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Martin: I Want to Stay
Monday, 20th Aug 2012 06:00

Midfielder Lee Martin says he definitely wants to stay with Town and wants his contract situation resolved quickly. The 25-year-old’s current terms are up at the end of the season.

Martin says progress is being made: “Negotiations are continuing and I definitely want to stay here. I love it here, I’m really enjoying it and I’m playing well. I get on with the rest of the lads.

“I’d like to get it all wrapped up sooner rather than later. To be honest, I just get on with playing and leave everything else to my agent. Some players get caught up in all the talking but that’s what agents are for.”

Manager Paul Jewell says Martin’s representative is due to meet with owner Marcus Evans to talk about a new deal: “I think his agent is going to meet the owner to discuss that. We’d like to get that tied up and we hope it’ll be a positive outcome.

“If it’s not, we’ll have to deal with it because we don’t really want players running out of contract who have a value on the transfer market.

“We want Lee to stay, he’s part of the way I see us moving forward. I think he wants to stay, it’s just whether we can thrash out a deal.”

Jewell says there are no other players currently being spoken to regarding new terms: “Not at the moment.”

In addition to Martin, Jack Ainsley, Damien Delaney, Andy Drury, Nathan Ellington, Arran Lee-Barrett, Jaime Peters, Ryan Stevenson, Joe Whight and Cormac Burke all have deals which are up at the end of June 2013, while skipper Carlos Edwards, Jason Scotland, Ronan Murray and Luke Hyam all signed new one-year contracts in the latter part of last season.

As regards Saturday's game, Martin felt Town dealt with the challenging conditions better than the visitors in the latter stages: “It was tough in the heat but it was the same for both teams. I thought our fitness told in the end because we were well on top for the last 20 minutes or so.

“It was a well-earned point. It would have been hard to come away with nothing and to be honest we’re disappointed we didn’t get all three points. But if we can’t defend set plays at one end and can’t score from them at the other, we’re in trouble.

“We’ll take the point. Blackburn are a good, experienced team. We just need a bit more belief and we can go places. Our young lads did well.”

The former Manchester United man says there is a good spirit at Town at present: “The average age of the team is about 24 and we don’t have a big squad but there is a togetherness about us that I haven’t experienced since I came to the club.

“There’s a massive togetherness and with a smaller squad it’s easier to get to know each other. We’ve had loan players here in the past and they were playing for themselves rather than the team.

“We’ve got young guys here who are hungry and keen to show what they can do. The only way we will get success is to have that togetherness with everyone working hard and pulling together. The fans can see what we are trying to do — to play the right way and bring the youngsters through.”


Photo: Action Images



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bigolconnor added 06:09 - Aug 20
Here Here. Now sign the contract dear boy. That would be a great show of togetherness.
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Dissboyitfc added 06:34 - Aug 20
here here too. was mom on sat along side hyam. important that he signs. you could see the togetherness on sat. i hope we dont sign any loan players with too big a ego's to wreck it ....COYB
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village_blue added 07:04 - Aug 20
For goodness sake lets hope that Mr Evans and Clegg get there act together and sign Lee up asap.
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bontcho added 07:12 - Aug 20
Interesting comment about loan players playing for themselves there.
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DiamondGezzer added 07:12 - Aug 20
Here here three ! Got to admit, I like the look of the ' new ' Lee Martin. Would love to think it would continue after signing a new contract, I'm sure it will, but there, I thought the same about Jimmy Bullard and look where that got me.
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irishtim added 07:21 - Aug 20
sign him up please. Quality player
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ThatMuhrenCross added 07:41 - Aug 20
What a revelation he has been in the last year or so. More players like him, and we'd be right up near the top of this league.
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Mark added 07:52 - Aug 20
Don't just leave it to your agent Lee - you employ him so if you want to stay at Ipswich ask for all the detal and push him to get a move on; it is your career, not your agent's!

Martin is at risk as coming across like another McAuley, Norris and Leadbitter, talking about wanting to stay but being relaxed about a contract and then leaving for free at the end.

Jewell had said that Martin would either sign or be sold so that we don''t make the same mistakes of the past, but a £2M signing (four times our entire summer spend this year) is in the final year of his contract again.
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Karlosfandangal added 08:39 - Aug 20
Not talking to anyone else about contracts

Drury,Stevenson,Hyam, Burke,Murray surely these are player we need to keep as we never seem able to get players in to replace the ones that leave.
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Duncan added 09:13 - Aug 20
With our wage structure this worries me a lot!! Would be devastating if we lost Martin - with out his work rate there is no way we could have JET in the team (judging on Saturday's performance) as Lee Martin ended up running over and putting players under pressure who were practically standing next to JET. I'm a huge fan of jet by the way but saturdays performance was very frustrating to watch!!
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MrCool added 09:23 - Aug 20
"Agents"- personally, I'd have 'em all lined up against a wall and... ...etc, etc.

Hope Martin does stay - has the skills and displays the commitment that we need.
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Nthsuffolkblue added 10:03 - Aug 20
Karlos ... my thoughts entirely. This article has put a positive spin on a comment which really says that Lee Martin is leaving it to his agent to do the best for his career (who can blame him? But he should also be aware the agent will want his own cut on a sign-on fee.) The worrying thing is that we have several young promising players there running down a contract that we seem not too bothered about signing a bit longer. Sure we are guaranteed development compensation (not for Drury though) if they do the same as Trotter but surely Hyam, Drury and Whight especially have done enough to make some offer to bearing in mind how difficult it is proving to get any better players in.
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Garv added 10:34 - Aug 20
I don't agree with this 'sell him if he doesn't sign' nonsense.

What would you rather have, £800k (£1m if lucky), or another year of Lee Martin running our midfield? I know what I'd rather have. No way would we replace him.

Obviously I hope he signs, but if he doesn't I won't be too worried. If we have a good season he is likely to sign towards the end anyway.
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carsey added 10:38 - Aug 20
If you want to stay Lee just tell your agent to get on with it and sign the contract. Better still sack your agent, go see Clegg and PJ and sign the contract today. It will save you money as you won't have to pay your agent his cut and it will demonstrate you mean what you say about staying here.
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Pessimistic added 11:34 - Aug 20
These contracts should be sorted out quickly and in the case of Hyam, it was crazy to give him just another year contract because it is inviting trouble.
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itfcjc added 11:43 - Aug 20
Sign him up
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HelmondSchportITFC added 12:31 - Aug 20
i think we should sell him to Helmond Sport
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NITFC added 13:11 - Aug 20
"To be honest, I just get on with playing and leave everything else to my agent. Some players get caught up in all the talking but that's what agents are for.”

Oh, that's what they do!!!
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Warkys_Tash added 13:12 - Aug 20
Heartbeat of the team, we must offer him a decent enough deal for him to re-sign. However, if recent rumoured 'offers' for other players are anything to go by then we should all worry..
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runaround added 21:03 - Aug 20
The fact he is leaving it to his agent lessens the chance of him staying IMHO as they are often only interested in money rather than their clients wishes. Seem to remember Norris saying similar things about 2 years ago.
He has been a revelation since last xmas and it would be devastating to lose him
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suffolkpunchdrunk added 21:16 - Aug 20
Whilst we need to keep hold of our best players I doubt the new deal will be as good as his current one - we will soon find out the true value of the words 'we want him to stay' and 'I want to stay'.
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