NEALE Cooper will turn his attention to contract talks with his star players towards the end of the year.

The Hartlepool United boss has a number of his mainstays out of contract at the end of the season, including Ritchie Humphreys, Adam Boyd, Mark Tinkler and Chris Westwood.

And, with interest in home-grown Boyd hotting up after a goal-laden spell since March, Cooper is well aware he needs to tie down his star asset.

Boyd almost signed a permanent deal at Boston earlier this year, only to return to Pool and enjoy the most consistent spell of his career.

Sunderland, Liverpool and Newcastle are known admirers of the 21-year-old striker.

And Cooper said: "I am going to speak to the chairman in the next week and hopefully we will get something sorted.

"We hope we can hold onto him, but when players are doing well then they are going to attract interest and Adam has been brilliant.

"You don't want to lose your players but if they go you don't want them to go for very little money.

"We will be trying our best to keep Adam but these days the balls are in the players' courts.

"There are a few players who are out of contract in the summer and we will be speaking to them in the run up to Christmas."

Cooper added: "Adam has had quite a few warnings and has been close to going out the door.

"But he came back a different class. What he was lacking was overall workrate, then he got he head down and it was a different player.

"He's a great boy, a fantastic lad and the boys here love him. He has more abvility than anyone else at the club and everyone knows that.

"He could easily have gone the other way - his ability has never been questioned. But when he came back from Boston he was running about all over the park, closing people down and chasing.

"Then he came back pre-season super fit, exactly how I wanted him to.''