Saints have yet to offer Jason Puncheon a new deal, is there a reason behind this stalling.

On the face of it it looks a no brainer that Saints should be offering Jason Puncheon a new deal and fast, one reason being that in the summer he can leave on a free transfer if they dont do so.

At the start of the season Puncheon's future at the club didnt look long term, his previous couple of seasons had mainly been spent playing for other clubs on loan and rumours of incoming talent in the transfer market seemed to indicate that another loan away from the club was imminent with at best a squad number at St Mary's and being a fringe member of the squad.

But a few good performances have changed all that for Puncheon and there are many Saints supporters wondering why Saints havent made their move and secured their man, after all Chairman Nicola Cortese is a man who doesnt like to let players contracts run down and see them move for nothing, then again Cortese is also a man who doesnt like to let people who have crossed swords with him get the upper hand, Puncheon of course was seen as petulant a couple of years ago when he threw his toys out of his pram after being dropped for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, rumours of him refusing to play abounded and he was soon out on loan, perhaps now Cortese is flexing his muscles and showing Puncheon that if and when he is offered a contract it will be on the Chairman's terms and no one else's.

But it could also be something different, given the number of names that Saints were linked with in the last transfer window and the fee;s quoted, it could actually be that should they survive, Saints see that their needs in this area could be serviced by someone with a lot bigger pedigree than Puncheon, the aspirations of Nicola Cortese, whether they be realistic or folly and im not going to debate that here, clearly lie higher than players of the calibre than Puncheon, Cortese showed by sacking Nigel Adkins that if he considers that someone is not capable of taking it to a higher level then he is not afraid to get rid of that man and replace him with someone who is, it could be that Cortese wants a better player than Puncheon.

Puncheon himself has put in some decent performances this season, the Man City win last weekend included, but his big problem has been consistency, at home he has generally played well, but away from home less so and the City game overshadowed the fact that in the previous two games at man Utd and Wigan saw Puncheon hauled off at half time, for all his skill and talent, with Jason Puncheon there is still that question mark about his attitude, when things are going well he is great, but when they arent he is inneffective, some would call him a flat track bully.

So just why the player hasnt been offered a new contract is unclear, I would say that perhaps that reason lies partially a little bit in all of those reasons, that our Chairman is flexing his muscles and seeing whether Puncheon is a changed man or whether the moment he has sigend the contract and holds the upper hand again history will repeat itself, one thing that can be said about Nicola Cortese is that he doesnt get burned twice and that could be the reason that Jason Puncheon might well be playing his football away from St Mary's next season.         

Photo: Action Images

vectis added 10:39 - Feb 15 I find myself agreeing with most of that Nick.
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slynch added 10:53 - Feb 15 Puncheon and Cortese seem to get on. In an interview I recall Adkins saying he wouldn't let Puncheon near the team and then it was Cortese who brought Punch back to the fold a week later. So may be he will do it again. Having said that, I think Puncheon's geographic heart is in London. And as a person he's a real joker about the place which doesn't always come over in public and if I was picking the teams for all the premier league clubs then he would be one of the first on the sheet for most of them.

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SaintNick added 11:18 - Feb 15 I think saying Puncheon would get in most premier league teams is taking things a bit far, i dont think he would get in may of them, last season he couldnt get in a struggling QPR side for instance
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ExiledSupporter added 11:29 - Feb 15 I tend to agree with your analysis of Puncheon's pros and cons. And I am sure that Cortese thinks he can do better (and probably also has some problems at the personal level with Puncheon being around at all) But one of the underlying problems that we have is that we have relatively few serious competitors for most of the first team places and the right wing position is one of those. Is it 13 players out on loan and in my view 11 of those are clearly not wanted for the future (the exceptions are Reeves and Hoskins who have been loaned out to get experience, I imagine... very regrettably I can't include Sharpe in this small list however much I would personally like to see him given his chance). In the past Guly has played pretty effectively on the right flank but he is also prone to inconsistency and I am unaware of any other credible option. All the rumours about Coutinho (if they were anything other than agent propaganda) suggests the intention to strengthen the right side. So, yes I would sign Puncheon up again but be determined to acquire another better player so that we had competition and cover for the position. Unfortunately our resources elsewhere are just as thinly covered and we need to do something more about those positions urgently in the summer

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Bulgarian added 12:23 - Feb 15 To me it's obvious that Punch won't get a new contract at SFC. From a cynical perspective, he's in a situation that he has to put good efforts in order to attract potential buyers, so he will be used until the end of the season and will clearly be shown the door after the last whistle in May. Be sure to welcome some Latin right wingers in the summer with "lightning space" and "flare". If I'm not mistaken, the same pattern will be applied to Sharp and maybe one of the central midfielders. It's not something I say I particularly like, but that's the reality we are facing. The most serious challenge will be holding Schneider, Cork and Shaw - there's the difficult battle transfer wise for the forseeable future.

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JimmySteal added 13:59 - Feb 15 If we gave him a new deal wouldn't we immediately be able to get a fee (£1M) for him?
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richardmdcooper added 14:24 - Feb 15 I think we should definitely sign him up but I don't think they will - to your point Nick, I think they see him as a championship/lower level prem player and will look to replace him with better..I completely disagree with that assessment of him (think he's prem class for sure) but that's what NC's about..I'm worried they may even do the same with Rickie when his contract is up for renewal next year (which would be scandalous but in line with NC's thinking)

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Whatsforpud added 17:43 - Feb 15 No mention in the article about the Manager (old or new) being in charge of team affairs. Surely we have a manager to assess who should play each match, and who he would like to have in his squad, or out of his squad. The Chairman should back his chosen manager, given the financial circumstances of the time. Or isn't this how it works now.
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richardmdcooper added 18:20 - Feb 15 Agree - what'sforpud - it definitely should work that way but I don't think that's how it works at SFC..Don't think any of us know exactly how their personnel decisions are made but seems that there is definitely involvement above the manager about players coming in/out - (either NC, Reed etc..)..Forren's a prime example of that
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 14:46 - Feb 16 I think Puncheon will get a new deal soon enough. If he was looking to move on then he'd already be talking to other clubs. he's happy at saints now and playing every week in the premiership. I think Saints are just waiting to secure their status in the premiership before offering new long term deals.
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