Barnsley players told they have to earn their contracts for next season

BARNSLEY manager Mark Robins has issued a challenge to the players seeking new deals at Oakwell.

Strikers Daniel Bogdanovic and Jon Macken, midfielders Hugo Colace and Anderson De Silva, defenders Darren Moore and Rob Kozluk, and fringe players Jacob Butterfield and Mounir El Haimour are all approaching the end of their existing contracts with the Coca-Cola Championship club.

Robins has yet to decide which players will be offered new deals, or the levels of pay, but has stressed that the opportunity is there for each to state a case between now and the end of the season.

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A home win tomorrow over struggling Plymouth Argyle could leave the Tykes just one point adrift of the play-off zone with 16 games of the season still to play.

"There are a number of players out of contract and we will be talking to them over the next weeks," said Robins, who took over as Barnsley manager five months ago.

"We will try to get things resolved before the end of the season but we need to make sure we know where we are going to be in terms of our league position.

"The players out of contract have to show that they can push this club onto the next level.

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"If they want to stay here, they will have to prove that they can take this club where we want to be.

"We are also going to have to have realistic expectations in terms of what we can afford to spend."

Of the eight players out of contract, only three – Colace, Anderson and Moore – have been involved in Barnsley's last three games.

Maltese international Bogdanovic has scored 12 goals in 28 starts since joining the club 13 months ago but has been hampered by a knee injury in recent weeks.

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Colace, Anderson and Moore have been regular fixtures but Macken and Kozluk have been in and out of the side.

Butterfield, 19, has started only 10 games since making his debut three seasons ago while French winger El Haimour has not been involved for several months.

Barnsley also have six players on loan – Ryan Shotton, Carl Dickinson, Emil Hallfredsson, Filipe Teixeira, Jay Rodriguez and Keiran Trippier – who may also want to stay.