Devils working to keep hold of players whose contracts set to end
AS the days roll on without action on the field, focus in sporting circles is increasingly turning to speculation about transfers and player movement.
In rugby league, players who will be out of contract at the end of the season are typically permitted to negotiate with potential new employers from the beginning of May.
Salford have a number of key players whose contracts are due to expire - including captain Lee Mossop, Joey Lussick and Niall Evalds - in November, and the virus situation is making it particularly difficult for negotiations to take place regarding retention or any potential recruitment.
“It’s difficult to get face-toface with people at the moment, so I think everyone has put it on the back-burner at this moment in time,” explained Red Devils boss Ian Watson. “Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff to go on before that. The financial side of the game, making sure that the competition is up and running, everyone is well looked after and their health is the first and foremost thing at the moment.
“The contracts and everything get put to the back, but you’ve got to have an eye on that because at some point, that will become an issue for the players going forward. If the competition runs until December, well people’s contracts are up in November, so what does that mean? Does that mean that somebody can leave the club at the end of November, do you have to extend their contract until the end of December?
“Are they going to be held to the same deadline that’s still in place or do they need to move that back to give clubs time to get face-to-face with their players?”
Throughout lockdown Watson is using his time wisely to assess potential recruits, but – along with director of rugby Ian Blease – is extremely keen to keep hold of players that could potentially depart the AJ Bell Stadium.
“Again, we’ve got quite a few off [contract] again,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about, myself and Bleasey, we don’t want that every year.
“We don’t want 12 players coming off contract and having to bring 12 new ones in. We want to build a bit of consistency. It takes time to get people in and stagger those contracts, but it’s something Bleasey is well aware of and it’s something he can use this time to look at. We started in pre-season. We spoke to Niall, he’s a big player for us. We’ve got people like Lee Mossop off-contract as well and Joey, so we need to get on top of it. The good thing is that we’ve got quite a few players who are still on-contract, good players, in Tui [Lolohea], Ken Sio, people like that.”