Lockdown limbo has put contract talks on hold
Jim admits future of St Mirren squad is uncertain as he can’t speak to players
St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin says everything is currently “up in the air” when it comes to contracts in Paisley.
Club captain Stephen McGinn and striker Cody Cooke, who both missed periods of the season out injured, are two of eight players whose deals run out this summer.
With the current ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Irishman has been unable to hold talks with any members of his squad.
Goodwin told Express Sport: “Everything is on hold. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“If UEFA or the SPFL decide that we’re going to go and finish the rest of the season, then that’s what we’ll go and do, and we’ll need to do that with the current squad.
“But, my honest feeling is that we just need to wait and see, really.
“We haven’t been able to speak to any of our own players that are out of contract and we haven’t been able to make offers to anyone as of yet.
“Because, quite frankly, clubs don’t know how long this is going to go on for. They don’t know how long they are going to go without an income.
“It’s hard to make contract offers to players when you don’t know what your budget is going to be next season.
“It’s all up in the air at the moment.”
Me a n w h i l e , d u r i n g lockdown, Goodwin has been looking back at this campaign to plot his team’s way forward.
He has also spent time online trying to unearth potential hidden talent as new signings for next season.
But he admits the fact that no one knows when football will return makes it very difficult to look too far into the future.
Goodwin added: “I have been doing a review of the season and looking back over the games that we have been involved in.
“I’m trying to look at the positives and the negatives, and to see what we can improve on next year or whenever the league starts up again.
“It’s just to make sure we’ve learned from the mistakes we’ve made, but also to try and remember a lot of the good things we’ve done as well.
“Similar to all of the managers out there, you’re constantly trying to come up with new ideas or look for new training sessions.
“It’s a lot of recruitment stuff, looking at a lot of new players online.
“We have different platforms at the club that we can use, Wyscout being one.
“I have been on that for last few weeks and just trying to keep myself busy, but I won’t be doing any different from any other manager out there.
“The big thing just now is the uncertainty of what’s going to happen.
“The sooner we get a definitive answer, one way or the other, then the better for everybody.
“It means we can all plan for the season ahead.”