CITY are not ready to press the button on any potential summer targets at this early stage.

Graham Alexander today confirmed that “good discussions” have taken place with several players since the end of their season.

But the club are still to make up their mind on whether to take those talks any further.

“Sometimes you think you can get things done really quickly but there’s no real timescale,” said the City boss. “Ultimately, you’re not in full control of every situation.

“The things you are in control of you want to get done as soon as necessary if you can because you don’t want a backlog of work going towards the start of preseason.

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“We’ve got a good period between now and then but I know how quickly that goes.

“It’s not as easy as ringing up a player, getting them to come to the ground and signing the next day. There’s always a to and fro.

“There’s making sure they are exactly right for us and they’re the best for what we can potentially sign.

“There are a lot of players out there but we’ve got to make sure we get the ones that are right for us if we can.”

Players will take time to assess their options and Alexander can understand them wanting to shop around.

“Sometimes agents say to us there are other clubs interested. But we’re glad of that, to be honest.

“If we were the only club looking at a player, you’d wonder if there was an issue.

“Ultimately, both club and player are doing the same thing.

“From our side, if we’ve got a choice of four players, we’re making sure we direct all our efforts to the one we favour the most.

“Players are the same. If we show interest but there are two or three others in for them as well, it’s just doing due diligence and we have no problem with that.

“If a player talks to three or four clubs and still chooses us, that stands us in good stead going forward.

“It’s a little game of patience but also staying disciplined. We don’t want to go, ‘right, we’ve done all our work in the first 10 days’ and not get the players we feel we could have eventually got.

No deadline for targets to make their decision

“You just get a gut feeling for when something is right to do.

“We’ve had some good discussions with players but we haven’t confirmed any, even behind closed doors, as yet.”

Alexander does not plan to hold any potential signings to a deadline to decide on a move. It’s not something he has done as a manager.

“I don’t like doing deadlines with people because if it ultimately goes beyond that and you still want him, you look a bit of an idiot.

“But if we feel a player or agent is messing us about and not really committed, we can smell that with the experience we have at the club and we’ll move on.

“Each case is different; players, agents, different scenarios.

“Some are still under contract but they’ve been told by the club they can leave. Then there’s a negotiation with the club.

“You have to be ready for anything. But I feel we’ve got enough experience and expertise in that field to make the right decisions.”