Very much doubt it was Chester that was the key. More likely he turned down Catalans original offer and agreed a bigger deal here but hadn't yet signed the contract we had offered. Jimmy Maloney then tells them he won't be taking up the option in his contract and is retiring, so they now have the cap space to match our offer and he decides living in the South of France trumps Wakey after all. Or something like that.

INOUT

That's not what he said. Or what I said.
It doesn't have to be the key reason. But he wouldn't have come for the money if he didn't like the coach.
He doesn't know who the coach is going to be now.
I can understand it if he had a way out.

Don't think your far out here.

Perhaps he thought that his accommodation was in Chester, a bijou apartment down by the racecourse

Ah yes another verbal agreement

I've never seen a contract and don't know what it looks like or entails, so maybe under the circumstances surrounding covid it's not logistically or at least wasn't at the time possible to get it sorted out hence the verbal agreement till a more appropriate time, that was assuming he was a man of his word.

No idea either, I think the Premier League still use fax machines!

The verbal contract thing is a bit of a myth.

It does exist and is enforceable but if you actually wanted to sue someone over breach of verbal contract it's quite hard to prove what was agreed.

Whereas a written and signed document is much clearer for both parties. Especially if witnessed.

Correct, if it’s e-mailed it’s essentially witnessed as there is a paper/date trail.

Speaking of our ex coach I called in my local yesterday afternoon and sat in the corner in deep conversation was David Fafita, Jacob Miller and Chris Chester. Wish I'd been a fly on the wall.

Probably a clear the air or let’s hope so.

Or maybe they are just mates that enjoy each others company outside of work?