Jose wants extended stay on Tyneside.
Posted on July 9th, 2010 | 112 Comments |
That is fine, I think we all agree that new signings should be on the agenda but we shouldn’t forget an equally important aspect, and that is maintaining the squad we have already and nailing our better players down with new contracts.
We are going through a bit of that at the moment with Steven Taylor, Andy Carroll and Tim Krul all looking set for new contracts, but Jose Enrique has today said that he fancies signing a new long term contract on Tyneside himself, depsite the fact he still has two years remaining on his current deal.
Enrique clearly loves life at Newcastle and is a firm crowd favourite. He was also one of best players last season and was responsible for one of the iconic images (as pictured) that summed up our promotion campaign when he bagged the second goal – his first for the club – in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in March.
There has never been any doubt over the commitment shown by the Spaniard and he frequently pops up in the press saying how much he loves Newcastle and how he would be prepared to spend the rest of his career at St James Park, and today he has reitirated his desire to stay in the North East.
“I have always said the same thing,” Jose told The Journal. “When I signed here, I signed for five years. I have two years more – this year and another one – but I am already thinking about the future and hoping that my stay is longer than that. I would like to stay for another five years if it possible. I am very happy here and I hope this season will be very good for us.”
It is always nice to hear that one of our players is so happy that he would be willing to commit pretty much the rest of his career to the club. There were questions regarding whether or not the Spaniard would stick with us after relegation, but he nailed his colours to the mast, told the world he was staying to help us get back in the Premier League, rolled his sleeves up and got on with it, and that was amid all the speculation of players leaving over the summer. Jose seems unfazed by it all though.
“I don’t take any notice of what is written or said about me,” he insisted. “I know there are stories saying I might be going to Spain or another of the players might be going back to Argentina, but I don’t pay any attention. If I’m honest, I don’t see the English papers and I don’t care what they say about me.”
Well at least he has sussed the press out eh? At the end of the day, Newcastle should be seriously thinking about offering those players who have 2 years left on their contract a new deal. If the club let a player drift into the final 12 months of his contract then you have a situation like we are going through with Steven Taylor at the moment, where the player holds all the cards.
I don’t think Jose will be offered a new deal yet, as much as I would love him to be offered one. I believe that decisions like that will be made once we know if we are going to be relegated or whether we are to survive at the end of the forthcoming season, which would be short-sighted, but not out of character for our beloved club.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Is it not a bit early for us to be talking to him about new contracts?
We usually like to leave it until their in the last year.
Also, I think he may well be asked to take a pay cut – He is on good money isn’t he?