Sparky (Mark Davies not Mark Hughes!) to sign new deal?

Bolton are preparing to tie Mark Davies down to a longer deal at the Reebok.
It is understood that the fleet-footed midfielder, currently contracted until 2015, has held positive preliminary talks with the club about an extended contract and will be made an official offer in the next few weeks.

Davies has been ever-present this season, scoring three goals, and sources close to the player say he has been impressed by the changes made by Dougie Freedman since his arrival.

There has been no shortage of interest in the former Wolves playmaker in the past, with Swansea having a £5million offer turned down last summer.

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Utter, utter madness to offer a new contract to someone already signed up until 2015.

I really am beginning to think this club is being run by complete idiots.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Utter, utter madness to offer a new contract to someone already signed up until 2015.

I really am beginning to think this club is being run by complete idiots.

I tend to agree. It's three years off and a lot can happen before then.

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:Utter, utter madness to offer a new contract to someone already signed up until 2015.

I really am beginning to think this club is being run by complete idiots.

I tend to agree. It's three years off and a lot can happen before then.

Depends how much they want to extend it by. Rate him or not he's one of our more attractive assets. I'd rather have him tied down than be subject to interest in his last year and fuck off for cheap.

I rate him highly to be honest, think he comes in for some unfair criticism.

bwfc1874 wrote:

Depends how much they want to extend it by. Rate him or not he's one of our more attractive assets. I'd rather have him tied down than be subject to interest in his last year and fuck off for cheap.

I rate him highly to be honest, think he comes in for some unfair criticism.

He did bugger all in the Premier League, he's been a little better at Championship level but hardly a world-beater. Statistics show he's much more likely to be shite than great so why offer him more money and a longer contract?

Idiots.

bwfc1874 wrote:

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:Utter, utter madness to offer a new contract to someone already signed up until 2015.

I really am beginning to think this club is being run by complete idiots.

I tend to agree. It's three years off and a lot can happen before then.

Depends how much they want to extend it by. Rate him or not he's one of our more attractive assets. I'd rather have him tied down than be subject to interest in his last year and fuck off for cheap.

I rate him highly to be honest, think he comes in for some unfair criticism.

Can you stop posting so much common sense please.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:



Can you stop posting so much common sense please.

It's not common sense to offer someone an improved contract who is already signed up until 2015.

If he was outstanding week after week then fair enough, but he's not and to offer him more money is rewarding failure.

If he played for Liverpool etc....he would do well...because of better players around him. For us he doesn't have enough influence on the game IMO. I lean towards keeping him but I don't know about another contract at this point.

terenceanne wrote:If he played for Liverpool etc....he would do well...because of better players around him. For us he doesn't have enough influence on the game IMO.

He influences the games I've seen recently as much as any other player we have, he needs to have a couple of decent defensive midfielders behind him so he can be given more of a free role, that's all it will take to get more out of him on a regular basis.

We shouldn't get rid of players just because they need better players around them, we should just try and get some better players.

A new contract is fine, imagine if we went up this season and he had a stormer in our first season back in the prem, then he'd have a year left on his contract and we'd probably lose him.

Fans moan about Cahill and Elmander running their contracts down, then moan when the club try to prevent a similar situation!

I wouldn't be concerned about going up anytime soon. 2015 is too far away in my opinion. Revisit this next season and see where we are.

Sparky looking better ....but aren't they all supposed to be looking better in the Champs?

2 or 3 years from now I would expect a whole new starting 11 .....barre SKD of course...who will play till he gets his pension.

bwfc1874 wrote:

terenceanne wrote:If he played for Liverpool etc....he would do well...because of better players around him. For us he doesn't have enough influence on the game IMO.

He influences the games I've seen recently as much as any other player we have, he needs to have a couple of decent defensive midfielders behind him so he can be given more of a free role, that's all it will take to get more out of him on a regular basis.

We shouldn't get rid of players just because they need better players around them, we should just try and get some better players.

A new contract is fine, imagine if we went up this season and he had a stormer in our first season back in the prem, then he'd have a year left on his contract and we'd probably lose him.

Fans moan about Cahill and Elmander running their contracts down, then moan when the club try to prevent a similar situation!

Fans moan about absolutely anything and everything.

It really is boring.

bwfc1874 wrote:

terenceanne wrote:If he played for Liverpool etc....he would do well...because of better players around him. For us he doesn't have enough influence on the game IMO.

He influences the games I've seen recently as much as any other player we have, he needs to have a couple of decent defensive midfielders behind him so he can be given more of a free role, that's all it will take to get more out of him on a regular basis.

We shouldn't get rid of players just because they need better players around them, we should just try and get some better players.

A new contract is fine, imagine if we went up this season and he had a stormer in our first season back in the prem, then he'd have a year left on his contract and we'd probably lose him.

Fans moan about Cahill and Elmander running their contracts down, then moan when the club try to prevent a similar situation!

I don't remember many fans moaning when Elmander ran his contract down, the only moaning was that it took so long.

bwfc1874 wrote:

A new contract is fine, imagine if we went up this season and he had a stormer in our first season back in the prem, then he'd have a year left on his contract and we'd probably lose him.

What's more likely:

1) We get promoted and Mavies has a stormer in the PL
2) We don't get promoted and Mavies is shite

Option 2 is more likely. Therefore it's a bad business move to offer him a longer contract. Zat Knight has been one of our better players this season so do you want him on a longer contract?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:

A new contract is fine, imagine if we went up this season and he had a stormer in our first season back in the prem, then he'd have a year left on his contract and we'd probably lose him.

What's more likely:

1) We get promoted and Mavies has a stormer in the PL
2) We don't get promoted and Mavies is shite

Option 2 is more likely. Therefore it's a bad business move to offer him a longer contract. Zat Knight has been one of our better players this season so do you want him on a longer contract?

The real question is, what's more likely to happen in the next 3 years
1)Mark Davies continues to improve as a player under a competent manager who coaches properly and understands the type of player he is
2)Mark Davies turns 'shit' completely useless to our first team and ends up never playing and picking up a good wage.

1 is more likely in my opinion and clearly the club agree with me.


Your comparison with Zat Knight is nonsense by the way, he's 31 Davies is 24.

Players who are young and comfortable on the ball are a rarity, especially in our team! Watch Davies, most of the time he keeps the ball something the rest of our team struggle majorly with.

English players who can do that go for inflated prices, like the offer from Swansea after he had a patchy season.

We should be supporting players like him and hoping they develop.

I think he should only be offerered a new deal when his performances improve and ar consistent. Plenty of time before his current deal runs out so we should just bide our time.

It's not a disaster offering Mavies an extended contract. The club shelled out around £1 million for him. He's still young and English.

Even if he continues to have patchy form for the next few seasons, we are hardly going to be out of pocket, like Elmander.

This is good, don't want a repeat of Cahill.



Always offer first team members new deals as long as their under 28.

Even poor players can be sold for millions (we sold Danny Ward for 1 million!), easily enough to cover the cost of their wages.

So whether or not he will improve doesn't matter tbh, we could still get a a couple of million for him in a few years if he wasn't in the first team plans. No player should leave on a free who has played regular first team football, unless they are over 30, thats just bad business.