Sheffield Wednesday boss Darren Moore insists focus remains on Sunderland amid player contract talks

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore has moved quickly to shift focus away from player contracts and towards the club’s upcoming play-off clash with Sunderland. The likes of Massimo Luongo, Sam Hutchinson and Saido Berahino are all out contract in the summer and the Owls will be keen to avoiding losing players who have been key to their fourth place finish regardless of the division they are in.

Luongo and Hutchinson have been hampered by injuries at different points of the campaign but have both started at least half of Wednesday’s 46 matches this season. Berahino has also scored some important goals since February – netting seven goals in the last 13 games he featured in.

Moore has revealed that contract talks with some players have already started ahead of the summer but does not want to look too far ahead with a huge two legged play-off tie set to get underway on Friday.

He said: “Things are ongoing with the contracts. We’ve opened talks with one or two of the lads but it’s ongoing. It doesn’t take one day or a couple of weeks, it’s an ongoing process that will probably go on beyond the end of the season and into the earlier summer weeks.

"From our perspective we’re just focusing on the games, all that stuff is being taken care of. We’re coming together and we’re focusing on the game. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and focus on the ‘what ifs’, this and that. We have got games to focus on.

“It’s come to the end of the season, there are a lot of ifs and buts, but we’re all in a position where we’ve all come through different hurdles to get to this position.”