Dundee have offered new deals to eight of their out-of-contract stars.
The Dark Blues have 13 players in total moving into the final months of their current Dens deals.
And manager Tony Docherty is keen to bring stability to the club after a few years of churn in the first-team squad.
Among the eight offered extensions are the four academy products Lyall Cameron, Josh Mulligan, Fin Robertson and Harry Sharp.
An improved contract offer would trigger compensation for the Dark Blues if any of the four decided to move on next summer at the end of their contract.
Also offered a new deal is Mexican defender Antonio Portales, who revealed last weekend in an interview with The Courier that talks had begun and he was keen to stay at the club.
Jordan McGhee, Mo Sylla and Scott Tiffoney are also pondering offers of contract extensions.
‘Stability’
Dundee boss Docherty said: “We’ve had really good, strong performances recently from the three Dundee boys, Josh, Lyall and Fin.
“They are among the eight players that we’re offering contract extensions to because we see the importance of that, that stability of the club.
“I’ve always said the club is all about developing and learning, and I think we’re on that trajectory.
“We want to keep our best players and develop players. More importantly we want to develop our best players who’ve come through [the youth academy].
“So Lyall, Josh and Fin are part of that, as are Antonio, Jordan, Mo, Tiff and Harry.
“We’ve offered those contract extensions to these players for now.
“There are other ones that are out of contract, but for now we’ve looked at these ones here and I’ll report what comes back.
“Talks have been ongoing for a while, the dialogue will continue and they’ll come back to us.
“But as a football club, it’s really important that we safeguard what we’ve got in the building, and that’s why we’re doing this process.”
The remaining players still to be offered new deals are Joe Shaughnessy, Curtis Main, Charlie Reilly, Scott Fraser and Adam Legzdins.
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