The Clarke-sized elephant in the room

Its almost like hes holding GTFC to ransom. It seems to be a case of he thinks  GTFC need him more than he needs them.

Yes I know he is entitled to ask for more money, but as we all know now, money, and contracts, are at a premium at the moment. You'd think that in these times any player who has the chance of a contract would snap the chance up without a moments hesitation. Lets face it, if a player has 'survived' on £1K a week (ball park figure) does he really need another 200 quid a week at the moment? If a player signs a contract, he has an income. If he pushes for more money when its clearly not available, then he is without a club and no income. Go figure.

One player is not more important than the club.

Look at Ozil at Arsenal; got the big contract, doesn't perform, ostracises team mates, whole team imbalance.

Not saying Clarke is like that, but the hesitation to sign suggests he's keeping his options open (who wouldnt) but the club needs to be strong enough to go for what is in the teams best interests.

Leicester won the premier with low wages but a fantastic team spirit.

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

Its almost like hes holding GTFC to ransom. It seems to be a case of he thinks  GTFC need him more than he needs them.

Yes I know he is entitled to ask for more money, but as we all know now, money, and contracts, are at a premium at the moment. You'd think that in these times any player who has the chance of a contract would snap the chance up without a moments hesitation. Lets face it, if a player has 'survived' on £1K a week (ball park figure) does he really need another 200 quid a week at the moment? Lets face it, if a player signs a contract, he has an income. If he pushes for more money when its clearly not available, then he is without a club and no income. Go figure.

One player is not more important than the club.

A player of that age or any age in the current landscape will pretty much sign the biggest deal an agent can get him.

More often than not they’re not that bothered who they play for as long as they’re getting regular starts and paid what “they” believe they’re worth.

If there is one potential good thing to come out of this mess it might just be that agents don’t cream as much off the top as they have done previously for adding no overall value to the game ..... I hope!

I don’t begrudge Clarke a decent living but considering prior to a relatively decent patch with us he couldn’t get in the team at Plymouth and IH signed him after a prompt from some of his former Blackpool team mates I’d doubt he’ll get many massive offers.

All that said I’d be pleased to see him in a Town shirt next season.

He’s probably just waiting it out for a bit. Can’t blame him.

Got to remember there's little loyalty in football at the moment and it works both ways. Clarke is 33 in December and needs to make the most of his last few years in the game. He came here, did a good job when we were in trouble at the wrong end of the league, but if he hadn't we'd have dumped him sharpish.
If we can sign him I'd be happy but if not good luck to the guy. Same applies to Vernam.

Like is being said, I would really like him to stay, but in these times we all have to do what is best for yourselves. That being both him and us.
Hopefully he will re-sign for us. 😎

Do we know what his demands are ?

Agents are the lowest of the low all they are concerned about is what is their cut.

If Clarke wants to stay and he did plead with Ollie to sign him he will tell his agent to except what is on offer.

Which will be 25% less than he was on until we can get crowds back in .

Every club is in the same boat well apart from a few rich chairmen throwing money away.

Clarke for me was one of the better things to come out of the end of last season, really livened our front play up, linked up with players in all areas, quality on the ball, great movement. Think we would struggle to find similar qualities/ experience.  Would love us to sign him again but albeit within our limits.

He probably has one, maybe two years left. Isn't local, has no ties to the area and is only likely to have signed for us to put himself in the shop window.

Clearly he was fantastic at this level, but money is tight so our offer isn't going to be great. He will want the most he can get, and he will definitely get a contract somewhere, so it's only right he tries to do what's best for him. I hope he's with us next season, but don't want us to break the budget for him, or anybody else for that matter.

Think we can be objective about this.
We would like to sign him at the right price.
He would like to stay at the right price.
He has plenty of options
We have plenty of candidates

Don’t think anyone needs to overreact. If we can agree with him, fine.
If not there are plenty of alternatives on both sides.