INITIAL contract talks have been underway with members of our squad for a little while now and I do think we’re facing an important time for the football club.

I’m sure there is some guess work going on out there with regards to how far down the squad those talks will be going but I think it’s always best to carry out these discussions in-house until hopefully they are concluded.

We have some key players who have been here a little while up for renewal this summer and we want them to maintain their status at Southend United.

There are also one or two in the squad who might be coming to the end of their time here or might not want to sign which happens in football every year.

But there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and I would much rather it stayed there at this time.

Hopefully the talks will be completed soon though and we will be able to announce some good news in the next few weeks.

Things are certainly going well on the pitch at the moment and it was a fantastic win against Scunthorpe at the weekend.

I was very proud to be taking charge of the team for the 200th time and it was a brilliant way to mark the occasion.

Scunthorpe had Neal Bishop sent off towards the end and I have to say I was extremely surprised to see the decision overturned.

I’m certainly not advocating players being shown red cards and I don’t like to see it happen.

But I’ve watched the incident back and their player quite clearly kicks out at Jason Demetriou in that corner of the pitch.

The linesman is right in front of what’s happened so he probably couldn’t have had a better view and it does seem to be a sending off in my opinion.

Hopefully something like that will go for us one day!