Elliott Ward contract...

[legs77]

That's stupid, we've payed him thousands of pounds when we won't even play him. His wages won't be ridiculously high and we need a centre back. Play him.

He is on high wages league two wise that is why we aren’t playing him as he gets another year if he plays another game and when we go down we need to cut wages not add them to the squad.

Yes it is stupid it wouldn’t surprise me if the plan was bring Ward in he’ll steady the ship and we won’t need him for 20 games it’s not his fault but with relegation highly likely we can’t just play him and risk adding big wages to the squad for next season.

[irishpete]

He is on high wages league two wise that is why we aren’t playing him as he gets another year if he plays another game and when we go down we need to cut wages not add them to the squad.

Yes it is stupid it wouldn’t surprise me if the plan was bring Ward in he’ll steady the ship and we won’t need him for 20 games it’s not his fault but with relegation highly likely we can’t just play him and risk adding big wages to the squad for next season.

Especially if we have a new manager who won't want him but gets lumbered because of 1 game

[DelroyFacey22]

Ward was brought in by Kewell mid way through the season when we were conceding goals for fun as was Milsom.

So it is stating the obvious to say that both were going to get a fair bit of game time as Duffy couldn't defend for toffee for example and there was a clear reluctance to blood Bird who has since been blooded and did ok.

Can someone please explain to me the logic in bringing in a player mid season to sure up a back 4 (5) and then giving him an appearance restriction that basically motivates his employer not to play him. Unbelievable.

If they are brought in as back up I can understand it but clearly that was not the case. I don't know who negotiated that but they should hang their heads in shame. Absolutely outstandingly bad work. Just give him a contract to the end of the season and go from there, Ward was a free agent for gods sake.

Duffy was injured when Kewell arrived and missed nearly all of Kewell's time here, I think as we've since found out upon his return that Duffy isn't actually the weak link in the defence, he's usually the one that holds it together.

And there isn't an "appearance restriction" in his contract, I think you're misunderstanding it, the idea behind it was that if he makes enough appearances this season to hit the clause it would mean that he is playing games and part of the team, in that situation it's fair to give him another year and keep him for next season as he'd earned it and would presumably be part of our plans moving forward. What wasn't considered at that point (naively) was that the second year might be in the conference and that is where the problem lies

[jscarr]

He is on high wages league two wise that is why we aren’t playing him as he gets another year if he plays another game and when we go down we need to cut wages not add them to the squad.

Yes it is stupid it wouldn’t surprise me if the plan was bring Ward in he’ll steady the ship and we won’t need him for 20 games it’s not his fault but with relegation highly likely we can’t just play him and risk adding big wages to the squad for next season.

It seems crazy to me to bring a player in as a top earner, and then not play him when you need him. Says a lot about the shambles we're in.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

It's crazy that at this late stage we are only just sitting down with him to request this clause be removed, I hope that this has been an ongoing discussion over the last few months and the player was unwilling to negotiate (but I doubt it). He's an experienced/solid CB and is head and shoulders above Barclay.

The way this club is being run from top to bottom is so very amateur, the fans deserve much better.

What compounds this is that we had Jamie Turley on the books who I felt gave his all and helped our cause and would have been ideal in this relegation scrap.

I understand we may have had to let him go to bring in other players, but being honest out of Turley and Ward I would have preferred us to have released Ward. Even though Ward maybe technically a better footballer and played at a higher level. We need people who are going to make a difference. In hindsight Ward has not really played since Turley left anyway so hasn’t been missed.

[GranthamPie]

Turley is far to busy at the moment, getting promotion with one of the teams who will ultimately replace us.

[McCullochisGod]

What compounds this is that we had Jamie Turley on the books who I felt gave his all and helped our cause and would have been ideal in this relegation scrap.

I understand we may have had to let him go to bring in other players, but being honest out of Turley and Ward I would have preferred us to have released Ward. Even though Ward maybe technically a better footballer and played at a higher level. We need people who are going to make a difference. In hindsight Ward has not really played since Turley left anyway so hasn’t been missed.

Turley would have probably been on less than half of Ward.

[Freeman25]

Turley would have probably been on less than half of Ward.

He also wasn't released, he was only on a 6 month deal whereas for some reason we gave Ward a 1 year deal so it's not like Ardley could have picked either, Ward was going to be here regardless.

[nw6pie]

If we want to talk about wasting money, we gave Evina a contract until the end of the season and he’s barely played since January.

I wonder who the bright spark was who came up with the idea of 20 games - less than half a season - or whether that’s simply an industry standard. Huge credit to Milsom if he waived his contract extension, because he’s totally earned a new one after his performances at left back these past few months.

[DelroyFacey22]

If we want to talk about wasting money, we gave Evina a contract until the end of the season and he’s barely played since January.

I wonder who the bright spark was who came up with the idea of 20 games - less than half a season - or whether that’s simply an industry standard. Huge credit to Milsom if he waived his contract extension, because he’s totally earned a new one after his performances at left back these past few months.

It's industry standard, the whole thing is, it's not just Notts that do it but you only hear about them going wrong at Notts because we don't use them well and because it's not really a big enough issue for other clubs to know about.