Steve Evans":1t7b5r5i said:
i think argyle could try doing a "swansea" that is get him to sign a longer contract with us and give him a juicy signing on fee (wilfried bony style) in the full knowledge that he will almost certainly be sold for a much higher fee.
This would be the route I'd be looking into. Our best chance of keeping him is for him to see out this year and hope we are in League 1 come next season, the problem there is the risk of us doing the same thing as last year and not going up; suddenly our gamble sees us lose him for nothing having turned down the opportunity of any money in January.
As I see it a longer contract with an agreed transfer fee written into it keeps both sides happy. The fee can be set at a value we believe high enough to sell him for but not too high that he sees it as trapping him here. This protects us from losing him for nothing and at the same time gives him the option to leave he desires should we fail to go up.
This does of course hinder his chances in that some clubs will be put off by a fee at the end of the season but that is where a nice signing on bonus comes into play, we compensate him for putting off a few cheapskate Oxford style clubs that would have tapped him up if he had been out of contract.