Unsworth rejects pay cut at Goodison

The Everton defender David Unsworth has put his future at the club in jeopardy by rejecting a new contract.

Unsworth, who has played more than 300 times for the club since he made his debut in 1992, was asked to take a pay cut but turned down the request from Goodison officials.

His deal expires at the end of the season and with Everton's chief executive, Michael Dunford, stressing that this is the only offer they will make Unsworth is in a tricky position.

"We have made David a fair offer which he has rejected for now," Dunford said. "There will not be another offer from Everton.

"It does entail a pay cut, but that policy is pretty general throughout football now. More realism is coming into the game and unless you are a megastar, and with all due respect to David he is not in that category, that's the way the game has to go."

Unsworth spent one season away from Goodison Park, when he moved to West Ham in 1997. He signed for Aston Villa a year later, but immediately said he had made a mistake and rejoined Everton.