Ross wants Maja to sign ‘final’ contract offer

Posted Sunday, December 30, 2018 by PA

Jack Ross has revealed there is a deadline for 14-goal Josh Maja to sign a new contract after the Sunderland striker scored to secure a point against Shrewsbury Town.

Maja is out of contract in the summer and the Black Cats are keen to tie him down to a longer deal amid interest from Premier League and Championship sides.

The 19-year-old’s 13th goal in League One arrived a minute before half-time when he headed in Bryan Oviedo’s cross to cancel out Luke Waterfall’s opener after half an hour.

Sunderland, who have agreed a new contract with winger Lynden Gooch, couldn’t find a winner and remain four points behind second-placed Luton.

Ross said: “My understanding is that with Lynden Gooch, subject to paperwork, everything has been agreed. Like everything, when it is signed and registered, it will be when to confirm, I’d be loathe to say definite.

“With Josh he has been made a final offer if you like, which now has a deadline of the end of this week, before the Charlton game (Saturday).

“I’ve chatted with him and should he agree that then great, if not then we will have to look at that as a club and the club will decide how to proceed. I want to keep him at the club.”

Ross added: “There was frustration for the second half today and maybe the last 10 minutes of the first half, prior to that there was disappointment at the level of performance.

“It surprised me because the group were really bright since Wednesday, they had been bright in the warm up, these things, so things that might concern you were all ticked.”

Shrewsbury boss Sam Ricketts was understandably far happier with the outcome at the Stadium of Light, knowing his team are battling to climb clear of relegation trouble and have the worst away record in the division.

Ricketts said: “I am delighted with the performance and the draw is a very good draw for us. We set up with a game plan to frustrate, to make it hard against a very good team with good individual players.

“We haven’t got a great away record, so it’s pleasing to frustrate and for the first 25 minutes I thought we were excellent and got in front.

“For me home, away, it’s the performance level that matters. If we perform like we do at home we will win games. It should give us confidence, they have hit certain standards today. If you play wherever, even on the beach, if you hit standards you get results.

“I went back on the last couple of Sunderland games, the Portsmouth game away, Bradford here, every team has certain weaknesses I thought we could exploit.

“Knowing individual players in the Sunderland team we had to be respectful of that. We tried to play on the break a little and got our reward.”