The behind the scenes tug-of-war over soccer MVP Kentoine Jennings between North Village and Southampton Rangers has come to an abrupt halt.

And Village fans can breathe a sigh of relief as their star player has decided to stay with the league and cup champions.

As reported earlier this week Jennings is understood to have reneged on a written deal to join Southampton Rangers as player/coach and had received an undisclosed amount of cash.

But Rangers president Aldwin Savery said yesterday that the matter had now been resolved and that his club was currently in the process of retrieving the cash given to the player as part of a signing-on agreement.

It is also understood Village dug deep into their pockets to retain Jennings' services.

President Shervin Dill stated earlier this week that his club would be making a “counter-proposal”.

“Kentoine had requested that we release him from the contract because North Village have asked him to stay on, and we have agreed to let him do that,” said Savery, adding that the issue had now been resolved on amicable grounds.

“He did sign a contract and we very much wanted him to come but we didn't want Kentoine to come up here if he wasn't going to be totally committed. We would have preferred him to come up here with a free mind and so we respected his decision.”

In regards to the cash that the player had received as part of the deal, Savery added: “Although money is a small thing here, you can still rest assured that we will get it all back.”

Jennings is now reported to be taking on the role as Village coach Scott Morton's assistant this season and is expected to be included in the champions' line-up for tonight's Charity Cup Final clash with Devonshire Cougars at BAA Field.

“Our whole point was to try and improve our football and so we targeted a player who we felt could help,” said Savery.

Nick Jones is coaching at Southampton Oval this season while both the club's technical director Rick Richardson and former national coach Gary Darrell are assisting the ZBM SportsVoice anchorman.