St Mirren make contract offers as Stephen Robinson eyes stability

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson has revealed he has new contract offers on the table for three players and hopes they join Greg Kiltie in committing to the club.

Kiltie signed a two-year contact extension last week and the Paisley side also tied Peter Urminsky down for another year.

With a large number of the squad nearing the end of their current contracts with the Buddies, Robinson said there were offers in place and that securing players now would help him with long-term planning and stability.

“I have made contract offers to current players in the team,” he said.

“We can’t afford to bring players in at this moment in time, but we can certainly commit to next season, keeping the players that we want here.

“We have made offers to four players. Kiltie has signed and we are very close to another two and that gives us a real base to build on, so you are maybe only signing four players instead of the wholesale changes of 10 or 11 players which happens at clubs.

“We are trying to put a bit of stability in the football club, retain players we want and add four or five.

“Of course we are speaking to players about pre-contracts already and try to be ahead of the game.”

The manager admitted he would not have funds to add to his squad in the current window as things stand but is hopeful that he can retain the players he already has for the rest of the campaign.

Midfielder Ethan Erhahon has been the subject of interest from England and Robinson said that although a bid had been accepted for the 21-year-old talent, Erhahon had decided to stay in Paisley for now.

“There was a bid accepted earlier on in the window and Ethan spoke to the club and at the moment has chosen to stay at St Mirren.

“Obviously I am not involved in negotiations between player and club, so all I can say at the moment is that he remains with us and hopefully he will stay throughout the window.

“We would love him to stay. Whether we have the finances to meet his expectations I don’t know, but we would love him to stay.

“But there has to be a realism as well, that we have to sell players to exist, to survive.”

St Mirren face third-place side Hearts on Saturday in a match that will see them reach the halfway point in their league campaign.

Currently sitting in fifth position and having played less games than everyone else in the division, St Mirren could move up to fourth this weekend with a positive result. Robinson feels the tea, can be happy with their efforts so far.

“We’re in the top six at this moment in time but if you look at the table then two or three games can change the whole narrative of the season,” he said.

“So we won’t get carried away with our start. I actually think we could have had more points and a better position in the league with small tweaks to things and decisions going our way.

“I think we got all the decisions in one game against Aberdeen rather than it being spread out evenly.

“We’re content, and I think we can still be better. There’s a real belief in the dressing room that if we can keep this squad together then we can have a decent season.”