I thought it was really interesting. A few thoughts leap out but mostly it seems that the unofficial hold on contracts following Jurgen’s announcement to the new structure bedding in has left a real hole in our contract process - a lot of lads are entering their final two years. Not all of them are keepers, but it does force a decision this summer on Gomez (who is still only 28 ffs), Tsimikas, Bradley, Endo, Jones, Elliott, Bajcetic, Diaz and Jota
Isn’t that quite normal? I don’t think we tend to extend contracts very long prior to the final two years unless we signed them on a really low contract because of where they were prior to us signing them?
I have no idea. But to me, it looks like we have a lot of contract work to do this summer, whether that’s extending, moving on, or just making the decision to allow it to expire.
We don’t want to end up allowing these to drift into their final year, and then Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister all needing new deals as well.
Think much of that would have been going on throughout the season. Very unlikely Endo and Tsmikas are in the running for new contracts. Bajcetic is probably for me the one with the biggest uncertainty of that group given he has been out on loan and we dont yet know how he fits with Arne’s plans or we in his.
Yeah its a great graphic. You’re right there are far too many players with only 2 years left. Kelleher and Jaros need to be renewed or let go and, great player that he is, I think the same applies to Konate. Jones and Bradley need new deals in the summer preferably for 5+ years and renewals for Elliot, Diaz and Jota. I’d be disappointed if most of these aren’t close to being ready for signage. If players want to ‘keep their options open’ we need to consider selling as we can’t afford to leave such a large and valuable part of the squad to leave for free while paying significant fees for incomings.
Kelleher, Tsimikas and Morton will go this summer.
Robo is probably a wait and see but possibly gets another two year deal on reduced terms.
Endo is a candidate to sell but at worst sees out his deal.
Konate, Bradley and Jones are urgent needs, probably Diaz too.
Jota, Elliott, Bajcetic and Gomez I’d say are all ones we could sell this summer if we got an above our valuation offer but could all get to next summer before we see a final decision made on them.
Definitely some priorities but we do seem remarkably comfortable with contracts getting to the last two years compared to a lot of other clubs.
I don’t think we “reward” a player so much as correct the contract to market conditions before they feel undervalued.
And given that most contracts are seemingly usually 4 or 5 year contracts, giving them a new contract 2 years in is roughly equivalent to extending with 2 years left (or 3 years, but again that’s probably in that rare case).
Maybe the 6 & 8 year contracts Chelsea were throwing about last year and the one before have some merit, if only to stop some players running down their contracts and leaving for free without us getting good longterm use or a fee out of them.
Downside to this would be longterm/continuously injured players on high paying contracts, but we don’t seem to pay big wages in initial contracts given, as well we might have some responsibility to players who get injured while employed by the club.
I don’t think it is worth it, otherwise we would have seen it introduced much earlier. The fact that the only club we have seen introduce such a policy brought it in to skirt spending restrictions rather than avoid the loss of talent on free/ low fees suggests as much.
Truth is clubs like ours don’t usually lose that many players, we want to keep, on free transfers and who are at the peak of their game.
Isn’t Mudryk on a long contract. Luckily for Chelsea, he’s currently banned, and if the hearings confirm a long ban, Chelsea will probably terminate his contract. Chances that Toddy slipped something into Mudryks drink
I’m probably the only one who thinks this way, but I actually don’t mind the situations where a player runs their contract down, if we have ready-made replacements waiting in the wings.
Sure, there’s the emotional impact of losing the player, and it weakens us a little, but if it’s anything like the transition from Alexander-Arnold to Bradley, then I’d say that it’s worth it if we get to play a world-class player for a couple of seasons on the cheap (because that would be the period when they would be getting their contracts renewed but they don’t), while we know we don’t need to splash out the cash for the mega-contract they would be wanting (and let’s not forget, even if Alexander-Arnold renewed on a 4 or 5 year contract, there’s still the next renewal to think about). For those who like the idea of churn/turnover in order to inject energy or whatever vague concept, then this is built-in churn/turnover.
Of course, this is conditioned on our recruitment remaining stellar.
