New boss Paul Jewell says the situation of 21 players’ contracts coming to an end in the summer is far from ideal and needs addressing. Skipper David Norris, reportedly subject of a £250,000 bid from Portsmouth, and key defender Gareth McAuley are amongst those whose current deals are up at the end of June.
Jewell said: "Obviously David Norris and Gareth McAuley are out of contract, along with plenty of other players. Decisions have got to be made by us and the players, but at the moment I haven’t sat down with any player and spoken to them about leaving the football club, all I’ve spoken about is how we’re going to try to move forward.”
Once players get to the point where they have only six months left on their deals they are able to officially speak to other clubs, although Jewell says that sort of conversation goes on anyway: "Let me tell you, even if they are in contract they speak to other clubs, let’s have it right!
"Out of that 21 there are a lot of youngsters, but there are also key players. We’ve got to address the situation, it’s not an ideal situation, I have to say. We’ve got to make sure in the future that if we can help it we don’t get players coming into the last year of their contracts because of the speculation in the press and the player can get unsettled.
"It’s not easy, but it’s something I have to deal with and something that hopefully we can stop happening in the future.”
Jewell doesn’t blame players for wanting to get their situations resolved: "Players want to know what their future holds and I will address that and hopefully we can get the right results for everybody.”