Clayton Donaldson

He is taking a risk not signing when offered a new deal by them just for one last months pay, unless it is massively less. If he gets injured before end of the month when he signs they could withdraw their offer leaving him with no pay for rest of the year

 

He's coming home, he's coming, Clayton's coming home...................

 

Its a bit cheeky of York , playing the Don in pre season whilst he is still contracted to City., and being paid by us until 31st july
If he had received an injury , we would have been liable for his treatment.

 

Aye bit of a shame as they could have been a good club to send some of the younger players to, here is the article https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/19454420.bantams-unhappy-way-york-handled-donaldson-signing/

 

It’s disappeared behind the pay wall for me now but didn’t the article say he was playing under his own insurance? So he, or his insurers pay for any treatment.

 

The agreement was he would but then again there were other aspects of the agreement they weren't keeping to so who's to know?

 

Anyone got the full story? Can't seem to get past the paywall.

 

Click onto the Simon Parker twitter icon and you can open it up to read stories behind the paywall.

 

Sounds like York have bent the rules so we have to pay Donaldsons July wage. They have also posted a few smarmy comments on their Twitter about it.

Sparks not happy. Has cut ties with them.

 

probably just my ignorance but I thought contracts usually expired on 30th June?

 

It did. But if a player hasn't got a club lined up then old club pay them for July. York signed him from August so they didn't have to pay anything and City had to stump up severance until then

 

daft thing is we would still have had to pay majority of this month anyway

 

Someone on their message board has said that a guy who works at the club has given an explanation of events from their viewpoint - guess there's always two sides - probably better if Sparks had just kept his mouth shut as it does come across as fairly petty. Ah well, no more Nigel Pepper's then.

Everything was agreed that Donaldson would sign and we announce him when we did with the line of 'upon the completion of his contract at Bradford' which is clearly seen in the website release. Bradford announced him on their released list some weeks before. Nothing was said about naming him as a trialist in pre season games (and why would we... everyone knows who Clayton Donaldson is and he's already announced?!). After we named him and he scored against Whitby, their CEO pursues us for his wages from June and July (why would we pay when as Ryan Sparks says: 'York are playing by the rules'). I was asked to then put him down as a Trialist but I'm not going to communicate this without reason hence the explanation on the tweet and the 'Don Trialist' a mere lighthearted joke to point out how petty Bradford were being - this wasn't off my own back and discussed beforehand. To give context Steve McNulty also signed before his contract ended with Tranmere and still played under his name - Tranmere did not pursue us for his wages. Bradford are in the wrong here, York City are not. Ryan Sparks has spat his dummy out and gone to the press because he couldn't bully us into paying a League Two players wages. It's literally not a big issue - a small minority are making it out to be.

 

the thing is he hasn’t signed at the completion of his contract. His contract ended June 30th. He is signing August 1st to take advantage of us having to pay his full wage for July, saving them a months salary.

 

Good work from Sparks here. As a club with few natural local rivals starting a bit of niggle with a nearby club we are likely to come across over the next few years could reap rewards. I believe a bit of a Bradford/York rugby league rivalry has also started to become a bit of a thing too.

 

Perfectly within the rules but sharp practice by York and Donaldson. I can see why Sparks is annoyed but it’s a mountain out of a mole hill. Donaldson himself could have avoided it by insisting on signing from 1st July or not playing until August, probably says as much about him and his respect for City as anything else.

 

I guess it all depends on how the rules are interpreted. York clearly feel they've done nothing wrong, City disagree. It's interesting that Hartlepool have been fielding 'trialists' in their pre season games that they've already signed but according to Challinor, they can't announce yet due to severance payments.

 

Which I think is City’s complaint against York, Donaldson has been announced as their player, effectively played under his own name and been used to release York’s new shirts all whilst collecting his severance pay from City. Hartlepool have done what City would have preferred York to do it seems.
It looks like York have presumably followed the rules but stuck two fingers up at City or not done as they agreed to.
A good example of how the appearance of trust and integrity is important.

 

Yet Billy Clarke who publicly stated he would have been happy to stay in a coaching role seemingly didn’t get offered one.

 

Maybe they have seen something in Donaldson that they think would benefit the club on the coaching side of things, but not Clarke?