McKeown interview - Grimsby Telegraph

Our club has never rewarded loyalty

“Very rarely are you going to get an offer come in where someone puts a big chunk of money on the table and you have no other choice but to take it."

Did say over a week ago about this.

Good luck Macca.

It reads to me like he is pretty much going. I would love him to stay, but as much as I don't like saying it, I don't think Town should break the bank for him.. IMO one of the better keepers in this league, but definitely not irreplaceable.  
If you do go Macca I genuinely wish you all the best and thanks very much for your contribution in getting us back in the league.  

The board have to show a little bit more ambition to keep players like this,players don't really want to uproot their family when they are settled and it may only take a small wage increase to get a positive result,lessons need to be learnt from when we let our promotion team be decimated

It's not being ambitious to pay over the odds for a player, though, is it?

Much as I'd like McKeown to stay, because he's been a good keeper for us, if he's got a fantastic offer elsewhere which we can't or perhaps shouldn't match, then good luck to him. We then just have to trust that Jolley is able to sign a good replacement within a sensible budget.

In this day and age, the route of loaning out a young Premier League keeper for a season isn't perhaps such a bad one as Henderson has shown for the Shrews. The big clubs will invariably have no end of good keepers on the books after they've hoovered up all the decent hopefuls from smaller clubs so even a 3rd or 4th choice will probably be up to the job of League Two football.

Clearly Motherwell have put a very generous offer to him but if Town can get close enough then he'll stay. His "it will be sorted soon" comments suggests he's told the club what he wants and the ball's now firmly in their court. It sounds like a massive pay rise so I doubt we can compete in this case.

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

Clearly Motherwell have put a very generous offer to him but if Town can get close enough then he'll stay. His "it will be sorted soon" comments suggests he's told the club what he wants and the ball's now firmly in their court. It sounds like a massive pay rise so I doubt we can compete in this case.

If Jolley has a squad made up of quality rather than quantity, there should be substantial funds available to reward the small number of players who deserve improved deals, like McKeown does. I think Town should be able to sort this, but they’ll no doubt mess him around and give him no choice.

He'll probably leave over £50 or petrol money.

Nah! That would never happen would it?  

I wonder if there's any way of getting more creative with players pay. Obviously the basic budget has to be decided in advance and each player will be offered a slice of that. Bonuses for getting promotion seem obvious enough too.

But how about add-ons if the average attendance is much higher than expected for example? Seems like there's real potential for players to earn much more than their basic package in a season while at the same time the club aren't locked in to paying something they can't afford.

He could have left the summer after Gateshead beat us in the playoffs, which was probably his best season for us, but stayed on citing "unfinished business" after he dropped that clanger. For that, he will always be a club legend for me. He hasn't always had an easy ride from all of the support either. He was slated quite a lot around the Bignot period, but his attitude has always come across as superb. He is always honest and genuine when interviewed and he's an asset to the club. I'll be gutted if he goes, but I think everyone understands the situation. Will be interesting to see how he reacts at full time on Saturday.