Sheffield Wednesday have moved early to try and secure the future of some of their key players as the 2008-09 season draws to a close.
Striker Leon Clarke has recently agreed to extend his contract to the summer of 2010 and new offers have been made to goalkeeper Lee Grant, defenders Richard Hinds, Tommy Spurr and Richard Wood and striker Marcus Tudgay.
Hinds is the only player of this bunch that is set to be out of contract this summer with the others all having another year to run but the attempts to tie them down to the club in the long-term have to be encouraging.
In the recent past Wednesday have had to sell promising players such as Glenn Whelan for a relatively small fee as his contract was close to running down, Tudgay, Grant and Spurr have been the best and most consistent performers throughout the season and so are vitally important to the club as things stand and they wouldn't want to find themselves in a similar position a year down the line.
With the first deadline for season ticket sales due at the end of May it would be a big boost to the clubs supporters if the Owls can secure deals for these key players in the near future and this could help to boost ticket sales.
All of these players are said to have been offered improved deals and should the tickets sales go to plan then funding will be available to Brian Laws to dip into the transfer market ahead of the summer transfer deadline.