Ben Davies: Deal has to be right to stay at Pompey
Yet the popular right-back believes he deserves a deal befitting a first-team regular.
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Hide AdPaul Cook has told the 34-year-old he wants him to stay at Fratton Park.
Now contract negotiations have been handed to chief executive Mark Catlin and finance director Tony Brown.
Davies signed a 12-month deal last summer following a successful trial on terms appropriate for a squad player.
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Hide AdHowever, he has gone on to make 51 starts and scoop eight player-of-the-season accolades from supporters.
The former Sheffield United player is eager to remain on the south coast and talks on a fresh deal are expected to start soon.
But Davies wants to be recognised as a first-team player.
He told The News: ‘The gaffer wants to keep me and now it’s a case of what the club are going to come up with and seeing where we go from there.
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Hide Ad‘People look at your age but when you get older your actions speaker louder than words and I have been available for every game for the gaffer to pick me.
‘I have proven I can play regularly. With the energy I’ve brought it is not a case of standing around at right-back, I like to bomb on.
‘I think I easily have another three or four years ahead of me so it’s about where the club sees me fitting in with them next year.
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Hide Ad‘Pompey have been brilliant for me, I have loved every minute turning out in front of these fans. It is the most I have enjoyed my football for as long as I can remember.
‘My little ’un starts school in September and I need to be planning where my family want to be. But I will move heaven and earth to stay down here and play for this club again next year.
‘When I came last summer I didn’t sign the best deal in the world. I had been on trial and the club said it was more of a squad deal and rightly so, that is what they saw me as.
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Hide Ad‘But I have done more than that now, I have been a regular starter in the first-team – yet am still on the same deal as a squad player.
‘It is now a case of sitting down with them again and finding out whether they are going to offer me a squad deal once more or a deal where I play every week.
‘I am desperate to stay, I have said all along I would love to stay, I would sign for as long as they want me.
‘Hopefully we can get it sorted.’
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Hide AdHowever, Davies is adamant he would not be content to make up Pompey squad numbers next term.
He added: ‘I don’t want to be a squad player, I want to play every game with the work I put in and the graft I do.
‘I am disappointed when I don’t play, I want to be the first name on the gaffer’s team sheet like this year.
‘Hopefully I get a deal which is right for me – and right for the club as well.’