Harry Redknapp: Young players don't deserve long-term deals
Following a week of intense speculation over Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney's future, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has said young players have too much control over their future.
Rooney, who had 18 months left on his contract with United, signed a five-year extension on Friday despite his stated desire to leave Old Trafford.
Redknapp said that clubs have become too eager to secure the services of young players for the long-term in recent years.
"We've ended up in a situation where you give young kids long contracts now, for fear of losing them," the veteran manager said. "They come in here at 17; suddenly they get a four- or five-year contract. They've got their feet under the table; they can go
and do what they want; they're getting plenty of money. Some of them, they'll work their socks off. But too many of them, they're in the comfort zone at too early an age."
One-year deals a better strategy
Redknapp, who began his career as manager in 1983 at Bournemouth, said that young players were more motivated when they had to fight to secure one-year extensions to their contracts and longer deals were only awarded to more established players.
"Now, we're scared that they will walk away and go somewhere else if we don't tie them up into long deals. Half the time, you give them long deals and they don't deserve long deals, because they're not good enough to have long deals."
While he has been known to sign young players on long-term deals, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has implemented a policy of only awarding players above 30 years of age one-year extensions to their contracts.
Redknapp said that the opposite scenario would create more of an incentive for young players to perform early in their careers.
"That's what all the great players did of yesteryear, all those fantastic footballers that we used to have in this country. They had a year when they were kids, they'd work hard and want to try to get another year."
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