Clinton Gutherson will hit the “big 10” with the Parramatta Eels, racking up a decade of service in the blue and gold, after agreeing to a bumper new $760,000-a-year deal that will run until the end of the NRL’s 2025 season.
The Eels have finally locked up their skipper with a new three-year extension.
The deal, first reported by The Daily Telegraph after Sam Ayoub (Gutherson’s agent), Parramatta chairman Sean McElduff, and the club’s general manager of football Mark O’Neill were spotted breaking bread at a Leichhardt cafe last Friday.
Later that same evening, the powerbroker trio agreed on numbers, length, and loyalty; by earlier this morning, it was confirmed that Clinton Gutherson would be seeing out his current deal to the end of 2022, before taking up a new three-year bargain that will see him hit a huge club milestone at Western Sydney Stadium.
Gutho’s new deal is well off his original demands of $1m-plus a season, with the club talking him and Ayoub down to a more feasible $760k mark until 2025.
Surprisingly, it’s actually a little haircut off his current $780k pay packet.
The offseason is far from over for Parramatta’s player powerbrokers, however.
While Gutherson’s re-signing is expected to be announced either over the weekend or early next week, the Eels bosses are already turning their attention to two more of their shining stars.
The club lost Isiah Papali’i to the Tigers last week, and before that Marata Niukore to the Warriors even earlier. Parra have no plans to lose out on their final two contract sagas, with hooker Reed Mahoney and front-rower Junior Paulo. Both are under Ayoub’s wing, just like Gutho, but with the Eels skipper staying that should sway their decision ever so slightly.
The off-contract Eels duo have fielded several major offers from NRL rivals, but the Eels are trying everything in their power — and their tightened salary cap space — to convince them to stay.
