Ian Murray admits uncertainty over where Raith Rovers will be playing their football next season is delaying discussions with out-of-contract stars.
But the Stark’s Park boss has revealed a decision is expected to be made on the futures of a handful of players later this month.
The likes of Dylan Easton, Keith Watson, Ross Matthews, Scott McGill, Ross Millen and Ethan Ross have deals expiring at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Raith have expressed an interest in retaining the services of Shaun Byrne, who is out of contract this summer at Dundee when his Rovers loan runs out.
However, Murray has confessed Raith’s short-term title push has had to take precedence in recent weeks as their more long-term outlook as remained unclear.
Rovers fell four points behind Dundee United at the top of the Championship with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Tannadice.
But they still have a game in hand and retain hope of being able to pip the Tangerines to the title and win a dream promotion back to the top-flight.
“We’re in a position at the moment where we don’t know what league we’re going to be in,” said Murray. “We can prepare for the Championship and find ourselves in the Premiership.
“But we certainly can’t expect to be in the Premiership.
Murray: ‘Trying to build a squad’
“We’ve got a few boys who are in the same boat in that they’re coming out of contract this summer.
“So, we’ll sit down, probably in the next three weeks, and do something with all the guys.
“Once we know where we are it’ll make life a heck of a lot easier for myself, John [Potter, technical director], Andrew [Barrowman, CEO] and the players as well.
“We’re trying to build a squad that we think is capable of being both that high end in the Championship and also the Premiership.
“I think we’re doing that, which is really, really good.”
Easton told Courier Sport in the build-up to the United clash that he is enjoying life at Raith and hopeful of coming to an agreement on an extension ‘soon’.
Ross, currently out on loan at League One champions Falkirk, has also spoken of uncertainty over his future.
Meanwhile, Murray expects Byrne to be a man in demand this summer.
“We had a wee initial chat with Dylan, quite a while ago now,” added Murray. “And then we kind of decided between all of us we would put it on the back-burner.
“We just wanted to be up front with each other, really.
‘Done really, really well’
“Ethan has gone to Falkirk and has played some weeks and not played others.
“But they’ve been flying as well and it’s always hard to change a winning team and give everybody game-time.
“Shaun will have to see where he’s at. I’d be surprised if quite a few teams, in our league in particular, aren’t looking at him.
“He’s kind of in the same boat as Liam Dick, Keith Watson and others, who have done really, really well.
“It’s not that we’re not thinking about it. We’ve just not really sat down yet and had a right good conversation.”
