Just saw a piece on footballunlimited.com saying WHam has offered 200,000 pounds for Lee, but Sheperd is saying we want 500k and furthermore, there will be no talks on a possible new contract until the end of the season. I can see his point in wanting to get the most money possible, and 500k really isn't that much these days, but it seems a bit unfair to the player to put him off again re contract talks. Wasn't he told a few months ago they'd talk about in January? I don't blame Lee for being a bit p.o'd

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

Answers

You're right Ciara, something smells whiffier than the Leazes end bogs at half time.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

agreed Ciara.... Rob has been a great servant to the club and even though a lot of people on here seem to think he's a bit selfish (re: testimonial)I think he's done more than enough to secure a place somewhere in the club's hierarchy. I'm sure he'd be willing to stay on in that capacity ahead of going to another club where he'd have to answer the same questions (re: age and ability).

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

No-one thought that it's a way to rid us of (as some commentators might call) a trouble maker? Besides, given that recent testimonials in other teams have made a point of donating their proceeds to charity I'm becoming slightly less fond of Lee.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

Legally, he can talk to any club he wants to talk to now, so, by not discussing his contract, knowing that he could be agreeing to join West Ham next season as we speak, I think we are basically saying "no thanks, Rob".

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

That's true. Maybe he just wants to hear something definite on whether he will be kept on before agreeing to go elsewhere. He's said several times he'd like to finish his career here. But you're right, he probably should just take this as a 'thanks for the memories' statement.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

Dougal - I thought somebody said on here that a player "about to be on a Bosman" could only talk to Johnny Foreigner after 1st Jan. If he wants to talk to some "stiff upper lip" he has to wait until his contract runs out. Have to confess, I'm not up on these rules like.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

There is not a shred of evidence, even anecdotal, that Rob Lee is a troublemaker. To suggest he may be, is doing a great disservice to a fantastic servant to the Club.

Talk about journalists!

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

I'm not sure, Screach, but the principle doesn't vary anyway: if we wanted him next season, we'd have given him an extension now.

While discussing players who deserve better treatment, it would be nice to pause to think of Warren Barton who is in the same position as Lee.

Clarky, you're right that there is little evidence to say that Lee is a trouble-maker but equally, we can't just assume this is the club being shoddy.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

What happened to "We'll discuss your contract in January?"

The board are lying scumbags.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

I wouldn't imagine that Footballunlimited has the full story of what has gone on between Lee and Shepherd. Shepherd is still away on his travels so this may be a rehash of old stories and statements taken out of context.

Equally, while giving him another two years is possibly the decent thing to do, if we lose out on a player in the summer because we have to factor Lee's £30K a week in (and it IS 30k a week) to the equation, we'll all be slightly p*ssed off about it. The Board, unlike us, have to think of these things. We simply don't know what is going on behind closed doors. Lee has said he doesn't want to leave Newcastle under a cloud and it is therefore in his interests to see the Chairman looking like the chief archictect of his departure.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

£30K does seem a lot for someone who isn't going to play that often.

Maybe we could give him a low basic wage with a higher appearance bonus?

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

The press taking things out of context??? naaaaah. ;-)

Now that you mention Wogsy, has anyone heard anything about him? Is he looking for a new team? going into coaching? hanging about the Strawbeery pretending to be a famous bbser so people will buy him drinks?

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

The Bosman ruling comes in to effect 6 months before the players contract comes to an end. Granted this is normally January as player's contracts normally run out on 1st July (end of season). This rule applies to any play - location doesn't come in to it. So 6 months before the end of a players contract a club may approach the player regarding a posible transfer to their club. As far as I know the club currently holding the expiring players' contract doesn't really have too much say in the matter.

I *think* that if a player is under 23 (that's a guess but it's around that age) then the club can still approach the player/club but will have to pay a certain amount of compensation.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

You have to believe that if the club intended to keep either Lee of Barton they would have offered them new contracts by now. As they don't appear to have done this I think it's safe to say they will both be leaving at the end of the season when they can negotiate their own deals.

We could perhaps have got a few bob for Lee by letting him go early, but the reality is that until we can afford another central m/f player we need him. It all seems to hang to gether to me.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002

I have no discomfort with the situation at all. An argument could be made that neither player has been a consistent Premiership performer for a while (or ever in one case), and absolutely they would not be of the required standard next season. At the salaries they both command/demand they are an unnecessary luxury.

The only way the could be offered contracts would be on a pay per play basis. I guess neither want this arrangement as they have seen how limited their opportunities are.

Meanwhile they are under contract, being paid megabucks, and shoudl remain as squad emergency players until the summer.

They will go the same way as Kevin Gallacher. All we have to hope is that Bobby finds replacements for them as good as Bellamy has turned out for Gallacher, then we can think about winning the CL !!

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2002