Jets Set To Upgrade Griffiths

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday September 26, 2008

Sebastian Hassett

NEWCASTLE Jets are expected to announce today that striker Joel Griffiths has agreed to a four-year deal with an upgrade to marquee status.

The club has scheduled a "special" media conference with chairman Con Constantine this morning and it is expected he will announce that Griffiths will replace Edmundo Zura as the club's marquee player.

The Jets could be forced into renegotiating some other contracts to stay under the salary cap, but with talk that Griffiths's new deal will put him second only to John Aloisi's $1.3 million-a-year deal with Sydney, they have been left with no alternative but to take his wages outside the $1.95 million salary cap.

When the Newcastle Jets called a media conference for midday yesterday, most assumed club chief executive John Tsatsimas would come bearing the news that Griffiths had signed, but that proved premature.

"In relation to Joel, contract negotiations are ongoing," he said. "I'll leave it at that and won't be taking any further questions on that. Hopefully it will be resolved one way or another pretty soon."

However, Newcastle manager Gary van Egmond was slightly more expansive, saying he was pleased Griffiths had committed for "three or four years".

"I think it's good for Joel, first and foremost. It gives him stability," van Egmond said.

"He will provide a number of players who are coming off contract the mindset that they would like to stay because all players want to stay with quality players and be competitive year-in, year-out.

"It also attracts other players to come to the club as well, so it's a very important signing and one I'm hopeful that can get done."

The first rumblings that Griffiths was looking elsewhere came when he requested to be released for a loan stint with Japanese club Avispa Fukuoka, but after spending three months there he returned to take part in a full pre-season.

Sources close to the club have indicated that while the negotiating process was drawn out, there was little chance the Jets were going to lose Griffiths without a fight when his contract expired at the end of this season.

The former Leeds striker is due to play his 50th club match against Adelaide tomorrow night.

Van Egmond said his players would be aware Adelaide would be riding high after qualifying for the Asian Champions League semi-final and that there would be no repeat of the Reds' 0-3 hammering in Sydney last week.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home