Rotherham United want answers sooner rather than later on contract offers

ROTHERHAM United will this week start pressing for decisions from some of their summer transfer targets, including existing players offered new deals.

The club is in discussion with Anthony Forde, Ryan Williams, Joe Newell and Jon Taylor about extending their stays at the NYS and talks have already taken place with prospective signings.

The summer transfer market is often a game of patience, with clubs waiting for players to weigh up their options, but Paul Warne and his staff would like answers sooner rather than later.

Assistant manager Richie Barker told the Advertiser: "The first week or so is about people having a look around and seeing what's out there. We're starting to get down to the nitty gritty.

"We make them an offer, they make a counter offer but eventually you have to stop playing the game and say 'let's get our head down and see where we are with this."

Barker said that by the middle of this week the club would have to "draw a line under one or two offers and maybe not make an announcement but make a point of saying things have to go one way or the other".

He added: "Obviously players who aren't at the club at the moment are more within their rights to be exploring other opportunities.

"With the players currently at the club, we can't wait around for ever and at some point we are going to have to say we need an answer pretty quickly.

"A couple of these negotiations have been going on quite a while now but I think we are within our rights to ask exactly what they're thinking."

New one-year deals were agreed with youngsters Akeem Hinds and Laurence Bilboe last week and the club has triggerd a clause in Joe Mattock’s contract to extend his stay by a further year.