O'Neill's contract warning

With money tight at Parkhead, O'Neill concedes he is not in a position to sit down and discuss fresh terms with the likes of John Hartson and Chris Sutton, whose deals expire at the end of next season.

In the past, O'Neill admits he would already have commenced tentative talks with these players but he has now asked his squad to be patient due to the lack of funds swilling around the club.

O'Neill's priority is to thrash out new contracts for those players who are free to leave The Bhoys at the end of this campaign but acknowledges there needs to be some belt tightening.

"I'm sure most of the lads would prefer to know sooner rather than later what the club might be thinking, especially those with under a year ago," opined O'Neill. "So we will sit down and have discussions with all those players in the very near future.

"But on a general viewpoint, I will want to deal immediately with those players whose contracts are up at the end of this season. The ones further down the line will have to wait.

"I know in recent times, when everything was buoyant, you would look at players' contracts at least two years in advance of them ending.

"But because of tightening of belts all over the place, that is less of a concern than before, although still important."

Johan Mjallby is among the batch of players whose deal runs out at the end of this term, and O'Neill is keen for the Swedish defender to prove his fitness in his quest to earn a contract.

O'Neill added: "Johan has a contract to the end of the season and like everyone when they get past 30, he wants to be fit and play games when agents are holding discussions.

"He's always wanted to play, he would play when lesser mortals wouldn't have bothered. But he has never gone on to the field during my time here without being fit enough to play the game."