Fulham boss Roy Hodgson has revealed Jimmy Bullard asked for fresh contract talks in the wake of his England call-up. "When Jimmy made the England squad his agent was very quick, as agents are, to fly forward and say 'my boy is in the squad - I want to tear up that contract and renegotiate'," he reported.

"But the club wasn't keen to do it, and I've got to say that I'm on the side of the club in this economic time.

"It's very difficult to predict what will happen four years down the line at the moment.

"We've got a player; we were asked by the chief executive to hold fire and assess it - and I've got to say that as far as Jimmy is concerned, it's not been a topic of discussion between us.

"We've got quite a few players with contracts running out in two years' time. The club's policy has been 'let's look at it when the time comes'."

Hodgson argues the ease with which contracts are broken makes it difficult to justify granting new deals.

"If it was a case of we'll give him a contract and we were 100 per cent certain he'd be our player for four years then we would - but that's not the case," he said.

"Another club comes in a week later for a player, and then they want to leave. It's very difficult for clubs."