Hakeem Odoffin

[avondalemiller]

Once again.................how do you make players sign if they don't want to? Their agents will be telling them all sorts of promises.

[CAMiller]

Once again.................how do you make players sign if they don't want to? Their agents will be telling them all sorts of promises.

[Derbymiller]

Once again.................how do you make players sign if they don't want to? Their agents will be telling them all sorts of promises.

Nobody says forcing them, what we are talking about is making it clear we want them to sign a new deal, be visible that discussions are in progress and put together a deal that gives us the best chance of retaining them. It costs a lot more in total cost to get a replacement than to keep what you have, remember the club every few days keeps telling us how hard it is to recruit, so put effort into the area that you have more control over. Also it makes the player have to discuss it in any interviews and the fans can get a feeling of whether he wants a deal or not as to how he talks about it. We did this with Viktor and it worked, in his interviews during and after it was clear he always wanted a deal and to stay. What is annoying is this constant bleating that we are powerless and can't achieve success when dealing with recruitment and retention, I would be very concerned if the people at Rotherham are so bad at recruitment and contract negoiations as can be inferred from some of the comments on here, especially if the head of that department is about to be promoted to Director of Football. Personally I suspect that TS is blocking any recruitment and contract renewals at the moment until they have a financial plan in place for next season in L1, this includes out before in creating a limited net increase in ongoing costs.

[Masbroughstreet]

Nobody says forcing them, what we are talking about is making it clear we want them to sign a new deal, be visible that discussions are in progress and put together a deal that gives us the best chance of retaining them. It costs a lot more in total cost to get a replacement than to keep what you have, remember the club every few days keeps telling us how hard it is to recruit, so put effort into the area that you have more control over. Also it makes the player have to discuss it in any interviews and the fans can get a feeling of whether he wants a deal or not as to how he talks about it. We did this with Viktor and it worked, in his interviews during and after it was clear he always wanted a deal and to stay. What is annoying is this constant bleating that we are powerless and can't achieve success when dealing with recruitment and retention, I would be very concerned if the people at Rotherham are so bad at recruitment and contract negoiations as can be inferred from some of the comments on here, especially if the head of that department is about to be promoted to Director of Football. Personally I suspect that TS is blocking any recruitment and contract renewals at the moment until they have a financial plan in place for next season in L1, this includes out before in creating a limited net increase in ongoing costs.

We've offered contracts to all the players we've wanted to keep, in some cases the best deals in the clubs history. The fact is those players knew that they could still get more elsewhere and probably at a bigger club with better prospects. What incentive do they have to sign a new deal and what more can the club do other than pay more than it can afford? That's not being defeatist or negative, it's being realistic. I'm not saying the club is doing everything perfectly by the way. I think the debate shouldn't be about how can we retain these players, it's should be about have we kept them too long when we could have possibly sold them earlier. In hindsight, we should've let Ben Wiles go to Burnley for example.

Viktor is a complete anomaly, not just at Rotherham, but in modern football. I doubt any other footballer in his situation and form would've signed that deal. Luckily for us he did and fair play to him.

[howdydoo]

We've offered contracts to all the players we've wanted to keep, in some cases the best deals in the clubs history. The fact is those players knew that they could still get more elsewhere and probably at a bigger club with better prospects. What incentive do they have to sign a new deal and what more can the club do other than pay more than it can afford? That's not being defeatist or negative, it's being realistic. I'm not saying the club is doing everything perfectly by the way. I think the debate shouldn't be about how can we retain these players, it's should be about have we kept them too long when we could have possibly sold them earlier. In hindsight, we should've let Ben Wiles go to Burnley for example.

Viktor is a complete anomaly, not just at Rotherham, but in modern football. I doubt any other footballer in his situation and form would've signed that deal. Luckily for us he did and fair play to him.

Spot on.

If the club ever want to adopt a different approach, we have to move players on as and when we can get maximum coin for them. Particularly when we're in the championship or just been promoted.

[Derbymiller]

We've offered contracts to all the players we've wanted to keep, in some cases the best deals in the clubs history. The fact is those players knew that they could still get more elsewhere and probably at a bigger club with better prospects. What incentive do they have to sign a new deal and what more can the club do other than pay more than it can afford? That's not being defeatist or negative, it's being realistic. I'm not saying the club is doing everything perfectly by the way. I think the debate shouldn't be about how can we retain these players, it's should be about have we kept them too long when we could have possibly sold them earlier. In hindsight, we should've let Ben Wiles go to Burnley for example.

Viktor is a complete anomaly, not just at Rotherham, but in modern football. I doubt any other footballer in his situation and form would've signed that deal. Luckily for us he did and fair play to him.

You make some good points but I cannot agree with the last point, plenty of footballers sign contract extensions with non-elite clubs when they are playing well, some clubs get the contract extended with a view to sell within a year. Look we won't agree on this, my original point still stands this lad speaks well, is playing well and i would like to hear that the club are trying to extend his contract.

[Masbroughstreet]

You make some good points but I cannot agree with the last point, plenty of footballers sign contract extensions with non-elite clubs when they are playing well, some clubs get the contract extended with a view to sell within a year. Look we won't agree on this, my original point still stands this lad speaks well, is playing well and i would like to hear that the club are trying to extend his contract.

You're correct, we won't agree on it.

I'd like to hear that Odoffin has been offered a new contract too, and for all any of us know, he might have been. It'd be naive to think that if it hasn't been made public it hasn't happened.

[Derbymiller]

You're correct, we won't agree on it.

I'd like to hear that Odoffin has been offered a new contract too, and for all any of us know, he might have been. It'd be naive to think that if it hasn't been made public it hasn't happened.

I think it is more naive to believe the club are doing it right regards contract renewals and haven't made numerous mistakes. I think someone on here said a number of clubs put new contracts in front of players around the midpoint and if they don't renew they sell whilst they can, perhaps taking an approach like that for some of our players might help.

[Masbroughstreet]

I think it is more naive to believe the club are doing it right regards contract renewals and haven't made numerous mistakes. I think someone on here said a number of clubs put new contracts in front of players around the midpoint and if they don't renew they sell whilst they can, perhaps taking an approach like that for some of our players might help.

I don't believe I said the club are doing everything right and haven't made mistakes. I'm merely saying neither me or you have any idea of what has happened with regards to contracts behind closed doors.

[Jimmy Badfellow]

You make some good points but I cannot agree with the last point, plenty of footballers sign contract extensions with non-elite clubs when they are playing well, some clubs get the contract extended with a view to sell within a year. Look we won't agree on this, my original point still stands this lad speaks well, is playing well and i would like to hear that the club are trying to extend his contract.

I also think a goalkeepers career is slightly different in terms of pathways to that of an outfield player. Victor was only 23 when he signed that deal (a baby for a goaly) and it's important for him to be a number 1 in the spotlight for attracting widespread attention.Ironically our plight in this division probably works to his advantage because he gets lots to do!! To move to a bigger club at that age he suddenly runs the risk of becoming lost as a number 2 waiting for an injury to stake his claim.There is only 1 position a goalkeeper can play,there's only 1 in each team and the chance of injury is far less than an outside player.