Leeds face the prospect of losing Rui Marques on a ‘Bosman’ if we don’t go up.
A statement on the Leeds United website said "The removal of contract extension discussions from the agenda will allow Rui to concentrate on winning his place back in the team after recovering from injury and then making a positive contribution as the club looks forward to gaining promotion to the Championship.
"The club had hoped that Rui's future would have been secured by now.
However, the respective differences in valuation, influenced by an alleged interest from clubs already in the Championship, have seen us not achieve our aim. We still remain positive that we will be able to retain the player's services when we know what division we are going to be playing in."
Rui’s contract expires at the end of the season, and the club only began talks to get him to renew it after Mc.Allister had arrived as manager, after Wise hadn’t bothered to do so. It seems that his agent has taken the opportunity to find out how much he could earn elsewhere, so Rui won’t settle for anything less than Championship level wages.
Leeds won’t be able to meet these demands unless we’re actually in the Championship next season, so unless we get promotion, it looks like our best defender will be leaving the club for nothing.
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