Dundee to restart contract talks with a number of players

Dundee plan to restart talks with a number of their out-of-contract players in the next week.

The flurry of games since the winter break has meant negotiations with players like Mark O’Hara have had to be put on the back burner.

Now, though, with a bit of daylight between matches coming up — depending on when the postponed Celtic clash is re-arranged for, of course — manager Neil McCann is hoping to get some key men “pinned down” before their deals begin to run down at the end of the campaign.

He said: “There are contract talks ongoing just now but the games are coming that thick and fast.

“It’s difficult to start getting boys pinned down because their focus should be on the games.

“However, that’ll pick up speed next week again.”

Among them will be midfielder O’Hara, who is close to agreeing an extension to his deal and is keen to stick around at Dens Park.

The 22-year-old has had the best season of his career this campaign, netting six times, attracting the interest of Motherwell.

With him free to talk to other clubs with less than six months left on his contract, the Dens management will be keen to get his future secured.

Others who began talks around the turn of the year are Paul McGowan, Josh Meekings and Lewis Spence.

First-teamers out of contract in the summer are Kevin Holt, Genseric Kusunga, Elliott Parish, Jon Aurtenetxe, Julen Etxabeguren, Kosta Gadzhalov and Jeremy Malherbe.

Likely to leave are Scott Bain and Nicky Low, while A-Jay Leitch-Smith and Simon Murray’s loan deals come to an end, too.