Wright-Phillips turns down new contract.

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Roberto Mancini's problems with his Manchester City players have extended to Shaun Wright-Phillips after the England international turned down a new contract because he felt he was not being offered enough money, a development that has left the winger starting to begrudge the men in power at Eastlands.

Wright-Phillips, 28, will have two years to run on his £60,000-a-week contract at the end of the season but that deal was signed a few weeks before the Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover established a new pay ceiling at the club. This will be the last major contract of Wright-Phillips's career and he wants to take advantage of the immense riches available to the club by moving closer to the higher earners such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Touré and Carlos Tevez, all of whom earn in excess of £100,000 a week.

City have responded by telling him they have no intention of increasing his pay so significantly, on the basis he will be 30 when his contract expires, an age that counts against any player who relies so heavily on pace. There is also a disparity between the length of deal the player is craving and what the club's chief executive, Garry Cook, and football administrator, Brian Marwood, are willing to offer.

That has left the Wright-Phillips camp complaining that the City hierarchy seem more interested in rewarding new signings rather than players who have a genuine affinity with the club. Since Wright-Phillips rejoined City from Chelsea 18 months ago he has seen players such as Wayne Bridge, with a weekly salary of £90,000, join on higher wages and is said not to feel "appreciated". In that time he has earned in excess of £4.5m.

Mancini has not been involved in the negotiations but the dispute can be added to a number of problems for the City ­manager, ranging from Patrick Vieira's poor form and discipline to the much-publicised argument with Craig Bellamy and growing concerns about Stephen ­Ireland's level of performance.

After winning his first four games ­Mancini's management style has come into question with only two wins from seven games going into tomorrow's FA Cup fifth-round replay at Stoke City, and the Italian is acutely aware that his team's last hope of silverware is in jeopardy.

"Mentally the players must be strong," he said. "We must try to play football when we can but if that is not possible we must play the ball in the air and jump and fight for every ball and concentrate at set pieces."

Tevez has been in Argentina for 10 days after the premature birth of his daughter and will not be involved against Stoke, but Mancini said the club's leading scorer would be back in time to play Chelsea on Saturday. "He had a serious problem but now I think he has resolved this problem and it's important that he comes back."

guardian.co.uk

[BobKowalski]

Ah more 'problems' for Mancini I see :)

[ant london]

Ah good to see that Shaun looks to still have excellent judgement in choosing and listening to advisors.

If he'd been on fire this season he'd be in a pretty strong position to do this.

Unfortunately we've seen more dire than fire.

Up your game Shauny and you'll get the greenbacks you desire. You currently don't warrant them

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I thought Hughes had this same "problem" as well.

Could it be that contract negotiations in our structure isn't really managers "problem" at all?

[CityGer]

He has spent most of the season tripping over the ball, running straight in to full backs and trapping the ball six yards. The parity with others in the squad is one thing, I can see his point if this is true and it's a problem for all clubs with top players but he is not in a great bargaining position at the moment given his form.

[zuricity]

Ah good to see that Shaun looks to still have excellent judgement in choosing and listening to advisors.

If he'd been on fire this season he'd be in a pretty strong position to do this.

Unfortunately we've seen more dire than fire.

Up your game Shauny and you'll get the greenbacks you desire. You currently don't warrant them

As far as contracts are concerned SWP is damn unlucky not to have come back to us in one of the two windows that Hughes was able to ( for what ever reason or explanation) lash out big wads of cash on players, where we basically saw Bridge ( four and a half year contract) , Bellamy (ditto ) , Toure, Adebayor and even Teves reap the rewards of naive management in contracts.
I think the owner now knows that paying over the top for players doesn't bring any guaranteed success.

SWP gets kicked in every match, far more than he deserves and when 'protected' to some extent by the refs can be very dangerous for us, far more in my opinion than Bellamy or Adebayor. He's also seen Stevie Ireland get a massive increase in salary - something Hughes didn't want to give to Elano. I can understand why SWP is not interested in a new contract with similar conditions. Sure he hasn't been playing his at his best recently, but i think that is a lot to do with the number of fouls commited against him sometimes too more so than being disgruntled with his contract.

[blue wine]

swp is my favorite player, but I think it good that he turned it down.. he has 2.5 years left.. thats along time and alot can happen!
wait another year and then start to talk about a new contracts, he might get injured or out off form and we will be saving money.

[john@staustell]

swp is my favorite player, but I think it good that he turned it down.. he has 2.5 years left.. thats along time and alot can happen!
wait another year and then start to talk about a new contracts, he might get injured or out off form and we will be saving money.

But I'm sure you will agree he has been playing very badly, as per the posts above?

In which case he needs to start earning the wages he's on first.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

swp is my favorite player, but I think it good that he turned it down.. he has 2.5 years left.. thats along time and alot can happen!
wait another year and then start to talk about a new contracts, he might get injured or out off form and we will be saving money.

But I'm sure you will agree he has been playing very badly, as per the posts above?

In which case he needs to start earning the wages he's on first.

I STILL don't agree with that.

Last time he played full 90 minutes in the league was 5th of december. After that he was struggling with injury. And despite his injuries, he keeps running at fullbacks and constantly gets into decent positions.

[Feed The Goat]

"Shaun is aware this will be his last big contract" what's wrong can't he save some of hs 60 grand a week for his retirement

[john@staustell]

Well we'll have to disagree on this one again mate, but I think the reason he isn't getting the games is spelled out by Ant and Cityger above. Just gives it away too much.

Anyway as Bob says this story has probably emerged to give the press 'another problem for Mancini' and is bollox.

[BlueMoonAwoken]

Shaun is wrong to do this now!

Yes i agree with him that players who have no affinity to the club get better wages than him and his loyalty and heart for the club, deserve to be better. But for FUCK SAKE WERE IN THE RACE FOR 4TH SHAUN, THE BIGGEST SEASON OF RECENT MANCHESTER CITYS HISTORY!

and he decides to moan about how much money he aint getting! jesus what the fuck is going on at city ! the club is being ripped apart from the inside.

[Goaters 103]

The way he's played this season he is extremely lucky to be getting any offer at all, especially considering he has 2 years plus left to run on his current deal, and will be 30 at the end of it by which time if we are honest his best days will be in the rear view mirror, and if we have progressed to the level we aim to he will be a squad player and not a regular, unless he remembers he is allowed to beat full-backs and put the odd decent cross over, rather than dribbling into people and losing the ball far too often.

Don't get me wrong I love SWP and what he has meant to us but he could do with taking a long look at himself this season as he could have done far better.

[ant london]

Shaun is wrong to do this now!

Yes i agree with him that players who have no affinity to the club get better wages than him and his loyalty and heart for the club, deserve to be better. But for FUCK SAKE WERE IN THE RACE FOR 4TH SHAUN, THE BIGGEST SEASON OF RECENT MANCHESTER CITYS HISTORY!

and he decides to moan about how much money he aint getting! jesus what the fuck is going on at city ! the club is being ripped apart from the inside.

That is precisely the kind of objection I have to this.

A problem in any job where wages are constantly increasing is that you are always going to be "outearned" by people in the same position who have joined subsequently to you. Sure in football the amounts of money are silly differences but for an average guy earning seven quid an hour, someone having joined two years later in an economic boom on a tenner an hour is earning proportionately just as much more. If these guys were lucky enough to get the chance to renegotiate their contract and get a pay rise they would be the tiny exception in the UK workforce. Most people would have to change jobs to get wage parity with those "new joiners" with all the uncertainty that would bring to their working life and disruption to their personal life.

SWP is in the lucky position where he gets to renegotiate contracts every couple of years. He signed a four year deal in August 2008. He isn't even half way through this sixty grand a week contract and his current form is (depending on whose view you take) anywhere from quite good but lacking end product to downright poor. This is really not the time to bargain for a payrise.

Then you factor in the fact that we are in a crucial period in the club's season (/history) when the knives are out in the press and we need everyone pulling together and the fact that this is just terrible timing.

Finally, he is trying to use the "affinity for the club" argument as a means of getting us, the fans, on side to force the club's hand. I just think that is a pretty cynical and misguided thing to do at this moment in time in light of the above (although it is the kind of "soundbyte" that feels like agent-speak rather than coming from SWP).

I'm not angry with Shaun, he's still (and always will be, even when he left to Chelsea) one of my favourite City players but I think he is very silly pulling this stunt at the current time. He doesn't deserve a pay-rise yet, nor does he deserve a renewed and extended contract until he starts to up his performances. He is a fan favourite but that doesn't mean we will carry him when under par or select him on the basis of his being a fans' favourite....when they are all fit and back for selection next season we will have him, Johnson, Weiss, Tevez, Bellamy (and likely possibly Robbie Mak) all capable of playing wide right. He has some stiff competition, he needs to rise up and meet the challenge, then he will get what he merits

[Alex Sapphire]

Unfortunately we've seen more dire than fire.

Up your game Shauny and you'll get the greenbacks you desire.

leave the rapping to Bingo, please

[ant london]

Unfortunately we've seen more dire than fire.

Up your game Shauny and you'll get the greenbacks you desire.

leave the rapping to Bingo, please

haha....the dire and fire was intentional but the desire was quite unwitting. Natural ghetto talent must have been sitting latent in me all these years. booooyaaa

[btajim]

I don't think SWP has been particularly dodgy on the field. We haven't seen a classic performance for a while - but his remit has changed alot since he came back home. The days of everything creative going through him (Keegan) are long gone.

I also think his presence in the Dressing Room as a more Senior Squad player is important.

[Dubciteh]

Sign him up at any cost, when we have jokers like bridge, santa cruz god knows who else on more than him its only right. Would hate to see my favorite player move over money when were the richest club in the world now that would be typical city.

[sandman]

He's not CONSISTANTLY earning his current wage so the little fucking nearly was can get fucked if he thinks he deserves more cash.

He was ALMOST a City legend before he left, since he came back he isnt anywhere near the player he was, he needs to spend less time making booty calls and more time on DH's field.

I honestly think he could be a phenominon, he's just not showing what he's worth, more cash wont help!!

[simon12]

What if knows jose is coming and wants to be tied to a long contract as he knows Jose doesn`t fancy him(not in a gay way). On the other hand if this was to happen he could sit out his contract go on a freebie and take a big signing on fee. This is what happens when you listen to your THICK AS FUCK father. Just like last time Shaun. Get your head down play some football and see what happens lad.