Glenn Roeder says that Jermain Defoe could be the next young first
teamer at the club to commit to a new deal - and that hopefully Joe
Cole and Michael Carrick will follow hot on their heels.
"We'll be looking sooner rather than later to extend these contracts," he says.
"This club has always been very generous, particularly to young players, in terms of tearing up contracts that still have time to run and renegotiating them - we have always done that to look after players that do well here.
"We are talking to Jermain Defoe, and are in the process of talking to Joe's agent about his contract, and shortly after that it will be Michael Carrick.
"We want to tie these players up on even longer contracts for the good of the club, and the players themselves."