Manchester United are hopeful of agreeing new longer term contracts with a number of players this summer, rather than rely on triggering 12-month options to retain them.
Writing 12-month options into deals appears to have been a method discarded by the club since the end of last season. But as many as eight of the players on course to be out of contract at the end of the 2022/23 campaign still have them included in their respective terms.
United don’t have the safety net when it comes to leading players Alessia Russo and Ona Batlle, both of whom had such options triggered last year on deals that were due to expire in 2022 – the club remains keen to tie each to a new long-term contract before the summer.
Mary Earps and Hayley Ladd are out of contract in 2023 and do have untriggered options. But with both vitally important, United ideally want to agree new longer term deals with each of them instead of falling back on the short-term extension and only kicking the can a little down the road.
The situation now also covers several others with deals up this year, with the club preferring to delay triggering options in the hope of securing more formal renewals. There also remains a hint of the possibility that the outcome of the season – and whether or not United will be playing Champions League football in 2023/24, also affecting budget – will be a factor in the decisions.
Beyond Earps and Ladd, the players out of contract this coming summer with extension options that haven’t been triggered are Hannah Blundell, Vilde Boe Risa, Maria Thorisdottir, Martha Thomas, Sophie Baggaley and Carrie Jones, currently on loan at Leicester.
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“We have been looking at that since December. This is a club that plans beyond the here and now. There will be renewals within that as well,” United boss Marc Skinner has confirmed – his own 12-month option to 2024 has already been triggered by the club.
As United prepare to face Brighton in the team’s first ever FA Cup semi-final, Skinner also denied feeling any ‘concern’ at this moment in time over the uncertainty with regard to contracts being created by the ongoing unresolved takeover process at the very top of the club.
“I wouldn’t say it goes to the level of concern,” he said. “As a collective, we’re in a really important moment of the season which these players will have a massive part in. I’ll reiterate there is a lot of love from those players towards the club and the club towards the players.
“Mine and the players’ job is put myself aside and work for this team. Right now, we’re continuously working behind the scenes, as a collective and individuals, to earn some success.”
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