D - Day for Smudge

[Masbroughstreet]

If the only teams in for him are Cardiff, Ipswich and Wednesday then I'm a lot more confident we'll keep him in than I was.

[Jimmy Badfellow]

I would be surprised if Smith stays tbh. When a player's contract has expired and another club try and sign him they tend to have no problem offering vast wages because they are always thinking that they haven't had to pay a transfer fee. For example,if a transfer fee would have been 500k a year ago,that gives them 5k a week to play with over a 2 year deal. However the club that the player's contract has just expired from don't see it that way.They think that if they were paying him ,say, 3k per week for 3 years and they doubled it to 6,that would be an exceptional offer and would then state that they could have not done anymore to tempt the player to re sign.The truth of the matter is that on July 1st,Smith is no one's player and every club enters the same market to try and sign him.At this point,the fact that Smith once played for Rotherham is irrelevant.

[Nardendee]

No decision expected by Friday. Smudge has offers on the table including ours.
Reading between the lines Time limit likely to be imposed for both players once TS & PW have met this week to avoid missing out on targets.
Talks held with Eaves but nothing decided but will need at least one striker even if Smith stays & three defenders if Ikky leaves.
My gut says both will leave but what do I know.

[Karl998yr]

If he goes to Swillsborough though he won't have to move and uproot the family. That might be an important factor

[Jimmy Badfellow]

If we start losing all our out of contract players to League 1 clubs,the very league that they themselves fought like hell to rid themselves of,then I think the moral of the story is............

[Timbertop]

....... we don't pay competitive wages.

[MillerBill]

It's in our hands to keep Smudge.The chairman has said, he is like a son to him and with the extra 7 million finance available plus extra sponsorship funding we have been getting, I'm sure TS can persuade him to stay with us.Playing with lads he knows and in a side in which he has played the best football in his career I'm sure Smudge will think very hard about leaving and stepping in to the un-known.

[Brin]

It's in our hands to keep Smudge.The chairman has said, he is like a son to him and with the extra 7 million finance available plus extra sponsorship funding we have been getting, I'm sure TS can persuade him to stay with us.Playing with lads he knows and in a side in which he has played the best football in his career I'm sure Smudge will think very hard about leaving and stepping in to the un-known.

Bill, this is probably Michael's final contract so he simply has to take who offers the most, if the travelling distance or moving again suits both Wife and himself. He needs financial stability going forward and the 'Wallet busting' contract offered by Stewart will simply not be enough unless, he sees sense and matches, within reason, some other clubs offer. I wouldn't blame Michael one dot even if he went to Wednesday if it bettered his family. Then the questions as to why we couldn't match his offer will be revealed.

[MillerBill]

Bill, this is probably Michael's final contract so he simply has to take who offers the most, if the travelling distance or moving again suits both Wife and himself. He needs financial stability going forward and the 'Wallet busting' contract offered by Stewart will simply not be enough unless, he sees sense and matches, within reason, some other clubs offer. I wouldn't blame Michael one dot even if he went to Wednesday if it bettered his family. Then the questions as to why we couldn't match his offer will be revealed.

I agree with that, it will be disappointing if we can't keep Smith.If we do not adapt to a better wage structure we will finish up in the same boat as before.We can and must be more competitive, otherwise we will not encourage players to stay at the club or come here.That would mean players leaving out of contract and us not benifitting through a transfer fee.It does not make economic sense,especially when we have a proven manager.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

We probably can give a big contract to Smith but what about other squad members when their contracts are up for renewal?

Wiles for example, would we bust the bank again for him to stay?

It’s not the wages of an individual that’s the worry, it’s the overall cumulative wage bill