Blues boss Paul Lambert expects skipper Luke Chambers to be rewarded with a new Town deal and says the club should also be looking at new terms for midfielder Teddy Bishop.
Town have an option to extend Chambers's contract by a year in the summer, while the additional year on Bishop's last deal was activated ahead of this campaign.
Asked whether he wants Chambers’s contract situation sorted, Lambert said: "I think Luke’s situation, given how big a player he has been to the club past and present, I think that’s really important. I think people like that are worth their weight in gold.
"I think he’s 33, so for the football club he’s vital. For me, he’s been absolutely brilliant as a footballer and as a person.
"I can’t speak highly enough of him and I’m pretty sure the club will sort something out with him.
"We already spoke about it a few weeks ago. He knows my feelings on it and what I think. He’s been absolutely terrific for us and I can’t ask any more from him as a lad about the place and the way he is and conducts himself, he’s first class.
"I think he’s great for the football club. Even after football, I think he’s a great role model for kids.”
Is the matter in owner Marcus Evans’s hands? "Me and Marcus have had the discussion on it and I think Marcus knows my take on it as well. It’s not just for the football club, it’s everywhere else around the town, I think he’s important.”
Bishop has spent most of the last three seasons out injured but appears to be making significant progress this season.
The 22-year-old academy product has said he wants to win himself a new deal in the remaining months of the season.
"I think the thing for myself with Bishop was that two years not playing is a long time, it’s a helluva long time not playing,” Lambert said when asked about the Cambridge-based youngster’s contract situation.
"He’s a talent, as I’ve always said. Whether he could sustain it [fitness-wise was more of a question]. I think he’s doing really well now, I think he’s broken the back of it, I think he’s getting stronger.
"He’s doing really well in training, he looks sharper and fitter, stronger and he’s one player I think this club should look at and think, ‘OK, let’s see if we can do something with him’, because I think he’s a really good player.”