Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says Magpies fans should have increased admiration for star Dale Thomas for the amount of money he is forgoing to stay with the AFL club.

McGuire has confirmed the 24-year-old midfielder is on the verge of signing a new two-year deal with the Magpies, instead of taking a massive offer from Greater Western Sydney.

The Collingwood president said while a few details of the deal were still to be finalised, Thomas never tried to put pressure on the Magpies to pay an exorbitant amount to keep him.

"The supporters, if they've loved Daisy in the past, they should absolutely love him for the fact that he could have obviously got more money elsewhere or he could have blown our salary cap to kingdom come," McGuire said on Triple M radio on Wednesday.

"He's not signed yet, but close enough and Daisy's been good enough all the way through to say that he had no intentions of leaving the club.

"He hasn't tried to extort us or anything like that."

Thomas is reportedly set to sign for a maximum of $550,000 per year, about $500,000 per season less than he would have received from the Giants.

While the Magpies have so far avoided losing a big-name player to the AFL's expansion clubs, they still have to re-sign key forward Chris Dawes.

And midfield star Scott Pendlebury, who has signed for next season, could still be a Giants' target, as their recruiting window for uncontracted players also includes the end of the 2012 season.

McGuire said while Thomas would not be joining the Giants, he had information that the AFL's newest club was still set to land a very high-profile player from another club.

"My insider at Greater Western Sydney has said there is a big one coming," he said.

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