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Hay delivers key Roofe contract update

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Phil Hay has delivered a significant update on the contract situation of forward Kemar Roofe.

The 25-year-old has been one of Leeds’ best players this season, scoring seven goals in 10 league games.

His contract runs out in 2020 which would leave him less than 12 months on his deal if Leeds were to get promoted.

Talking on the new episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, Hay said that he had spoken to the club this week and they their plans had changed sightly.

“There was a suggestion that Leeds talks would start promptly,” said Hay. “But I’ve been asking this week and it sounds like the club are going to take a couple of months to look at it and decide what level they want to go to.”

Hay pointed out that there would be a lot of work for the club to do.

“They’re absolutely clear that they do want to tie him down to another contract. Roofe will not be on a high salary compared to other players and he won’t be anywhere near the level of Patrick Bamford.

“Given that he won the Player of the Month and he’s playing as well as he ever had, he’ll be looking for parity, a substantial rise, a fair deal that he considers in comparison to other high earners at Leeds.

“I’d suggest it’s one Leeds have a lot of work to do on. The last thing they want to do is to get to January or next summer where he’s got less than 12 months left on his deal.

“Roofe’s people seem to be concerned that Leeds won’t be able to give him what he wants but the club seems very confident about it and in the next two, three, four months we should see some progress.”

OPINION

When Ian Harte posted a Twitter message saying that Leeds should sign Roofe up on a new contract now, many Leeds fans slammed him, saying that the club shouldn’t throw around new contracts like confetti. Leeds fans know all about financial problems that clubs can get into, but with around 18 months left on his deal this is absolutely the right time to talk about it and get him tied down. It sounds like Leeds were set to do it imminently and have now decided to put talks back a bit to work out what they want to offer him. The trouble with this is that if he keeps playing as he is, and scoring goals at the rate he’s currently scoring, his price might go up, And the last thing Leeds want is to get to a situation where he wants more than they can offer. It’s interesting that Phil Hay said his agents were concerned that he might want too much already. That doesn’t seem to be the case but we think it would be a good idea to get this wrapped up sooner rather than later. 

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