....offer Stuart Holden a contract extension.
One thing our club have been abysmal at over the last 5-10 years is contract negotiations and offering contracts to players at the right time, an area that is pretty much the primary responsibility of Phil Gartside. The mess up with the Elmander and Cahill negotiations can't be followed up with mistakes with our current best players, especially now with Lee and Holden.
Holden signed a contract extension in 2010 which will keep him at the club until 2013, but we should capitalise on the player and his agent's uncertainty of how his rehabilitation will go by offering an additional 2-3 year deal now. The signs were pretty good from last night with Holden covering over 60mins, so I would expect that he'll be back to his best and be courted by the top clubs by the end of the season.
Isn't now the time to...
posted on 9/1/13
But he has been injured for two years. No one will touch him and if he does have a storming start to his season then after two years support he owes us a new contract. If he wont sign one then we would have to sell anyway. even after half a season no one would pay good money for him. Contracts mean very little these days.
posted on 9/1/13
I don't ant to see the club have to let another asset go for peanuts and he doesn't owe us anything at all. Look at it like he's his own company, Stuart Holden inc. and he needs to do what's in his own best interest. He owes us nothing - I would like to think that he owes us his loyalty for paying him for 2 years without playing, but reality is that we only honoured his contract. It was bad luck on our part that he was injured and couldn't play.
posted on 9/1/13
Played at Bolton and had injury problems. Big Sam will be interested I'm sure.
posted on 9/1/13
Offer him a one year extension on his current terms with the option for the club to extend it to an extra 2 on top if he comes back as good as before.
Seems the best compromise.
posted on 9/1/13
Can you prepare the paperwork please WF
posted on 9/1/13
i cant see holden wanting to leave ,he seems the sort of player who would want to stay with the club ,just my opinion
posted on 9/1/13
Not sure I'm qualified. But I will attempt to make contact with our deep cover agent and see if he can leave a note tucked under Garty's diary.
I'm kind of with you goldenwyndavies, I get the feeling that he just wants to be back playing again. Next move career wise I would imagine is not too far up his priorities.
posted on 9/1/13
American midfielder speaks after completing 65 minutes for the development squad on Tuesday evening
Stuart Holden was delighted to make his long-awaited Wanderers return after playing 65 minutes for the development squad at the County Ground last night.
The midfielder has spent a prolonged period of time on the sidelines with a knee injury, but recently returned to training with Dougie Freedman’s side at Euxton.
The US international successfully navigated his first completive match since his return, featuring in the Whites’ 3-0 Manchester Senior Cup victory over Oldham, but the 27-year-old insisted that he will not get ahead of himself.
“It was great. I felt good, sharp and fit,” Holden said, speaking after the game. “It was good to put some tackles in, to get on the ball and to be playing in a real game. I now feel that I am getting closer to making my return to the first team.
“It has been a long road but it is one in which I have maintained perspective and I have been taking it at the right pace. It is now important that I don’t get carried away at this late stage.
“But as far as how my knee felt and how I felt out there, I think I can come away from that feeling really good about it all and now I need to do the proper things during the recovery and prepare myself for the next game.
“If all goes well from this then I don’t anticipate any reaction and I can now take the next step. That will be playing a bit longer and then I think I will be ready to roll with the full 90 minutes. I am very close now. I have worked so hard to get to this stage and I don’t want to do anything now to mess that up.
“The manager said that I had done well after the game. He has been very encouraging and understanding about the situation since he got here. I am very thankful for that and he doesn’t put any pressure on me to rush back. We have all got the long-term goal in mind.
“Training has been great. It has been so intense and it has been nice to learn the manager’s perspective of the game. He was a good player in his time and he has got a lot to teach and I am willing to listen and learn to make myself a better player.”
posted on 9/1/13
Cheers CEF great article. Excited about seeing him again.
posted on 10/1/13
Can't argue with that Clegg, but Cahill's situation wasn't handled well tho
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no your right there, i think it was obvious he was going to go, just like Anelka was going to go, but anelka signed an extension to get us some dosh in. Probably could of got a lot more for cahill than we did!