Queen of the South boss Marvin Bartley has spoken of the importance of two-year deals in helping continuity in the squad.
In the past Queens managers have faced a scramble to rebuild a squad every summer and until very recently multi-year deals at Palmerston were something of a rarity.
This summer Kieran McKechnie and Harry Cochrane have become the two latest players to sign extended deals after Bartley signed Jack Brydon until 2025 in January and those moves bring a range of benefits for the manager, players and the club.
Marvin said: “We’ve spoken about how we want to do things moving forward and that’s giving opportunities to young players when they deserve it.
“Giving out one-year deals to players at that age doesn’t really make sense and it doesn’t protect us as a football club. You’re basically building a new squad every single season.
“In two years time Kieran and Harry will still be able to play. They’re not going to be 35 and you’re not going to be worrying about how they’re going to be in two years time, they’re only going to get better.”
Iain Wilson, Paul McKay and Gavin Reilly signed two-year contracts last year under Wullie Gibson with striker Reilly being urged to “stake a claim” for a spot in the team next season after being loaned to Stenhousemuir for the second half of last season.
Bartley said: “Gavin has another year on his contract so it’s the same as everybody else. Everyone is away on their rest period and have been given their off-season programmes.
“Everybody will come in with a clean slate. Pre-season is about staking your claim as a player and people will be judged just as harshly as when I came into the club because it needs to be that way.”
Meanwhile work is progressing on the new pitch being laid at Palmerston.
The first rolls of new the artificial pitch went down this week and the club hopes to have the pitch ready to be played on in the next
month.
