Doyle signs extension

[TFF]

Hammond - "Doyler, we know you wanna leave and go to the prem so we'll do a deal - stay with us past jan and we'll give you a pay rise. If we're promoted you're in the prem and so are we, if we're not, you leave in the summer not Jan for a knockdown price"

Doyle - "Only if the pay rise is backdated to the start of the season and the release clause is low, you can always say it's "undisclosed" when i leave so as not to piss those mugs off that turn up every week"

Hammond - "ok, sign now and we can play up to the media mugs and the fans that everything is rosey"

Doyle - "signed"

Everyone knows a contract means fuck all. He aint committed, he's just agreed to wait 6 months if he's compensated with more dosh in the mean time.

IIRC Doyle doesn't have an agent; contract negotiations in the past have been with a solicitor. Whilst I'm sure there'll be a release clause or two (be it a certain offer or our failure to get promoted) I can't see anyone involved in these negotiations being as Machiavellian as you suggest.

Bottom line - good news all round.

[brendywendy]

Top wumming! Except no one has said this means he'll stay forever, people were convinced hed be off in jan,and this makes that miles less probable. Thats it.

[Top Flight]

Doyle is an absolute superstar.

Now that the speculation that he will be off in January has finished, I can now focus on my work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can concentrate on my business.

It would be good if some of our other in demand stars signed new deals as well just as a symbolic gesture of our intent. That would make us a more attractive proposition for incoming players in the next transfer window as well.

[No Hoops]

He must speak with the other team members especially Hunt, you would think that they have discussed what could happen and hopefully decided that they will go nowhere until the Summer if we are not promoted.

Just goes to show that Sir Steve's loyalty to his players is repaid by some. And on that note, just goes to show how important it was keeping Coppell in the Summer.

Well done to all those who were involved!

That is what makes this club so special. I'm off for a little cry now

[CMRoyal]

Fantastic news! It's the only thing that could convince everyone - well, most people - that he wanted to stay...although didn't S Hunt sign a new contract earlier this year?

Yep, and if he hadn't he'd currently be warming Everton's bench after a £2.5m summer move. Whichever way you look at it - cynically or otherwise - it boosts our chances of keeping Kev till the end of the season.

[TFF]

[No Hoops]

That wedding ring looks a bit tight

[Barry the bird boggler]

Great news. Won't completely stop rumours of course but should at least dampen interest in January and mean he sees out the season with us.

Also with Kevin committing himself like this the likes of Hunty and Harper may also be more inclined to see out the season.

[RoyalBlue]

Hammond - "Doyler, we know you wanna leave and go to the prem so we'll do a deal - stay with us past jan and we'll give you a pay rise. If we're promoted you're in the prem and so are we, if we're not, you leave in the summer not Jan for a knockdown price"

Doyle - "Only if the pay rise is backdated to the start of the season and the release clause is low, you can always say it's "undisclosed" when i leave so as not to piss those mugs off that turn up every week"

Hammond - "ok, sign now and we can play up to the media mugs and the fans that everything is rosey"

Doyle - "signed"

Everyone knows a contract means fuck all. He aint committed, he's just agreed to wait 6 months if he's compensated with more dosh in the mean time.

IIRC Doyle doesn't have an agent; contract negotiations in the past have been with a solicitor. Whilst I'm sure there'll be a release clause or two (be it a certain offer or our failure to get promoted) I can't see anyone involved in these negotiations being as Machiavellian as you suggest.

Bottom line - good news all round.

You do some solicitors a dis-service. Many are extremely commercially astute and able to negotiate just as good a deal, if not better, for their client as an agent. Call it Machiavellian or just clever but I don't think you can assume they won't work in similar way to an agent.

[Silver Fox]

If they're not a licenced agent they won't be receiving an agent's fee, thus negating the main driving force behind an agent (apart from their client's best interests of course)

[Sun Tzu]

Also if their brief is to obtain the best deal possible for their client from their current club they won't at the same time be ringing round everywhere else trying to sell him.

Seems probably there is a fundamental difference between going into a contract meeting with a well qualified, astute adviser who will be aiming to get the best deal for you and going in with someone with a completely different agenda in which getting you to leave your current job is probably as much in their interest as sorting out a new deal where you are.

[Deathy]

I don't get all the fuss???

Great, he's signed....woohaahh.

He was almost certainly always going to leave next summer if we cock up promotion, and this doesn't change anything.

I doubt also that the release clause is low, or indeed lower. It'll be set around £7m. We know we can get it if he carries on in this rich vain of form, so why shoot ourselves in the foot and say you can walk away for £5m instead. I can't see it.

[RG30]

By signing a contract, this puts an end to any immediate transfer speculation. If we're not promoted at the end of the season, Doyle will be sold and he should go with every Reading fans blessing. He'll have made the club a nice profit, he's given us 4 good years service and he's been a model professional in that time.

[Royal Fleet]

By signing a contract, this puts an end to any immediate transfer speculation. If we're not promoted at the end of the season, Doyle will be sold and he should go with every Reading fans blessing. He'll have made the club a nice profit, he's given us 4 good years service and he's been a model professional in that time.

Agree with this totally.

[CMRoyal]

By signing a contract, this puts an end to any immediate transfer speculation. If we're not promoted at the end of the season, Doyle will be sold and he should go with every Reading fan's blessing. He'll have made the club a nice profit, he's given us 4 good years service and he's been a model professional in that time.

Thread might as well end there because nothing needs adding to the above.

[Man Friday]

Fantastic news and I would guess any clause will be activated if we aren't promoted next summer.

...or even if we are. (If he gets us promotion the slate will be seen as clean.)

[Rex]

Nice Jackson Pollock in the background.

Doyle stays with us - great news. Costs more to buy him off his with the contract extension. Just need to line S Hunt up now!. N Hunt - contract extension please.

[Friday's Child]

Doyle stays til summer = most important when trying to get promoted again. I have no problem with him moving on in summer, 500 times more problem with him moving in January. Also provides the management team with the chance to prepare more for summer (given that it is likely that promoted or not, he will move on).

Hunt + Harper - if either move on, I am more confident of finding a well-priced replacement than for Doyle in Janaury.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Doyle signed a new extension because he wants to play for us. We're shitting out goals for fun and now that the 'Irish influence' is getting the press it deserves, Id be very hard pressed to name any other team that Doyle would enjoy playing for more. He'll stay and he'll stay for as long as we are such an attractive proposition to play for. And that well may be beyond next season and longer. We reward him well for his services, he gets a game every week, he keeps his name at the top of the goal scorer's chart, and we dont influence in any bad way his international career.

In short, if he wanted to go, he wouldnt sign a new contract until February.

Im still hanging around waiting for our next Parkinson - a player who stays at the club for a long while and becomes legendary because of it. Murty didnt quite do it for me, but this contract news is one (small) step towards Doyle fulfilling that prophecy.

My prediction for January is that Lita seems to have found his club - its all about whether Norwich can afford him (although I doubt we're asking much for him). Outside of that, not much will happen. And that includes S Hunt and Doyle.

[Ian Royal]

Good post Dr H.

Though I disagree on your view of Murty. I think he's taken on the long serving legend role of Parky well. Just in a different way. He's not a blood and guts tackler with the occasional screamer of a goal, but he's equally as hard working and productive for the team.