Brown: players' contract announcement imminent

Mar 18 2010 By Andrew Weston

MOTHERWELL boss Craig Brown hopes to announce early next month which of his out-of-contract stars will be playing their football at Fir Park next season.

In an exclusive interview with SportsPress, the ’Well gaffer claimed ongoing talks had been positive before admitting it was unlikely that loan signings John Ruddy and Lucas Jutkiewicz would be plying their trade at Motherwell next season.

A host of first team regulars are free to leave the club in the summer including skipper Stephen Craigan, Keith Lasley, Steve Jennings, Jim O’Brien and Tom Hateley.

After the break-up of the first team squad last year, fans have become concerned that players who have led the club to the brink of European qualification again, could opt for pastures new.

Despite channelling his energies towards the under-19 squad this week as the first team enjoy a well earned break, Brown has made time to contact representatives of the players he is keen to remain at the club.

He said: “I have spoken to all the agents myself but everything is now in the hands of Leeann Dempster.

“We have got the continental model where the manager identifies who he wants and the General Manager sets about making the contract arrangements, which is a good thing.

“I have spoken to players and their agents and said we want them.

“Now Leeann will deal with the financial side of things.

“I said to her, rather than announce signings on an individual basis we will should until the start of next month and tell people what the situation is then.

“It’s not fair if a player is holding out to sit down and talk to Leeann and we announce other players have signed. The fans then may ask why they have not signed.

“So we won’t announce anything until we have completed all the talks.

“It will probably be at the start of April but I won’t be saying anything until then.”

He continued: “No player has said to me outright that they don’t want to come back.

“One or two believe they are worth more than what has been offered so far but that is just from initial discussions.

“Leeann is very good at dealing with all this and she goes about her business in a very professional manner.”

It will not be until the end of the season that Motherwell discover what the future holds for impressive stopper John Ruddy and top scorer Lucas Jutkiewicz – both on loan from Everton.

However the gaffer is fearful they will not be around next term saying: “Davie (Moyes) will tell us at the end of the season but I am a bit fearful that they will have to go.

“He can either keep them or sell them and we can’t afford them.

“So they are not likely to be with us next year.”