With 18 months to go, if we really look like going up surely the compromise is a new deal with a release clause of some sort?
Football is a short career but by the same token, why would he want to sit on say 10k per week for the next 18 months when the club might pay him 20k per week for the next 6 months and let's say 40k per week for the following 12 months and beyond?
There is no guarantee that he will be at the level to excel in the Premier League. We hope he does but no guarantee; he didn't get much change out of the England defence, for instance. He might even get a terrible injury, that would be terrible all round. Then he's going to be thinking "why did I get so far ahead of myself and earn just £780,000 for the remaining 18 months when I could have earned £2,600,000?"
I don't think this is so cut and dried that he won't sign a new deal. He'll be 23 when we finish the season. It's not as if he's 18 and achieving what he is doing in the Championship and that he has an astronomical trajectory that we couldn't possibly hope to keep him. If we're a club in the Premier League, probably in the middle in terms of club size, that's a good level for him.