Chief executive Simon Clegg says contract talks have begun with a number of members of the Blues squad. At the end of last season, manager Paul Jewell said he wanted players who had a year remaining on their contracts to sign new deals or be sold.
Clegg subsequently said midfielder Lee Martin would be amongst those who would be offered new terms with the player himself keen to get his future sorted with Town.
The Blues chief wouldn’t name names but confirmed that discussions have begun: "We’re having talks with a number of players about their futures with the club, but I don’t want to go any further than that.
"I‘m not going to speculate in terms of who we’re speaking to at the moment. We’re highly conscious of individual players’ situations and we’re dealing with them in a timeframe that we think is right for the football club.”
In addition to Martin, Jack Ainsley, Jimmy Bullard, Damien Delaney, Andy Drury, Nathan Ellington, Arran Lee-Barrett, Jaime Peters, Ryan Stevenson, Joe Whight and Cormac Burke all have deals which are up at the end of June 2013, while skipper Carlos Edwards, Jason Scotland and Luke Hyam have signed new one-year contracts within the last few months.
Clegg was similarly tight-lipped on whether the Blues’ third signing of the summer might be close: "I’d hold myself as a hostage to fortune if I started hares running. My position has been absolutely consistent since I joined the club and I just don’t do it.
"We’re not going to be rushed into anything. We’re going to do the deals which will be right for this football club, at the time that is right for us and in particular at the price that is right for us.”
He says a lot of work goes on in the background even if it doesn’t always appear to be the case: "I was up at the training ground this morning, watching training and talking to the manager about a whole range of issues.
"These things are ongoing the whole time. People think we wake up one day and think ‘we’re going to find a centre-back’. These things don’t happen like that.
"We’re constantly on top of this, even though I do accept that because we don’t talk about it, it sometimes appears we may not be.”
With clubs now back in pre-season training, the transfer market has started to get going in earnest in the last week with Clegg feeling the Blues have done one of the standout deals: "There’s been quite a lot of movement across the Championship in the last 48 hours or so and one of those was ours. And what a great signing that was in the form of Luke Chambers.”
The Town chief executive says a few of the players the Blues are reported to have missed out on this summer weren’t even on club’s radar.
While manager Jewell has confirmed that keeper Tomasz Kuszczak came for talks before opting to join Brighton, we understand Town had given up on last season’s Portsmouth targets Jason Pearce and Joel Ward long before they joined Leeds and Crystal Palace, despite widespread reports to the contrary.
Clegg wouldn’t confirm any names but said: "There were particular players who were mentioned earlier in the summer that we had absolutely no interest in whatsoever.”
He believes that contrary to claims, the Blues usually land their targets: "I remain convinced that we get the vast majority of players that we want. Very few slip through the net.”
In terms of current Town players moving on, he again wouldn’t get into specifics: "We’re constantly speaking to people. We’re constantly looking at every player in terms of where they fit into the long-term aspirations of the football club.”
Overall, with Chambers and young right-back Elliott Hewitt already added to the squad, Clegg is pleased with progress up to now: "I’m delighted [with the way the summer has gone so far]. I hope we’ve picked up a couple of good signings and it’s about quality more than quantity.”
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