New deal on the way for Bramble

[Scottish Mag 3]

Newcastle defender Titus Bramble will be offered the chance to extend his career on Tyneside after Glenn Roeder outlined his determination to retain the services of a player in the final year of his current contract.

 

The 24-year-old has established himself as Roeder's first-choice centre-half and, although talks have yet to begin, the United boss will instruct Freddie Shepherd to open negotiations as soon as possible.

 

Bramble can look ahead to the start of his fifth campaign at St James's Park confident that he will start against Wigan on August 19.

 

And it looks as though the improvements the former Ipswich favourite has made over the last 12 months will be rewarded by his admiring manager.

 

"I have been very pleased with Titus," said Roeder, who saw the former England Under-21 international form a promising partnership with Moore during the closing weeks of last season.

 

"He did very well for me and for this football club then, and he has done very well again this season.

 

"Titus is now in the final year of his contract. That side of things is looked after by the chairman but he consults me about whether I want to keep a player or not and I'm very happy with Titus."

 

Bramble will be able to engineer a lucrative free transfer away from St James's Park in the New Year and, while his first priority will be to strengthen a defence that has been weakened this summer, it will be a situation Roeder will be keen to resolve as soon as possible.

 

Robbie Elliott has already left Newcastle after failing to agree a new contract, and Jean-Alain Boumsong's future remains in doubt after a bid from Monaco to sign the player on loan was rejected.

 

The French club are only willing to pay half of the defender's £35,000-a-week wages - an offer Shepherd will not consider.

[Craig 6293]

Well I for one think Bramble has deserved it. He's certainly started to get his head down and concentrate more.

 

Just need a new left back coming in and then he won't have to worry unduly about covering Babayaro's 'wanderings'...

[Geordie Boyo 23]

To be fair I've seen Baba cover his 'wonderings' from time to time. They can be as bad as each other, but having a couple of players around him who are a little more reliable wont do any harm.

[Guest Tony_Green]

Sell. Has more bad games than good and is far from unreliable.

[Kid Dynamite 5890]

''Far from unreliable'', meaning reliable???

 

I agree though, its bad news when you give a player credit just for not fucking up!

Edited July 30, 2006 by J69

[Matt 0]

I think his 'just hoof it' performance yesterday may have weakened his bargaining position.

 

We certainly should not be offering him big wages- he's got such a bad rep in the game that he still wouldn't get as good a deal even if he got a pay cut.

 

If I'm honest I don't see the point of offering a new contract to a player who isn't good enough. Why are we so scared of letting players go on a free, do we think it may affect out standing amongst the Real Madrids of this world?