Few departures as Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough tries to keep promotion-winning squad together

Only Callum Johnson, Anthony Hartigan and John-Joe O'Toole have been shown the door from the senior players.

Clough also confirmed he is chasing a return for impressive Leicester City loanee defender Lewis Brunt among his 'five or six' targets and believes Irish veteran Stephen Quinn will give it another season at 38.

“The work starts now trying to sort contracts out, which is not too many, and get some new players in,” said Clough

“With most of the lads, we were happy with the contract situation going into the end of the season.

“Most of them are under contract. The ones that are out we are in negotiations with at the moment.

“Anthony Hartigan and John-Joe O'Toole were out on loan and their contracts are up.

“Unfortunately the injuries that Callum Johnson has had has meant we couldn't offer him anything.

“So they are the three that will be released and we are talking to the others that are not under contract.

“We would hope to get everything sorted reasonably quickly with those next week.”

He continued: “I think everybody wants to stay, which is not a surprise.

“We had a call with the owners yesterday and went through the thinking behind going forward for next season.

“Everyone is ambitious and we want to be as successful as we can.

“But we all agreed probably the best way of achieving success and stability was to keep the group together as much as we can and add five or six, whatever we can, to it – good players as well, for next season.

“The current lads deserve an opportunity to see what they can do in League One.

“And more than anything we want to retain the spirit and camaraderie that has got us to this point.

“If you release say eight lads then you are in danger of losing that spirit and the heart and soul of the squad which has built up over the last three or so years. So that is the plan going forward.”

On the future of Quinn, he said: “I had an initial chat with him and he said he enjoys it so much – and you can see that in him every time he plays or trains – he is considering giving it another go for another season.

“I will have another chat with him next week.”

Clough said he will not have to get players out to accommodate the five or six new faces.

“Numbers-wise we are going to be a bit heavier than we usually have,” he said.

“Going into a new season in League One we said let's see what the injuries are looking like and finalise the squad pre-season.

“I don't think there will be a lack of takers for our players on loan whatever. And if we think we have one or two that might be surplus and can't see them getting a regular game until Christmas we will maybe get them out on loan and do it that way.”

On bringing players in, he said: “One of our targets is obviously Lewis Brunt, who I would love to take.

“So we are starting negotiations with Leicester. They have their own business to sort out at the moment with their promotion celebrations, so we're not sure if that will be a quick thing.

“We are open to a loan or a permanent. We would just like to keep him.

“We are certainly down the road with a striker and we are looking at a midfielder and a left back as well. We will keep on with that in the next few weeks.”

Retained and under contract: Hiram Boateng, Jordan Bowery, Baily Cargill, Scott Flinders, Aden Flint, Elliott Hewitt, Davis Keillor-Dunn, Alfie Kilgour, Aaron Lewis, Calum Macdonald, Tom Nichols, Christy Pym, Louis Reed, Will Swan, and Anthony Núñez (U21)

Options triggered: George Williams, McKeal Abdullah (U21), Charlie Carter (U21), Finn Flanagan (U21), Jakub Kruszynski (U21) and Darien Wauchope (U21).

Contract discussions underway: Lucas Akins, Ollie Clarke, James Gale, George Maris, Stephen McLaughlin, Rhys Oates, Stephen Quinn, Taylor Anderson (U21), George Cooper (U21) and Owen Mason (U21)

Loan expired: Lewis Brunt (Leicester City)

Released: Anthony Hartigan, Callum Johnson, John-Joe O'Toole and Louie Turner (U21).