Speaking to The News, Portsmouth Chief Executive Mark Catlin says the future of defender Christian Burgess is “out of our hands”.
As reported by The72 last week, the future of experienced defender Christian Burgess is very much up in the air at the moment. It is looking highly likely that the defender, who has spent five-years at Fratton Park, will leave when his contract expires.
It would be a massive loss for Pompey if they are unable to keep Burgess who has arguably had his best season for The Blues. After a shaky start to the season, Pompey have been flying this season and found themselves in fourth place – ready to make a late automatic promotion push. The towering centre back averages 1.1 tackles per game, 1.3 interceptions and 5.5 clearances. The 28-year-old has been defensively solid this year, but has also helped Pompey play out from the back. Averaging 36.8 passes per game, he has a completion rate of just below 70%. The stats are there to show what a loss Burgess would be to the club.
Chief Executive Mark Catlin says the club have done all they can to keep Burgess at the club. “It has been going on for quite a number of months and we continue to have dialogue. We’d like him to stay, he knows we would like him to stay, but, as I have always said, you cannot force players at any point to extend or sign a new contract. That is a decision for the player.”
Catlin added that it’s not just down to the player to agree to the contract, “the player and his agent must be happy to sign and, to a degree, that is out of our hands now.”
A defender as experienced as Burgess will have plenty of different options when his contract with Pompey expires. Catlin added that the defender has plenty to think about. “There will be a number of factors involved in the player’s decision – such as financial, league level, opportunities elsewhere. It’s not that simple. A player’s career is short and it’s only right they should want to potentially maximise their worth when they are at the peak of their career – as is Christian at this moment in time.”
Burgess’ main focus currently will be to get match fit again and help guide Pompey back to The Championship via the playoffs – ultimately a factor that may impact his decision of whether to stay at Fratton Park.
Stats taken from WhoScored
