Jevons rejects Mariners terms

The 23-year-old arrived in the summer of 2001 for £250,000 from Premiership side Everton and subsequently signed a lucrative deal with The Mariners.

The contract included appearance bonuses both for the player and The Toffees that were of a sizable amount.

However, the subsequent collapse of ITV Digital has landed Grimsby with a player they can no longer afford to play.

They decided to offload him last season to Division Three side Hull City to remedy the situation but with Jevons back at the club, Grimsby were determined to renegotiate his deal on reduced terms for another year's extension.

Both the club and the player's agent agreed the deal but Jevons himself rejected the new terms, meaning his time at Blundell Park has likely come to an end.

"We made it perfectly clear in the first place that he's still got a one-year contact with us that we will honour," said Mariners chairman Peter Furneaux.

"But as we have to pay Everton for appearances and he's on a large appearance money with Grimsby, that, combined with the amount that we pay Everton precludes him from playing for us.

"For a number of weeks I have been talking to his agent.

"Even when we were in Ibiza, we had daily conversations where we came to an agreement about what he was going to recommend to Phil Jevons to accept.

"We were offering him a further year's contract that was part of the deal.

"This was concluded yesterday morning and we understand that Phil has been to see his parents and he's rejected that deal."