Town boss Paul Cook says he, owner Marcus Evans and general manager of football operations Lee O'Neill have already started to discuss who will be offered new contracts with more than half of those with professional deals having their terms coming to an end this summer.

Young right-back Barry Cotter departed the club earlier in the week, presumably to give him time to find a new side back in his native Republic of Ireland where the season is about to start, while 26 other players* have contracts which are up in the close season.

Asked whether contracts will start to be offered to those players he wants to keep hold of now rather than waiting until later in the campaign, Cook said: “One hundred per cent. If I felt now that contracts can be offered out to players that I believe can be here [next season], 100 per cent we’ll start offering contracts out.

“It’s something that Marcus the owner, myself and Lee are discussing daily, every two days. We’ve got a good meeting again tomorrow morning.

“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes and I think our supporters can be excited and happy with that.

“I don’t like lads being out of contract, I genuinely don’t. The reason why so many lads here are out of contract is because people aren’t happy with where we are. That’s the brutal truth of it.

“Because the majority of players I’ve worked with, I’ve never had them out of contract, I don’t allow it.

“Going forward, I’m screaming for lads to say to me, ‘I want to be here in the future, I want to be part of this success story’.

“And I think going forward we will start offering contracts out and I’m sure, as you can imagine, there will be other players leaving the club, 100 per cent.”

He added: “I will make those decisions. I don’t agree with the decisions [being delayed] because I’ve been in that player’s chair. I’ve sat in the manager’s too when a manager will tell me, ‘well, we don’t really know what’s happening, we’re going to wait until the end of the season’. I would be a bit more brutally honest with my players than that. You can be rest assured.”

*Luke Chambers, Cole Skuse, Stephen Ward, Emyr Huws, Freddie Sears, Kayden Jackson, Teddy Bishop, Alan Judge, Toto Nsiala, Janoi Donacien, James Wilson, Gwion Edwards, Aaron Drinan, Tristan Nydam, Ben Morris, Ben Folami, Harry Wright, Idris El Mizouni, Liam Gibbs, Bailey Clements, Levi Andoh, Adam Przybek, Bert White, Kai Brown, Zak Brown and Tommy Hughes.

As previously reported, Town have offered a new extended contract to Gibbs, who doesn’t have a year’s option on his current deal.

Photo: Matchday Images

dirtydingusmagee added 20:01 - Mar 25 to be honest this squad has been so poor over an extended period im more worried about who we keep than who we get shot of. If PC is as good as his reputation surely he will not be fooled by the Chambers, he really must be gone, he is surplus to requirements, poor with feet, and lost the leadership skills on the field, he does nothing.I wont be losing sleep over players that go, but could over certain players being retained .

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Barty added 07:56 - Mar 26 That shouldn't take long then. Complete clear out needed. Whoever is manager this squad is simply not good enough to get us out of this league. Evans - you need to stump up some cash during the summer
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eddiespearitt03 added 09:04 - Mar 26 Enough of the "goody 2 shoes" and the " club ambassador", "proper bloke syndrome. If we carry on with great personalities rather than good footballers then do not expect any progress at this club. Had enough of hearing these "has beens" talking them selves up. Now is the time that is long overdue to employ footballers, good footballers at that. Wake up Evans.
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Texastom added 16:42 - Mar 27 Players are simply crap, poor work ethic, aren't interested and should be sacked. Feel totally embarrassed for Paul Cook, the Club is toxic.
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littlestoneblue added 10:44 - Apr 7 Out of all 52 squad I would expect Paul Cook to get rid of at least 35 players, if he wants to build his own team he's got to be ruthless. Also what would help is Marcus Evans selling up he's been the stumbling block for 14 years, I want to see Gamechanger 20 Ltd take over in May and start a new episode in rebuilding Ipswich Town FC back to where we should be Championship plus status, and to implement the Brentford FC way of recruiting future players, and do away with the youth development that we lose money on, especially when we get quality young players moving to Premiership teams for appetence value. So we must change completely our strategy on recruitment and only have no more than a 17 number 1st team squad to maintain a strong gelled together team to challenge for promotions, The Brentford way or die as a club.

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