Walsall keen to keep key men

The January transfer window is now open and the vast majority of the Saddlers squad is out of contract in the summer.

Although manager Darrell Clarke has remained coy on the subject, he has revealed that discussions have been ongoing with players as they aim to get some of them signed up to new deals.

“We want to keep hold of our best players but every player has a price, it’s just the way the world goes,” Clarke said.

“That process is always in place. I’m not going to come out and say we’re doing this, you guys will be first to hear when something is being agreed.

“It’s not that discussions haven’t been ongoing with certain players for a period of time – not just January.

“We’ll keep working away and chipping away at that. You always want to keep your best players at the football club. We want to do that and develop them and try to progress through the pyramid.”

Meanwhile, Clarke is targetting one or two new signings in the window, with free loan deals more likely.

“I’ll sit down and have my conversations with Stef, Dan and the chairman,” Clarke added.

“But we have to remember that people lost jobs at this football club.

“I’ll be more than happy to go with what we go with but we might be able to get one or two free loans, like we did in the last window.

“I’m certainly not banging on the chairman’s door saying ‘I want money’.

“If it has to be a couple of free loans – that’s what I mean by freshen it up – then so be it.

“We know what we’re trying to achieve by getting in the top seven, while working and developing players. Some of them are developing well.

“We keep working away and try to tweak in each window. They’ll not be wholesale changes at this club while I’m manager, that’s for sure. It won’t be needed.

“We’ll try and keep hold of our best players.”