Should Hull Offer Ashbee New Deal?

Vital Hull’s latest poll asked you whether club captain Ian Ashbee should be offered a new contract. Here are the results.

During the week, our attention was brought towards Phil Brown’s plans to offer the Tigers captain Ian Ashbee a one year contract extension on his current deal. Ashbee’s contract will expire in the summer of 2008, but the new offer which has already been offered will secure the services of the midfielder until the summer of 2009.

Phil Brown views the midfielder as a key part of the Tigers team, but it seems several fans don’t share his enthusiasm for the same player.

In our latest poll, forty-four percent of voters said they didn’t want Ashbee to be offered a new deal.

The midfielder was absent from the first seven games of the season before making his return from injury during the away defeat at Birmingham City. That match alone saw the influence that Ashbee brings to the team. Although he lacks the technical ability to effectively compete on a regular basis at this level, his leadership qualities are head and shoulders above anyone else in the Tigers team.

However, one must sit and ask whether leadership alone is a good enough quality with which to secure a regular starting place. The answer must ultimately be ‘no.’ In the lower leagues, perhaps leadership is enough but in the Championship, a league dominated by former Premiership stars, it is not enough.

Ashbee’s lack of ability is also shown in his disciplinary record. With the midfielder sometimes struggling against a higher calibre of player, the midfielder has already missed three games of the season through suspension.

Not everyone shares that view though and thirty-eight percent of voters said they would offer Ashbee a new del with the club.

The captain has made twenty-one appearances this season, netting one goal away at Crystal Palace. Phil Brown must see something in the midfielder for him to play such a vital role in our bid to retain our Championship status.

There is no denying that on his day Ashbee can be an exceptional player who can dominate the midfield battle but these days are all to sparse and unpredictable. Several fans had viewed the arrival of Ray Parlour until the end of the season as the demise of Ashbee but it seems it has done the opposite.

Eighteen percent asked the sensible question of ‘Does he really need a new contract with one year left?

With the greatest respect to Ian Ashbee, he is not the sort of player who will command a high transfer fee, nor is he someone who I would imagine is going to be sought after by that many clubs during the summer.

This current deal is not being done in order to protect him from other clubs like the Boaz Myhill deal is. This is quite simply a contract extension from his current deal which has provoked many fans to ask “why?”

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