assessed at the end of the campaign with his focus on getting results from the next 10 matches.

Asked whether there has been any progress on contracts, Cook said: "Again, I fully understand the job you have to do and the questions you have to ask, I get it.

"For me, we’ve got 10 games to try and get in these play-offs and if you look around the play-offs, every team’s stuttering, aren’t they?

"Every team struggles to get those wins. I saw Gillingham have jumped into the play-offs last night with a good win at home and congratulations to Steve Evans on that.

"We’ve got three games in hand [on the Gills], Portsmouth have won back-to-back games, so they’ve jumped up.

"At the minute, the contractual issues will always be a good debate and I don’t like players being out of contract, I’ve got to tell you that.

"But the brutal reality is, probably what we’ve served up, including myself now, over six games has not been good enough for this club. The contractual situation will probably stay as it is until the end of the season.”

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