Penrith Panthers General Manager Phil Gould says he had hesitations about offering young halfback Nathan Cleary a lengthy five-year upgrade on his contract.

The GM however believes the little halfback is a marquee player and a longer contract was an investment in a player that has been at Penrith since age 14.

Speaking on the Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould also revealed a conversation he once had with former Panthers Coach Ivan Cleary about Cleary junior.

“I can remember going into Ivan’s office and sitting down and saying I need to talk to you about something. I need to talk to you about whether you can coach your son,” Gould said.

“When he was playing under 20’s, we used to have training sessions where they play against the first grade side. And this was the first night Nathan had played against the first grade side and after the session I asked Ivan how it went and he said good, he said a few of the blokes gave it to Nathan.”

Ivan will now come up against his son and Gould this weekend as Wests Tigers Head Coach.