The summer may well be the time to move on. He has served his purpose fantastically well, getting two promos and hopefully keeping us up. He may well want a last (and probably only) pay day and we will then invest in the future. I would imagine it would be him taking the pay rise rather than us shifting him though.
Whilst I agree with the whole tenet of the piece, the problem is that expectancies increase when you over achieve.
The fact that we got into the Prem earlier than anticipated cannot deflect from the fact that we are heading for, if not, in the mire.