Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann makes 'close' admission as he issues update on contract renewals

Foundations for next season are already being laid at the Eco-Power Stadium, with new deals having already been handed to Richard Wood, James Maxwell, Zain Westbrooke and Ben Close.

The club do not appear to be resting on their laurels, moving to negotiate with other members of the squad. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s trip to Morecambe, McCann said: “I had a positive meeting with Terry [Bramall, chairman] and Gavin [Baldwin, chief executive] yesterday, talking about all sorts of different topics really and trying to improve us for moving forward.

"Obviously, one of the conversations was contract renewals, incomings for next season, things like this. There's others that we'd like to keep, of course there is, we're working hard to try to do that. Are we close? I think we could be close with one or two. We'll see when we get this sorted but we're working hard to try and keep one or two, and possibly three more players.”

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Clubs face delicate balancing acts when negotiating terms for renewal, as they are forced to weigh up their own best interests and the possibility that a player could earn more elsewhere.

It is hardly a secret that many players assess a number of possible options as summer approaches but McCann wants business done in a timely manner. He said: “That's the issue we'll have [players seeing what the market is like before committing].

"As a football club, we don't really want to be in that position. The way I like to work and the way I've always worked is, once we've put an offer to a player, we put a deadline on it. The deadline will be 'you're either signing or you're not'.

"What we don't really want to do is for this to drag any further past this season because it can get a little bit messy. I understand people will have this in their head, particularly players that are in good form. They'll say 'I'll wait because such and such might come in and give me X, Y and Z, or a better club than Doncaster'. I understand that, I've been in football long enough to really understand it.

"But from our point of view, we can't be held with that, we can't almost be used in a way for some agents to say 'well, Doncaster have offered this, can you better it?'. That's not the way I like to work and we want players to be here and be part of the journey with us, enjoy their football, enjoy seeing this club rise. That's exactly what we want to do.

"We want people to be a part of it, rather than hold us for ransom. We want people to enjoy being here and enjoy the revolution of this football club. Let's make sure we can try and move forward as one.”