http://www.barnsley-chronicle.co.uk...-deal-a-steal-as-keeper-set-to-leave-for-free After past issues we were told contract clauses would be a thing of the past. Obviously not.
We were told they would be a thing of the past for new signings, but if that was the deal that got Luke to sign a two year contract then I'm perfectly fine with that. In fact, I think that's a smart contract to have in place.
If we put a pay cut in to Steele's contract should we be relegated (very sensible thing to do) have we also done the same for Cranie, O'Grady and Kennedy? All of whom also signed their contracts last summer. Not expecting you to know, just wondering. Can completely understand why Steele wanted a release clause too if signing a contract that contained a wage cut, however, free seems a bit cheap to me. Couldn't we have insisted on a small fee like £100K or summat? Steele is worth far more than that but it would have given us a bit of brass for signing on fees and agent fees and all that gubbings when signing a replacement.
I'm not surprised and to be fair I don't blame him. If he took a massive pay cut last season as suggested, he was bound to have something in place to give him assurances if we were to be relegated or not in a position to offer him better terms in the future. He probably wouldn't have signed a new contract last season without these clauses. He's probably not the only one, Cranie and O'Grady are probably on similar terms.
Which goes to show why people shouldn't be so quick to judge. Even after the event they cant go blabbing openly about his contract as it doesn't go down well with other players. Probably someone has had a quiet word with the Chronicle and got them to do it for them....
Let's be reyt, the club showed him absolutely no loyalty for a long part of last summer so fair play to him for insisting on that clause.
Surprised none of the experts on here knew about that clause and told us earlier - them who know what the players are on and that....
It also shows that football clubs will say owt to their customers to keep them happy while doing the opposite
I don't think that's much of a surprise. It cant be an easy job knowing if you tell the truth about everything you'll get a likely downturn in business which will add on to the previous downturn on the pitch....Im not saying its right, but unless you're in that position...
I do get that but it doesnt make it right and certainly causes a significant drop in respect for the people involved and the knock on effect is that the next time they tell the fans something theyll assume the club is lying.
I don't think there was a need to put a fee in for him Jay. With the contract we got him to sign we'd secured our number one keeper for two seasons without any investment to the wage bill. This was obviously on the assumption we wouldn't be relegated. If he was to perform well during that relegation season, we were happy to let him move on for free providing someone was interested. If he didn't perform that well and didn't catch any interest for teams wanting to pay him more then we were securing our number one for the League One season at reduced terms. My tenses above are all over the place, but hopefully you get what I mean!