League One title contenders Plymouth Argyle, are in contract talks with top goalscorer Ryan Hardie after manager Steven Schumacher confirmed the news to Chris Errington from PlymouthLive.
Schumacher spoke after his side’s EFL Trophy semi-final win against Cheltenham Town, with Hardie’s situation coming up in conversation.
The Scotsman has been pivotal for the Pilgrims this season with 15 goals in all competitions, following his 19-goal tally from last season.
As of today, Hardie’s contract with Argyle runs out at the end of the season. The 25-Year-old joined Plymouth mid-season in 2020 on a loan deal originally, which became permanent the following season in the Winter transfer window.
Now, with the striker’s contract expiring in three months’ time, it seems Plymouth are more than interested in extending that deal with him.
Schumacher said: “We are aware of his situation. We have had conversations and discussions with him, and with his agent. Obviously, he would be someone that we want to keep.
“He knows how highly we rate him. He knows we want to keep him, but he will also have one eye on if we don’t go up then he might want to go and play somewhere else, but if we do go up then I know he loves it here.
“If we get up in the Championship then they are going to have offers from us obviously.”
By the sound of things the club would love to extend Hardie’s stay, but it may depend on if they will be celebrating a promotion-winning season or not.
Schumacher added: “They haven’t turned around and said no we are going, but also we have to accept the wages we can pay them are nowhere near the wages that other League One teams can pay them. We just can’t do it, and we definitely won’t be able to compete with Championship clubs.”
Now with promotion looking like the third party involved in this deal, it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities for the Greens to keep ahold of their star man.
Plymouth currently sit 2nd in League One, tied on points with league-leaders Sheffield Wednesday and eight points clear of the playoff places.
[freshpress-quiz id=”29347″]
Writer’s View
Plymouth are having a tremendous season to date and should be aiming to gain promotion into the Championship.
Hardie is an important player of that side and I think what Schumacher is saying is right. Hardie believes he is a Championship level player and being a potential free agent will allow him to explore that. Now it just depends on if Plymouth will be one of those 24 teams in the division.
With 14 games remaining in the season, promotion seems reasonable and if Ryan Hardie can continue to guide Plymouth towards that goal, contract talks will certainly escalate.
