James Connolly

[TWGL1]

Look, almost certainly what happened here is that Connolly’s contract was due to expire but City triggered the extra year option, otherwise Connolly could have walked away and signed for Bristol or any other club on a free and not been transferred for a fee, as he was. Having triggered the option it is then very possible that City would have offered him a new longer deal but without a guarantee of games here next season (as they obviously did not consider that he was ready yet for the Championship), it is unlikely that he would have agreed to that as he wants to play and had he stayed on his existing deal or signed a new one, he would most likely have gone out on loan again, probably to Rovers. On his existing extended deal, that would have wound down next season and he would have been able to walk out on a free at the end. From City's point of view therefore the best (or only really) course of action would have been to sell him now for a fee, rather than lose him for nothing in 10 months time. Makes sense to me anyway. He very likely will eventually become a good Championship level player and it is unfortunate that it wont be here but that doesn't mean that City don't rate him and wanted rid.

Pretty obvious that was the case to most but thanks

[dml1954]

Pretty obvious that was the case to most but thanks

That's ok. There were other people on this thread of a similar opinion to me but also others just thinking that the club might have deliberately got rid of a young player for no reason other than the manager didn't rate him, which i don't think is the case. Perhaps it would be nice if you thanked the other similar contributors as well, as I wouldn't want to think that I was being particularly singled out for (back handed) praise.