The wages saved by the end of Pedersen's contract are not insignificant. There is real danger with breaking the wage structure to bring in a player such as O'Brien permanently though, and that is that other players when their contracts are up for renewal will also want such wages, especially if they are key players to the squad.
O'Brien is the finished product of what Franco could become with another year or two of experience in this league and development. I would offer Joe a one year extension with reduced salary but bigger appearance based incentives and a pathway to coaching and look to bring in an understudy for him so he could guide their development.
Be that a new player or someone coming up from the reserves/youth setup in a similar way to how Joe broke through and was guided by Leon.
If O'Brien would accept a 20-25k a week salary (about 75-80% wage cut) then that would be incredible, but unless as a person he has completely fallen in love with the city and the surrounding area to raise his upcoming new kid then its never going to happen.
