There's nothing new or unique about Eastmond being offered an early extension. Kids that are in a club's future plans are ALWAYS offered early extensions. It would be commercial and strategic suicide not to.

Can't we pay him by the inch?

No, I never said it was, i said it shows the intent to retain his services. You are correct that it common practice to offer an early extension. But you hit the nail on the head with the word KID. He is just that, he is an untried, exciting prospect so i would assume that the contract offer reflects that.

The vast majority of contracts have bonus objectives, if Eastmond and Offiah are so sure of his value then they would do well to factor some of these objectives into any deal they negotiate. IE, Winners rings,CC Wins, England call ups etc etc

I for one hope he does sign and an agreement is made, just on the terms that benefit both parties equally.

Sounds right. It was the fact that Salford are going nowhere that he wanted to leave. Plus he actually wanted to come to Warrington believe it or not. He got a hefty pay increase as well.

The value of a player doesnt go on the balance sheet :s

That was probably the first payment. I believe there are other payments due dependent on number of appearances etc.

you'd expect so - most players have performance related clauses in their contracts especially young ones.

Nope.

CLASSIC

I think Saints are being wise. I've no idea what they offered him, obviously, and it could be low or it could have been very reasonable given that he is potential rather than proven. Either way, it would be foolish to pay the kind of sum Offiah will be asking to someone who has yet to prove himself in the job. He had a great chance to show that he could begin to boss the team while Longy was out with his jaw but he didn't show any signs of doing that for however many weeks it was that he was covering. Will he be able to do so next year? Who knows. Eastmond is clearly a talent but whether that translates to a talented 7 I think is yet to be seen. If he performs the role we need next season then I'd say we should be offering him an impressive inducement to stay with us. If not, either we offer him something reasonable to play in another position or we let him go IMO. Saints cannot be held to ransom over one player because overall we will suffer as a result.

So you don't know what they've offered him and you don't know what Offiah is asking, so how can you make a judgement if it's reasonable or not?

Basically everyone is guessing.
IMO what Saints (and every other club have to do is to avoid paying what they can't afford, and / or setting a precedent for the next young player coming through who will want / expect a similar deal.

I think it is reasonable that we are waiting to see what Eastmond can deliver. He has not yet delivered on the organisation front, at all, and also he does have a tendency to disappear in games (we have one of those already), blubber a bit when hit and sometimes heads for the line in search of glory when he should be passing out to his team mates. He was spot on with his game on Saturday but on Saturday he played at centre. He could be a brilliant centre in the making but would he take that spot? Or, like Pryce with his 6, does he think he must be a 7 at all costs even if he turns out to be a poor one? These are the things the club needs to know before shelling out sums of money that presently hurt us.