Manly CEO Lyall Gorman says he expects Trent Barrett to see out his contract following fresh speculation that the coach could depart over lack of resources at the NRL club.
Barrett has instructed his manager Wayne Beavis to fire off a legal letter to the Sea Eagles outlining his concern over deficiencies in the football department, according to News Corp.
Gorman was asked on radio on Sunday about a rumour that Barrett had given notice in July and was set to depart at the end of the year.
"Trent and I have made no comment on that at all and I'm not going to speculate. Damage can be done to this game with speculation," Gorman told Triple M NRL.
But Gorman said the club was moving to ensure he had the support he needed and he expected Barrett to see out his deal until the end of the 2020 season.
"Trent's contracted to coach at this club next year and we fully expect him to be coaching here next year," he said.
Gorman said Manly was sifting a long list of applications for a list and recruitment manager, was considering appointing a director of football and he pointed to their hiring of John Bonasera as the club's new general manager of football.
He also said Manly were hopeful of getting their centre of excellence project off the ground, having secured $22.5 million in government funding.
It is the second time this year reports have arisen about Barrett expressing dissatisfaction with the level of support around him.
In May, he vowed to stick with Manly after he was filmed meeting with his management and lawyers about the situation.
The timing of the latest report is intriguing, coming in the wake of Penrith coach Anthony Griffin's sacking last week, with Barrett a well-regarded former Panthers assistant.
But Gorman was adamant Barrett would get what he needed to be successful at Manly.
"We continue to look at how we raise the bar. We had 141 applicants for a national recruitment manager role and getting that right is really important," Gorman said.
"There's a whole lot of applications out there for other roles in the footy club as well.
"We've extended (assistant coaches) Carty (John Cartwright) and Chad (Randall) and our head of high performance (Dan Ferris) until the the end of Trent's contract. There are lots of things happening behind the scenes."
Gorman also hoped to have a ruling on the club's appeal against its salary cap penalty in the next two to three weeks.
The club took their case to the NRL Appeals Committee after being accused to salary cap rorting.
The Sea Eagles were earlier in the year fined $750,000 and slugged $660,000 in salary cap penalties over the next two years.
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