OPINION: No winners in the Morecambe-Cole Stockton stand-off

The 28-year-old’s future had been the subject of lengthy, bordering on tiresome, speculation since the end of last season.

Fleetwood Town, Port Vale and Shrewsbury Town had all been linked with moves for the striker, who is now in the last 12 months of the contract he signed after promotion last summer.

There are two sides to every story, so it’s easy to understand why Stockton would look to see if the grass was greener elsewhere.

His stock – for want of a better phrase – had never been higher after 41 goals in the previous two seasons.

The first 15 aided Morecambe’s promotion in 2020-21, with 26 last season playing a huge part in their League One survival.

Football is also a relatively short career and those who don’t play in the Premier League or for some of the Championship high-flyers won’t earn enough to avoid seeking jobs once their playing days are over.

Stockton was presumably happy enough with the terms of his last deal in June 2021 but circumstances change.

Though he was reportedly offered a contract that would make him the highest-paid player at Morecambe, none of us outside the club know how much was on the table.

If he felt it wasn’t befitting of someone who’d enjoyed the season he had, it’s hard to blame him for looking at what’s on offer elsewhere.

On the other side of the coin, unless there is a clause in his contract specifying he could leave for a set transfer fee, Morecambe were under no obligation to let Stockton depart.

OK, that raises the question as to whether their reported asking price of £600,000 was realistic but that’s their prerogative as the selling club.

No club apparently came within more than a quarter of that, so why should the Shrimps effectively give away one of their top performers – especially when all the clubs linked were their direct rivals in the bottom half of the table?

If there were any Morecambe fans with sympathy for Stockton, that probably disappeared when he liked a social media post in the early hours of Friday morning, claiming it was a ridiculous price tag and he’d been denied the chance to make some money out of football.

That’s a PR disaster and as good an own goal as those in the Danny Baker compilations that appeared every Christmas.

Again, to reiterate an earlier point, none of us know how much he’s earning, what Morecambe proposed and what was offered by other clubs.

Nevertheless, it’s probably fair to guess he’s earning more than the vast majority of the Morecambe supporters who turn up week in week out.

All in all, it’s hard to escape the feeling there aren’t any winners in this scenario.

Yes, Morecambe have retained Stockton’s services but they run the risk of having an unhappy player around the dressing room.

There is also the potential for him to depart for a cut-price fee in January – or reject all offers in favour of a free transfer elsewhere next summer.

Either way, it’s a headache everyone could do without as Morecambe look to consolidate themselves in the third tier.