Parramatta Eels front-rower Junior Paulo continues a contract standoff with the Parramatta Eels after losing the Perth Bears deal.Contract talks collapsed between Paulo and the Bears in August after his management asked for a two-year deal at $900,000 per season.
This led the Western Australian-based club to pursue Corey Horsburgh from the Canberra Raiders after he had a falling out with Ricky Stuart.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a deal has been offered to extend with the Parramatta Eels.
Parramatta have offered Junior Paulo $650,000 per season, which still doesn't meet his expectations.
Paulo missed most of the season after having minor knee surgery.
There had been whispers that Super League clubs believed Paulo was available for the 2027 season, according to The Daily Telegraph.
"Junior is super important for us in terms of experience in the middle third of the field; we are quite young there," Jason Ryles said at the end of the season about closing Paulo on a new deal.
If Paulo stays at Parramatta, he will join his co-captain at international level, Jarome Luai, who is heading to the Eels in a 12-month stopgap deal for 2027.
Another Samoan star, Jaydn Su'A, will also arrive at the club on a three-year deal from the St George Illawarra Dragons.
It is likely that at this stage, Paulo will remain at Parramatta; however, money is a major factor for the 32-year-old in his next year.
Replies
Well considering he will miss most of preseason due to the World Cup and annual leave, it's only fair to start paying him from mid January. 700k tops.
Paulo is a deadset thief. $900,000 for 2 years - he has to be kidding.He should be paying Parra for fraud damages..
Paulo needs Spencer & Spencer will be a waste without Paulo. Don't think for one minute we would be better off without this wreaking ball. An agreement needs to be reached, it's no use trying to build the squad, then allow a senior player walk out. Getting rid of the old boys RCG & co but it set us back, but we all agreed it had to happen. Losing Brown & Lomax was not expected & those two would have made a huge difference with them in the side. Now your happy to lose Paulo to save $300 000, for what? It's no like we can replace his experience, sure we could pick up another prop but not his experience & what he does for the club & team. Some people here are truly sponge heads, no idea what a player like him will set us back. Then next year you'll be blaming recruitment and retention so stop it. He needed & need to get this deal done. Sure go for a lower price but we need to make it happen.
Spencer doen't need Paulo, Paulo needs Spencer to do the hard yards because he is lazy and just goes through the motions taking the easy way out to get his doe for f**k all return never been any differant.went to raiders for more cash had to earn it jumped ship back to us for an easier ride, plays lasy until contrct up, plays like a champion gets his extention goes back to his usual lazy self. defensive liability we dont need him get rid of him.
Paulo was already gone and we were quite happy for him to do so. I was good with him at 600kish , I was even good with offering him a mutual second year . But he's truly shown his colours now as a greedy prick who couldn't give two fucks about the club. I actualy think we'd be a better side without his poor influence on young players.
How can you sell him as a club leader to young blokes? Do you what to breed more like him ? Nah .
Bit like when Hayne fucked off to NFL . We were a better side for his abcence .
Yeah I'd move on. 650000k year on year is more than fair for his age and he's had a couple of injuries.
650k is the same amount Trey Mooney is on. Would've been a handy signing but I heard we baulked on his asking price
The nerve of this guy, he ain't worth 400k and hasn't put in for a long time. Give him 1 year at 400k.
Emotion plays a big part on what fans think a player is worth I mean you could go through Parra's roster and look at salaries and say is he worth that.Well Id suggest no one on our roster is worth what there getting paid because the performance of the team is sub standard but again that's emotion talking.
Reality is if we haven't got an experienced replacement for Paulo we have to reach some sought of middle ground.Hell if we ponied up the extra yr and a 100 k for Kolomatangi is Paulo even a discussion.See this is the position the club has put itself in we don't want to pay so we end up with what we end up with and the vicious cycle continues.When your a bad club especially in the recruitment stakes these are the situations and decisions we face.
Me the biggest hire we can make right now is a seasoned recruitment officer and turn recruitment over to him because what we have now sucks.
Doesn't seem like a stand off to me. He was going anyway but had the offer pulled by Perth.
Seems to me that we would hold the upper hand in any negotiations. If he doesn't like our offer he can move his family even further than Perth and freeze in Leeds (or some other place).
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