These are the commercial realities of Joe Rothwell’s situation.
1) Joe’s transfer value if he was on a 4 year contract would be around £7-10m, on the current remaining 6 months he’s probably worth around £4m at best.
2) Joe is solely responsible for his position, we like to blame agents – but the reality is that it’s Joe’s decision whether he wants to sign or leave, that decision is up to him. He is not a victim.
3) Joe is not injured, neither was he last week. The club take the ‘injury explanation’ route simply to placate the fans and allow the player a way back to play for the club should he not move on. A true explanation “that Joe doesn’t want to play because he wants to sign a lucrative new contract with another club” wouldn’t particularly go down well, the injury explanation suits both parties for this period.
4) So what’s the tension? Well, the reality is Joe is on the verge of becoming a multi-millionaire with a new contract, and he is trying to squeeze every pip to maximize his commercial position. Run down his contract, and effectively that £4-£6 transfer fee gets converted into a signing on fee, or over inflated salary (not dissimilar to Aaron Ramsey and many other footballers)
5) The stakes are high though, because if he stays and sees out his contract, and then gets injured – that millionaire dream could quite easily slip away. So the reality is he doesn’t want to play – given that lack of security. Of course, he could sign with Rovers for security and then move on, but it’s because he’s choosing to 100% maximize his transfer value, that this standoff situation develops with club – some would argue that’s he’s being greedy.
6) But this is not good for the club either, because their leverage is close to zero, if the player claims injury and refuses to play then there is very little they can do.
7) Conclusion, sadly for us fans, I suspect the club will have little choice, but to sell Joe Rothwell in January. Hopefully as the club matures and grows (and lets aspire to being a Brentford) – the club will learn much from this period.
Apologies for the depressing read, but these are the commercials realities – for record I hope Joe stays, and I am wrong!