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No.1 must weigh up his options
Saints boss Jim Goodwin is hoping he doesn’t have to pull another rabbit out of the hat to replace an outgoing number one goalie.
The Buddies were left reeling when they lost Vaclav Hladky to Salford City in June last year after failing to entice the impressive Czech to stay in Paisley.
Current St Mirren keeper Jak Alnwick, Hladky’s replacement, is out of contract in the summer and the former Newcastle and Rangers man is free to sign a precontract elsewhere in January. Goodwin is determined to hang on to the talented 28-year-old, who has become a firm fans’ favourite after a string of excellent performances in his time at the club so far.
He also revealed talks are ongoing with a number of
other players he’s keen to tie down on new deals ahead of the transfer window reopening in January.
“Jak has been great for us since he joined,” Goodwin told Renfrewshire Live Sport.
“He left Rangers, went on loan to Blackpool and picked up a bit of an injury and didn’t finish out the season there.
“We’ve given Jak the opportunity to be the main man here and play regular first-team football, which is something he hadn’t done for a number of years.
“He enjoys it here and he knows how much we all love him and we all want him to stay.
“He’s another one, like a number of boys in the squad, that we’re having discussions with at the moment.
“As always, they’re entitled to leave their options open. But Jak is a big player for us over the last 18 months and will continue to be for the rest of the season.”
Buddies fans are also anxiously waiting for news about Ireland international Jamie McGrath’s future, with his contract also set to expire in the summer.
While Goodwin admits the likelihood of keeping the playmaker long term is slim, he hasn’t given up hope of the 25-year-old signing a new deal which would see St
Mirren receive some kind of financial reward for providing him with the platform to shine in the Scottish Premiership.
Goodwin said: “The offer is there on the table for Jamie and we’re not putting any pressure on him or his representative. It’s a good, fair offer.
“We’ll see what happens come January. You have to balance out every scenario.
“We’re willing to put a buy-out clause in so that if someone comes in for Jamie in the summer, we would get some return on him. We’re not naive enough to think that that will work for his representatives. They’re well within their rights to do what they’re doing.
“In an ideal world for us Jamie would sign a new deal, we would get a few quid for him next summer hopefully off the back of being in the top six.
“But Jamie is doing what most players out there would do. He’ll weigh up his options in January and is well within his rights to sign a pre-contract with someone then.
“Or someone from England or Scotland might come in and offer us an obscene amount of money for a player with five months left on his contract and we might have a decision to
make.”