Central defender Damien Delaney says he will take his time before finally putting pen to paper on his new Town contract. The Irishman, who is 30 in July, wants to be sure everything is in order with what he expects to be his last big deal.

Delaney said: “I’ll take my time, make sure I’m happy with everything in the contract and then I’ll sign it. I wouldn’t expect there to be any issues, but you still have to be careful because this is an important contract for me.

“Everything seems fine with what the club have put on the table. Hopefully it will all run smoothly because I am very keen to stay. I’m also realistic enough to know that this is going to be my last decent contract.”

The Republic of Ireland international, who is understood to have been offered a two-year deal with the option of a third and will hold talks with the club later this week, says the contract situation with 21 players’ terms coming to an end this summer should never have been allowed to happen.

“It’s lunacy, to be honest,” he said. “It’s crazy that it’s been allowed to come to this at a club at this level, but there are many different factors behind why it has.

“Roy Keane did the job the way he felt was best and this is what we’re left with. Paul Jewell came in and picked up the pieces, but these contracts really should have been sorted out 12 months ago.”

Yesterday, manager Paul Jewell revealed that Delaney’s fellow Irishmen Colin Healy and Brian Murphy will be offered contracts.

Photo: Action Images

PimsOclock added 12:55 - Apr 6 So Damo didnt like Keane. Probably wouldnt have signed if he was in charge so got his agent to loook for suiters. Now that there are suiters showing an interest we might lose one of our strongest players of the last 2 years if he receives a better offer. And yet people still think Keane was unlucky to get the sack?!!
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itfc_jw added 12:55 - Apr 6 I urge you not to sign it Damien and do us all a favour....
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dan_itfc55 added 12:56 - Apr 6 Aslong as you sign up.. take as long as you want :)
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blueblood66 added 12:59 - Apr 6 damning indictment on Keane's man management!
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blue_em_away added 13:12 - Apr 6 "I am very keen to stay" Errr.... Sign it then dude!! Don't wait for others to come in and make you offers.
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stinkiusminkius added 13:14 - Apr 6 "take my time" obviously means looking around for other offers. And another thinly veiled slagging off of keanes shambolic management style.
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Mungo added 13:16 - Apr 6 Fair enough comments from DD. It is a big decision. Hopefully town's offer is competitive enough to persuade him to stay. Don't take too long mind or the offer might be withdrawn...
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RIPbobby added 13:47 - Apr 6 Yeah I read it as looking for better offers. But as I have said several times, if he breaks his leg then that contract will suddenly disappear.
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cobbold_fanatic added 13:47 - Apr 6 he'll sign however im not convinced McAuley will
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bluelady added 13:54 - Apr 6 he is just making Clegg etc sweat for letting the situation get to this stage.....
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DiamondGezzer added 14:05 - Apr 6 Its the old cake and eat it situation, the ball is in his court. Looks like if a better offer comes along, hell be off. As he said, its his last big contract and wants the best deal possible. Shame, puts that mercenary look on things, biggest bucks wins I guess !
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SouperJim added 14:20 - Apr 6 One in the eye for the "blame everything on Clegg" club.
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Matteo_Sereni added 14:41 - Apr 6 Should re-sign - has been good for us this year...with a few minor blips (Norwich away!) Deserves the contract for performances against arsenal!!
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arc added 14:47 - Apr 6 I thought one of the big things that Magilton did wrong was to sign everyone to extensions before they had demonstrated their hunger. I was perfectly happy when Keane left Delaney to earn a new contract–he has to prove consistency (and we have Smith lined up as a replacement). On the other hand, Macauley has proved himself over and over again to be vital to the team; he never should have been left in this situation. If we lose him, we'll be scrambling.

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IscaBlue added 15:15 - Apr 6 Perhaps Keane's thought process was to not have anyone tied to the club when we "got" promoted at the end of his 2 years so that it would be easy to make wholesale changes to the playing staff and get in Premier League quality players without having a load of Championship players hanging around. Good idea in theory, but he didn't take into account that players may not want to play for him or play to their full ability if there was no contract at the end of the 2 year Keane reign and they'd be disposed off if we got promoted. Daft really, but I suppose Keane was the type of player to give 100% in every match no matter what, perhaps he didn't realise most other players aren't like him!

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jas0999 added 17:10 - Apr 6 Good on him! The club have messed around with this and as Damian says - it's lunacy that any club would let it come down to this. I remember both PJ AND Roy saying these things should have been sorted out 'months ago' and that was in January. Roy made the point week after week that it was out of his hands and so has PJ.
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bluelady added 18:30 - Apr 6 Jas agree and i am guessing that is why he is not going to sign straight away but keep the club waiting as they have him... Phil any news on McCauly or Norris?
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Mark added 19:07 - Apr 6 What is the club doing to stop the same situation reoccuring with other players next year? Surely the likes of Fulop and Leadbitter have to be given new contracts this summer or sold? Please don't let it happen again! Also, I don't totally understand the relegation argument. If we did go down, would it not be better to have Delaney, McAuley and Norris signed up so that we could sell them? Surely they would raise £2M+?!

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Bergholtblue added 19:32 - Apr 6 Mark ...re: relegation aguments...agree yes, but if nobody bought them, we would be saddled with their wages and how many of the so called supporters would turn up at PR? I was there in John Duncan's dark days with gates at 10,000-12,000 at best. I am worried that players have air their greivanmces in public though. This is the sort of thing that needs to be kept behind closed doors. This is Delaney saying 'thanks for p*ssing me off for the last 6 montyhs, now I am going to make you sweat. Not the sort of thing that needs public airing! One comment though, he said "Paul Jewell came in and picked up the pieces". So it was in pieces then, he did cock everythin up!

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Vic added 12:33 - Apr 7 “Roy Keane did the job the way he felt was best and this is what we're left with. Paul Jewell came in and picked up the pieces" Ouch! - Guess we know what he really thought of RK now!
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scooterblue added 15:29 - Apr 7 just sign up pease damien. on another note heard our new home kit to be based on the uefa cup winning year.
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