If Ash signs a new contract, then we can really start to build properly in the summer. Man City have indicated that their ludicrous player recruitment will slow down in order to meet the Platini rules, and if they are everyone is. That means that not only Young won't go (which he won't if he signs a new contract anyway), but if Albrighton or Ireland or someone has a mental season then nobody will come in for them either, because only City have the money.
It would be dangerous to think that Ash signs a new contract = worry over, he's staying for the foreseeable.
All it does is give us extra insurance in the event that another side comes in for him.
Completely different players, but Kevin Doyle signed a new contract for Reading a few months after we expressed our interest in 2008. A few months later he had gone -as Wolves paid the release clause the new contract specified.
Today contracts are barely worth the paper written on, it just ensures that player x gets a pay increase whilst he bides his time and his club are in a better bargaining position when it comes to the fee.
The only way we can really ensure that Ash stays with us is to show we mean business - by the players we sign and the plans we ourselves put in place to be competitive at the business end of the table. If we're content (as some seem to be) to write this campaign off as a season of transition I'll bet good money that Ash will be gone this time next year.
