Jez George provided contract updates on out of contract midfielders Danny Mandroiu and Ted Bishop.
City’s director of football recently spoke to BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Michael Hortin in a feature long special talking about the 2023/24 season and the transfer window coming up. During the interview, Jez provided updates on a range of topics, including Ethan Erhahon, Lasse Sorensen as well as the status of the out of contract players that are in negotiations.
Firstly, Jez explained the situation with Mandroiu. The Irishman could be on his way out of the Imps after two seasons at Sincil Bank. Mandroiu has made 65 appearances for City, scoring 15 times.
“Danny is looking at his options, and we’re looking at our options. We’re calm and relaxed about the situation and we know if Danny finds the right club and the right offer, he’ll leave Lincoln, if we find the right player who wants to come to us, we’ll sign that player.
“If neither of those things happen in a timespan that us as a football and Danny as a player think that the best is option is for us to stay together, we’ll look at what that might looks like.”
Jez revealed that Mandroiu is towards the top end of City’s earners, meaning it would be difficult to come to an agreement if he wanted a wage rise. Michael Skubala’s side missed out on the playoffs against Pompey on the final game of the season meaning they’ll be playing League One football, which could also be a deciding factor if he gets offers from elsewhere.
“Danny was a player at the top end of our pay structure so if he wants to earn more money, he knows he’ll have to that somewhere else and he’ll also have ambitions to play higher.
“We signed Danny because we were made aware of a clause in his contract at Shamrock Rovers that was way below his market value and we believed that bringing Danny in for two years was going to be value for the football club.
“If we were going to make money, it needed to be the first summer, but Danny probably didn’t do enough to bring those offers to the table so we knew that Danny would most likely spend two years at Lincoln and move on. If we got promoted, then things may have been different. I’m not saying it [Mandroiu signing a deal] won’t happen but we’re both exploring our options.”
Jez moved on to talk about Bishop and what his contract situation looks like, and revealed that the club are still in negotiations with the former Ipswich man. Bishop has featured 111 times for the Imps, and has enjoyed his best season in red and white under Skubala last season. Despite being labelled as injury-prone, Bishop featured in 33 League One games last season, and completed the full 90 minutes on a number of occasions.
“Teddy at his best is an outstanding football player but we probably haven’t got him on the football pitch as much as we’d like, and as much as he’d like. Since Michael [Skubala] and Chris [Cohen] have come in you we’ve seen the best of Teddy.
“We’re in negotiations, speaking to his agent. We’ve got parameters financially and in terms of length of contract. Again we’ve got to either reach an agreement, which we’ll capable of doing and it’s one of the options on the table, or shake hands if we can’t reach an agreement.”