Tuesday 2 February 2016 10:10, UK
Leigh owner Derek Beaumont has no intention of letting Ryan Brierley leave the club despite interest from Super League teams.
The 23-year-old scored 37 tries in 33 appearances for the Centurions last summer and had an agreement that enabled him to leave the club if coach Paul Rowley departed.
But Beaumont said the release clause, triggered when Rowley resigned last Thursday, would be unenforceable even if Brierley wanted to leave the club which he says is not the case as the start of the Championship season arrives.
Leigh, odds-on favourites to finish top of the Championship, begin their campaign at Batley on Sunday under new head coach Neil Jukes.
And it appears Jukes will still have the club's star player available, despite interest from Huddersfield, Hull and Hull KR as well as long-term admirers Leeds and Salford.
"It would never happen but, if Leeds came in tomorrow and said 'here's £100,000 for Ryan', I'd say 'no thanks'," Beaumont said.
"I had no knowledge of that clause but, having been made aware of it, I took legal advice and that was that, if it was a private agreement, it would not enforceable anyway because of the manner it was written.
"More importantly, any supplementary clause must come from the RFL clause bank.
"It isn't a concern anyway because Ryan is not trying to enforce it. He's not going anywhere."
But Beaumont is upset at the way the clause in Brierley's contract became public knowledge, and is keen to find out how it did, perhaps resorting to legal measures to do so.
He added: "I would say Ryan's agent or any agent would need to express extreme caution in discussing his availability before the May deadline with any club because that clause in his contract will not protect them and they will, therefore, be subject to legal retribution by myself, and also RFL operational rules.
"And once we get to the deadline, my understanding is that Ryan will not be making any decisions about his future until he knows where Leigh Centurions are because, if he can achieve his goal with Leigh, then he'll want to do that.
"It doesn't pose a problem. What does pose me a problem, though, is how that information has got into the public domain because it is a confidential document.
"It's important for me to know who, if it is anybody within my club, has put information like that out there and I've instructed a solicitor to get on with finding out how that occurred and, if necessary, get an injunction against the source because I feel strongly about that."
