Queens Park Rangers officials are thrashing out Clarke Carlisle’s future as they look to take the right option in the Carlisle saga.
Carlisle whose contract is up at the end of the season is reportedly being linked with a cut-price move away from Rangers as he has rejected a new contract. This coupled with his disappearing act last Friday morning has left manager Ian Holloway with a huge dilemma on his hands.
Carlisle did not turn up at Rangers’ Acton training ground last Friday morning in preparation for Saturday’s home game against Chesterfield. The club was not able to contact him until 2.25 pm later that day.
Carlisle was subsequently dropped form the side and told to stay away from Loftus Road as Holloway fumed at his "serious breach of club rules". Rangers did however go on to record a 3-0 victory but Hollway remained unimpressed.
"Clarke Carlisle didn’t play because he has made a serious breach of club rules. What he did was totally and utterly unacceptable.
We rang him at 2.25pm to find out where he was, and I think we woke him up.
That’s some sleep-in, isn’t it? You never slam any doors shut but I’m going to have to sit down with the people who run this club and talk about it.
I didn’t want him at the game because too many people would want to talk to him about it, distracting us from our preparation. I haven’t done anything wrong, it is Clarke who did and he needs to work out what he wants to do. I have to be consistent".
Various suggestions as to where Carlisle was have been circulated, including one which said Carlisle was "fishing in Anglesey" and more accurate reports which say Carlisle was simply "out on the town ‘till all hours".
The latter being the most likely if Carlisle was woken by Holloway’s call in the afternoon!
Preston, Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Wigan are all interested in the former England under-21 defender who could be available on the cheap but a stumbling block could be his injury problems. He suffered a career threatening two years ago snapping his cruciate ligaments in his knee and one more injury to his knee may finish his career. The player once voted "Britain’s brainiest footballer" need’s to clear his head and start resurrecting his career again or face the chop!