Ross McCormack could see his yearly wage rise by £1million if the club are promoted to the Premier League, according to Sky Sports.
The 31-year-old has effectively been frozen out by Steve Bruce but still has two years to run on his current contract:
Fans on Twitter didn’t react particularly well to the news:
Pay for his gates fixing then so he can make it to training
— Alex Swinden (@AlexSwinden) May 1, 2018
@Joe__ODwyer what a joke
— Callum (@CGGAVFC) May 1, 2018
WHAAAAATTT??? How about reducing the ticket fee for loyal fans instead.
— Anne Lou (@AnneLou007) May 1, 2018
No good pointing the finger at the player, it's whoever offered him the contract.
— Matt Buck (@Mattbuck_whr) May 1, 2018
Contract was offered with the assumption that he could open his gates to get to work
— Mel greensmith (@Mushy222) May 1, 2018
Can see him being released during the summer. We've really shot ourselves in the foot on so many occasions with deals like this. I fear the worst if we don't get promoted this season.
— Darren Healy (@DarrenHealy15) May 1, 2018
Just sack him!
— Gary Costello (@B31villa) May 1, 2018
Wow. Unbelievable
— Dean A Jevons (@dajevons) May 1, 2018
Not sure the club can whinge about that, it was obvious the recruitment that summer was ‘we dont score enough, let’s buy the top scorers in that league from last year’ – I’d say someone didn’t do due diligence on his character so Bruce was left lumbered with him
— Gareth Edwards (@garethedwards74) May 1, 2018
Verdict:
If we are promoted, there’s not much really we can do about a clause in his contract. Sky suggest that he is on £2.3m a year currently, but that could increase to over £3m a year.
A player who is not part of the club’s plans, and is on £60k a week, would be far from ideal, to say least. No doubt, the club would look to offer to sell him on a cut-price deal in the summer to get him off the wage bill.
Melbourne City were interested in retaining him following his loan spell in Australia during the first half of the campaign, but he has returned to Villa Park with no prospect of first team action.