Kilmarnock v Aberdeen: Defender comes clean over contract dilemma

Saturday 23 February 2013

THE moment that Ryan O'Leary turned to ask if he had perhaps said too much, it was clear he had let slip more than enough.

Kilmarnock's Ryan O'Leary, left, and Michael Nelson crowd out Michael Higdon of Motherwell

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Chris Tait

The defender had been nominated to speak at Kilmarnock's press conference ahead of a match with Aberdeen today and the conversation proved unexpectedly enlightening, both in illuminating a source of contention for the 25-year-old and in letting him get it off his chest. What started out as your average interview began to feel a little like a therapy session.

It was a safe space and one which O'Leary filled with intrigue since his point of concern was the offer of a three-and-a-half year contract made by Kilmarnock back in December. The length of such a deal is designed to offer security to a player but instead it has added to the uncertainty O'Leary feels over his future at Rugby Park; his club's last seven matches having brought him just one start. He would not disrupt his team's preparations by questioning the decision of manager Kenny Shiels to drop him after 17 successive starts at the beginning of the season but the pregnant pause which followed O'Leary's account of his earlier prominence did give birth to a feeling of confusion over the reasons behind his recent exile.The departure of Michael Nelson – O'Leary's regular centre-half partner until the Englishman signed for Bradford City last month – perhaps left the defence vulnerable to change, with Kilmarnock conceding just once in the last four matches having favoured a backline comprising Mohamadou Sissoko, Jeroen Tesselaar and Manuel Pascali. That trio will likely be absent today due to illness and injuries, a twist of fate which has turned O'Leary back into a sure starter for the Ayrshire side. A win this afternoon would also help consolidate their place in the top six of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League. It is that which will now demand the focus of O'Leary, an enterprise which will likely come to seem like a release since the last few weeks have been occupied by doubt. "It's been frustrating for me not to be playing recently for reasons that I'm not quite sure of to be honest," he said."I couldn't understand why I was offered such a good deal and then dropped: that's confusing. It'll be interesting to see what happens now that I'm playing again. I'd be much happier staying here if I was getting a game. I'm entitled to do what's best for myself; the gaffer has been good to me and I'd like to repay him but I need to know where I stand and, if I'm not playing, then I may need to move elsewhere."Such a comment seemed out of key given his desire to stick around at Kilmarnock but O'Leary is aware of overtures being made by other clubs, with Hibernian this week credited with an interest in discussing a pre-contract agreement with the player. "According to my agent, there are a few clubs showing an interest and it's nice to know that a club like Hibs is one of them," he said."The manager explained his decision to leave me out but didn't go into it too much and I've just been waiting for my chance ever since. This is the kind of club I want to be part of but I need to be playing."Meanwhile, five months of misery, following a fractured foot, will come to an end for Ryan Jack if he features for Aberdeen in Ayrshire today."I've been training for two weeks," Jack said. "I've had checks from the hospital. Everything's fine and I'm ready to go. I broke my left foot when I was 16, so I knew what rehab I had to do but it was still frustrating."Every game is a dogfight now and we have to make sure we are up for it and that our quality comes through."

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Kilmarnock v Aberdeen: Defender comes clean over contract dilemma

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