CAPTAIN Matt Thompson will walk away from the Newcastle Jets at the end of the A-League season after a last-ditch meeting yesterday failed to find common ground over contract negotiations.
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Thompson will now decide between offers from two rival A-League clubs but has been strongly linked to new franchise Melbourne Heart on a deal believed to be worth close to $200,000 a season.
The Herald understands the Jets' offer yesterday was about $50,000 short of what he stands to earn elsewhere.
"I was hoping we might have been able to sort something out today but the gap is too great," Thompson told The Herald last night.
"It's no secret that I love Newcastle.
"I am captain of the club and would have loved to have worn the armband for a while longer.
"It's disappointing but it's one of those things which happens in football.
"You have to look after No.1. I'm 27 now and have a missus . . . I have to think of that as well.
"There are a couple of options which look positive. I have to make sure it is the right one for us."
One of only four original Jets remaining, Thompson said he would have stayed if the Jets offer had been comparable.
"I never told them or demanded x-amount," Thompson stressed.
"Through my agent, I told them what I had been offered from other clubs. That is the offer we received. I didn't ask for that, they brought it to the table.
" I left that with the Jets and said 'what can you do'?
"I never once said you have to beat it.
"If the offer had have been closer it would have given me something to think about. In the end the gap was way too far."
After initially not tabling a deal, Jets chief executive John Tsatsimas met with Thompson's agent Brad Maloney yesterday.
"We had a discussion which involved certain figures but at the end the day there was not a meeting of minds and we move on," Tsatsimas said.
"We identify players who we want to retain and we do our best within the parameters we have got. It's disappointing to lose players but now there is an opportunity for someone else."
Thompson, who is the Jets most-capped player with 106 A-League games, was elevated to captain at the start of the Asian Champions League.
Tsatsimas said it was "too early to make a call" on if he would retain the role for the remainder of the season.
"We will congregate internally and have discussions about a variety of factors," he said.
But as far as the midfielder was concerned nothing would change.
"I am committed 100 percent to the end of the season," he said.
"The last thing I want is people saying I am not interested any more because I have a contract somewhere else."
The Jets have eight other players off-contract, headed by Ljubo Milicevic, Song Jin-hyung, Michael Bridges and Fabio Vignaroli.
Adelaide and Central Coast have also showed an interest in Thompson, but a cashed-up Heart loom as the biggest threat.
"Every club is looking at players and we are looking at every other club's players," Tsatsimas said.
"It is no different [to other years].
"It's a competitive market and obviously Melbourne Heart have to make an impression first-up."
