Town boss Roy Keane says discussions are continuing regarding player contracts with two-year deals already offered to David Norris and Gareth McAuley. The Blues boss has revealed that the club has options to keep some of the 21 members of his squad whose terms are up in June beyond the terms of their initial deals.

Asked whether other senior players such as Damien Delaney and Carlos Edwards will also be offered terms, Keane said: “Of course, but that will take care of itself and without going into the ins and outs of it, the club has options to extend the deals of one or two boys, people like Murph the goalkeeper.

“The issue will be the players whose contracts are up and we haven’t got an option on. We’re not just focusing on Gareth and Chuck, there are other decisions to be made on the other boys. There are lots of contracts up in the summer, so there are going to be changes one way or another.”

With players who are out of contract next summer able to talk to rival clubs from January, Keane is aware that other sides will be watching developments closely: “They’ll know the situations we have with Gareth McAuley and David Norris and they might think ‘Listen, we might get a snidey deal done’, who knows?

“I don’t want to be second guessing what’s happening at other clubs, but I know we look at the contract situations of players we might be interested in and think ‘There might be the chance of doing a deal there’.”

Photo: Action Images

rolly added 07:30 - Dec 26 These two are the only to that play for the club, the only two that when fit show up week in week out!
0

bobble added 08:31 - Dec 26 just as long as no one is discussing renewing keanes contact the there is a glimmer of hope soon as we get rid things will happen
0

Back_The_Boss added 08:37 - Dec 26 Arguably our best two players contracts are up for renewal. It's important that Gareth and Chuck stay with us. COYB!
0

itfc1981 added 09:12 - Dec 26 perhaps in that case Keaneo it may have been wise to have gotten the lads contracts tied up last summer
0

Mark added 10:48 - Dec 26 It seems strange that the club are deciding which players to keep and which contracts to offer when the manager's own contract expires in June. Of course decisions need to be taken when players can sign for other clubs in a few days, but I just wish we had appointed a new manager by now to take these decisions.
0

BrettenhamBlue added 11:37 - Dec 27 Fear we may lose some of our best players if we don't tie up their contracts soon. David Norris and Gareth McAuley are particularly crucial- but if we don't offer them the right contracts then they have every right to move on (and other clubs WILL come in with better contracts). Some would say I am being pessimistic, but given the recent spate of failed contract signings it would be no surprise if we lose one of these two (McAuley has been particularly impressive and other clubs will be watching the situation with interest). Will we have a skeleton crew by next season? Most likely. Some of our youngsters would have had a season under their belts and might prove more effective next season (Hyam, Smith, Eastman etc). Feel we are a long way off promotion contenders though, more likely midtable/bottom half of table

0

lunatic38 added 10:01 - Dec 30 midtable bottom half? LOL i will mention this in a month, i can very confidently say we will be bottom three, has no one been watching what has happened in the last three months regarding results??? but more importantly the response from our management??? we are doomed unless something drastic is done very quickly ie sack keane!!!!
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls