Neill's Stay Makes Hughes Happy

£2 million for a player who will in all likelihood walk away for nothing, or at least a much smaller fee in January is something many will fee Hughes should have accepted for Lucas Neill from Liverpool.

Hughes himself however was thrilled to have retained the services of Neill for the time being at least. When speaking to Rovers World on Friday he said:

"Much of the window has been consumed with basically resisting offers for our better players"

"A lot of yesterday was concentrated on actually resisting the overtures from Liverpool"

"In the end I think we showed to Lucas that possibly we were more committed to him than Liverpool were prepared to commit and I think he understood that in the end"

"He is with us and we are still very hopeful that he'll sign a new contract but I think now we can just concentrate on playing our football and put this episode behind us."

After being appointed captain for the Chelsea game Hughes has said he will continue to pick Neill, and I'd say probably even still as captain, at least until Ryan Nelsen returns. Hughes is more than happy that Neill will continue to "approach his job in exactly the same way as he did before the interest from Liverpool."

Although it is possible, it is unlikely Neill will sign a new deal as Hughes still hopes.

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