Owen Garvan is now well and truly into the last year of his contract. As he stalls on signing his new contract offer, you begin to wonder at exactly what point the club will decide they have had enough. If ever?
Owen Garvan was offered a new contract at Ipswich Town several months ago. Since then, a mixture of reasons have been given as to when Owen will sit down and consider his future.
At first, he was waiting to the end of the season. Something which will buy any player time- how could anyone argue with a player wanting to give his 100% concentration to his performances on the pitch? Once we reached the end of the season, he was off to see if he could impress Mr. Trappatoni, his new national manager. Once again, surely all fans would recognise that its important he gives his all to further his international career? Once he had finished his tour with the Republic of Ireland, he was off on holiday. Once again, surely nobody could possibly begrudge a player having a well-earned rest are giving his all for the club?
And so, here we are. Pre-season training has started, pre-season warm-up matches have started and, within two weeks, the season itself will have begun. So, has Owen sat down and carefully considered his position by now? Well, it turns out that he is now, officially, "not in a great rush". It seems that Garvan has at last communicated with the club, with the inference being that he would like to sign his new deal but that there are some amendments to be made first.
Its a strange situation, somewhat reminiscent of that which Ipswich found themselves in with Richard Wright back in the summer of 2000, something which, on that occasion, they didnt entirely find a satisfactory solution to. As with Wright, Garvan holds great value to the club, not just in his transfer value, but also in his value on the pitch. Selling him would leave a hole needing to be filled.
What happens next? The situation has drifted on for so long that some of the options previously open to the club are now rapidly disappearing. There appear to be three options.
Firstly, If they feel Garvan isnt likely to sign, or if they feel the terms being requested are not satisfactory, then ordinarily the club would have no option but to cash in now and avoid a huge depreciation on the players value. Yet, at this late stage, it would likely result in Ipswich attempting to find a buyer and sign a replacement player all within about 10 days, if they dont want their pre-season preparations to be turned on their head. At this moment, a sale seems very unlikely, and it appears Garvans deliberations havent helped the club in that respect.
Secondly, however, It remains that with the emphasis very heavily placed upon promotion, and with a benefactor prepared to accept some losses, the players worth to the side may be deemed to be more valuable at this moment in time than his transfer value a year from now. Under these circumstances, the club would be able to simply hold firm on their contract negotiations and prepare to lose the player in a year, on the understanding that they will retain his services for the forthcoming season. This may just unsettle the player and, once a pre-contract agreement is signed from January with another club, it could affect performances.
The third option is to agree to the players negotiations and get him signed up on a long term contract. This is effectively going to be a compromise whereby the club have a player who is happy to stay at the club for the next season, at least, with the club perhaps agreeing to sell him at a rate below the market price should we fail to win promotion, for example. As per the Richard Wright scenario, it seems the most likely option at this point to ensure at least some of the players transfer worth is maintained in the short term.
There is a further scenario though. That the club dont value the player as highly as we might perhaps think. With Tommy Miller joined by Veliche Shumulikoski and David Norris to vie for the central midfield spots, the competition for places already appears to be fierce. Perhaps the planning for the future is further advanced than we thought?
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