Maybe the reality is his agent has placed him here so he’s in the shop window for a bigger club next season. That’s my pessimistic self talking.
It's probably not too far from the reality.
We pro-actively sent messaging out to agents and clubs that we were very interested in taking over the contracts of players with 6 months or less left on their contracts that were due to be released in the summer. The player would get the chance to play (vs. their current situation, which for those who would nibble on such bait would be in the reserves somewhere as things stood), the club would get to offload early and the agent would get 6 months to hawk a better deal with actual highlight reals being built. In some cases we may be the team to take up the option, but it doesn't seem unrealistic that a few of them will be off in the summer, now back to fitness and having shown some worth.