Blues boss Paul Jewell says he hopes midfielder Josh Carson will sign his new contract in the next week or so. The Northern Irish international has been offered a two-year deal with an option for a third season.
Jewell said: "Hopefully we can get that tied up in the next week or so. I spoke to his agent Kevin Moran last night, hopefully he spoke with Marcus and we can get it sorted.
"Josh is 18 and he’s getting better. He’s had his peaks and troughs and we’d like to tie him down.”
Aside from Carson and Ronan Murray, who has penned his new one-year contract, and Luke Hyam, who is weighing up his one-season offer, Jewell says there’s not been much new progress: "There’s no change from last week. It’s not easy to manage the situation with so many people out of contract but the economic world is tough out there and football has to come in line as well.
"There’ll be a lot of people who are out of contract in the summer, from all clubs, who will be surprised how tough it is out there.”