Doncaster Rovers: Latest on contract talks with players including captain Ben Whiteman

Doncaster Rovers are set to open talks with current players over extending their contracts including skipper Ben Whiteman, chief executive Gavin Baldwin has revealed.
Ben WhitemanBen Whiteman
Ben Whiteman

A total of 17 senior professionals are out of contract at the end of the current season and the club are looking to quickly sort the futures of several players they are determined to keep.

Captain Whiteman - who was the subject of strong interest from Championship clubs in the summer - will see his deal expire in the summer of 2021 but Rovers are keen to secure his future for longer.

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Rovers received a bid in excess of £1m for the 23-year-old from Hull City in the summer which was rejected out of hand.

And Baldwin says Whiteman made it clear he had no intention of leaving the Keepmoat.

"We have conversations ongoing at the moment about Ben's contract - and really positive conversations too," Baldwin told the Free Press.

"I was only talking to his agent the other day. His agent is a good guy, Ben is a good guy.

"He's loving being captain. He's enjoying it.

"Ben was keen to stay in the summer.

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"He really gets on with the senior players, particularly James Coppinger who he sees as a mentor.

"He sees himself developing here and he's enjoying it but hopefully he sees the potential of what we could achieve.

"Ben throughout the conversations - and he was probably being put under pressure from other clubs promising riches and success - but he wanted to stay here.

"And he was very open about that when he was talking to myself and Darren, which made everything much easier to be fair."

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Baldwin is confident new contracts will be signed by some players before the end of this year and says boss Darren Moore has already signalled his intent to some with whom he wishes to open talks.

"We are already talking to or starting to talk to existing players about contract extensions so what you will see before January hopefully is contract extensions and loan extensions but also potentially new players coming," Baldwin said.

"We meet with the board every six weeks and at the last board meeting we were very specific about the conversations we want to be having before January and those conversations will start very soon.

"Darren has obviously been speaking to players as he does on an on-going basis.

"The players you probably would expect are the ones that Darren is going to talk to very, very soon."