Izale Mcleod

[jonbonbaby]

Barnet top scorer Izale McLeod insists he is happy to open talks regarding a new contract after reigniting his career with the Bees.

The 26-year-old's career stalled while at Charlton, making just seven league starts in three years at The Valley.

However, since joining the Bees in mid-November the former Derby striker has scored six goals in 10 starts and he told skysports.com that he is not looking to leave the League Two strugglers when his contract expires this summer.

"I'm just happy to get back playing football and I know that if I am playing regularly that I can score goals on a consistent basis," he said.

"I've always been confident in my ability and so far I've done pretty well since joining Barnet and long may that continue.

"I didn't get a real run in the side at Charlton and was mainly used as a substitute, and it is hard to make impact on a game when you get brief appearances here and there.
Grateful

"I had to go out on loan a lot to get games and the injuries didn't help as well, so it wasn't the happiest period of my career.

"Coming to Barnet was a chance to get back playing week in, week out and that opportunity has enabled me to get fitter and sharper and I'm a much happier player because of it.

"When I left Charlton I was still injured and it was difficult for me to find a new club, but Barnet came along and the chairman told me that he would take on and get my knee sorted.

"For that I am really grateful, so although my contract does run out at the end of the season I am not looking to move elsewhere.

"I just want to enjoy my football and if the chairman wants to sit down with me in the summer and talk over a new deal then we will go from there."

[John_c]

This is on Sky Sports.

This will be his agent preparing the way for him to sign for another club in the summer. It's a great big "Hello, I'm available" sign.

Subtle.

[PBBee]

Great to hear and it is clear he is grateful but if we did get relegated and a league 1/top league 2 team come in for him and offer him more a week surely he will go elsewhere. I thought we would have signed him for longer than a year just in case this situation did arise where he performed and other club came in for him. I know it would have also been a risk to do that due to his injury problems but surely there must have been an option available.

Also why not offer him a new deal now?

[kingpinfid]

John C - you cynic!

We should offer him a new contract regardless - it can't do any harm. Even if we do go down, we'll need McLeod to have a good chance of coming straight back up.

[djhdjh]

If we go down I doubt the club will want to keep him on what presumably are some of the highest, if not the highest, wages in the squad. Given the problems big wages caused last time we went down TK won't want that to happen again.

If we stay up we will try and keep him and maybe we will have a chance - after all he hasn't performed well above L2 level for half a decade, is injury prone and in fact quite a limited player so higher league clubs might be put off. But I suspect someone somewhere in the bottom two leagues would still happily take a punt on a free and offer him better wages and better team mates than we can.

[jonbonbaby]

i imagine hes on a contract with an option for the club to automatically extend it by a year

[barnetpete]

It has been remembered that....
TK when hearing Izale was available put up the funds for his wages, even after MS had spent his budget.
TK so wanted to sign Izale that when he failed a medical TK stumped up the cash for an operation to try and fix his knee...an operation that he had had 6 months earlier at peterborough and hadn't cured the problem...a big risk. Barnet paid for an operation even when he wasn't a bees player.
We will have the option, which will be highly dependant on us staying up.
As John-C says, this his agent doing his job and putting him right in the shop window. If he stays fit, scores goals, and shows that he
has regained some form, someone will come looking. It could be good for us to cash in quick, but if* we stay up then it would be good to build a squad around some quality rather than having to rebuild completly from scratch.

*If i could i'd make this a size 40 font 'If'.

[grrgerald]

John C - you cynic!

You're new here aren't you !!!

[John_c]

It has been remembered that....
TK when hearing Izale was available put up the funds for his wages, even after MS had spent his budget.
TK so wanted to sign Izale that when he failed a medical TK stumped up the cash for an operation to try and fix his knee...an operation that he had had 6 months earlier at peterborough and hadn't cured the problem...a big risk. Barnet paid for an operation even when he wasn't a bees player.
We will have the option, which will be highly dependant on us staying up.
As John-C says, this his agent doing his job and putting him right in the shop window. If he stays fit, scores goals, and shows that he
has regained some form, someone will come looking. It could be good for us to cash in quick, but if* we stay up then it would be good to build a squad around some quality rather than having to rebuild completly from scratch.

*If i could i'd make this a size 40 font 'If'.

It will be highly likely that TK has the usual 12 month option clause on the contract. He's not the mug some of you seem to think he is...

[becbee]

Given McLeod's injury position when he came to Barnet it would have been utter madness to have given him a long term contract. It sounds like he appreciates what Barnet have done for him, ie rescued his career.

What happens from here on remains to be seen, however when clubs look to sign out and out forwards, the first thing they look for is the number of goals they've scored. They don't look closer to consider the reasons why they maybe didn't score, like the lack of midfield support, they just judge on results. McLeod is clearly saying the right things which is nice to hear, but he presumably realises that if even though he is a big name at this level, his chances of getting offers from other clubs will be linked to his goalscoring record with us. So if he wants to aviod playing in the Conference, his best bet is to get scoring the goals which will keep us up.

[kingpinfid]

John C - you cynic!

You're new here aren't you !!!

Yes, this message board is only a few weeks old!