Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann has revealed the club could be close on agreeing contract renewals with
At the Eco-Power Stadium, new contracts have already been given to Ben Close, Zain Westbrooke, James Maxwell, and Richard Wood, laying the groundwork for the upcoming campaign.
The team is negotiating with other players on the roster, showing that they are not resting on their laurels. Prior to the journey to Morecambe this coming weekend, McCann stated: “I had a positive meeting with Terry [Bramall, chairman] and Gavin [Baldwin, chief executive] yesterday, talking about all sorts of different topics really and trying to improve us for moving forward.”
“Obviously, one of the conversations was contract renewals, incomings for next season, things like this. There’s others that we’d like to keep, of course there is, we’re working hard to try to do that. Are we close? I think we could be close with one or two. We’ll see when we get this sorted but we’re working hard to try and keep one or two, and possibly three more players.”
When negotiating terms for renewal, clubs must do complex balancing acts since they must consider both their own best interests and the likelihood that a player could earn more elsewhere.
It is no secret that as summer draws near, a lot of players weigh their choices, but McCann needs things done quickly. “That’s the issue we’ll have,” he stated, referring to participants assessing the market before committing.
“As a football club, we don’t really want to be in that position. The way I like to work and the way I’ve always worked is, once we’ve put an offer to a player, we put a deadline on it. The deadline will be ‘you’re either signing or you’re not’.
“We really don’t want this to drag on past this season because we know it can get a little messy. I realise that this will be on people’s minds, especially for players who are performing well. ‘I’ll wait because such and such could come in and give me X, Y, and Z, or a better club than Doncaster,’ they will say. I’ve played football long enough to truly comprehend that, so I know that.
But in our opinion, we can’t be held accountable for it, nor can we be practically used as a tool by certain agents to ask, ‘Well, Doncaster has provided this, can you better it?'” I don’t love working that way, and we want players to be here to join us on this adventure, enjoy their game, and take pleasure in watching this club grow. That is precisely our intention.
Rather than holding us hostage, we would rather for others to participate in it. We want everyone to have fun while they’re here and to take in this football club’s revolution. Let’s make sure we can attempt to proceed as a unit.
