Reading boss Veljko Paunovic has admitted to Berkshire Live that contract talks are ongoing with several members of his current squad. 

At the time of writing, the Royals have a host of players who are due to see their current deals expire in the summer of next year, which in turn leaves the Berkshire side in a very venerable position.

These potential departures include the likes of Rafael, Andy Yiadom, Scott Dann, Michael Morrison, Tom Holmes, John Swift, Josh Laurent and Alen Halilovic, which means that the club would be left short in a lot of key areas if all of said players left.

Now Paunovic has offered an update on the situation involving all of these individuals as he stated the following:

"We are allowed to negotiate with our players who are ending contracts but it's not easy in the circumstances, although not impossible.

"So we are aware we have to work on the long term and there are ongoing conversations, even with the players who joined this summer as free agents like Alen Halilovic and Scott Dann.

"But to keep things simple, at this point there is nothing close to closing a deal."

Swift is certainly one player in particular who is attracting plenty of interest from elsewhere and is sure to be viewed as someone that the club would want to tie down first.

The midfielder currently has eight goals and six assists to his name this season in just 14 games.

The Verdict 

Embargo or not embargo, Reading would have probably found themselves in this situation either way as player negotiations aren't always straight forward.

It is something that they will have had to come to terms with but at the end of the day all they can do is focus on trying to persuade these individuals to remain at the club.

The priority for now is what goes on during their upcoming matches, with these negotiations sure to continue for quite a while longer.

All in all, if some of these players do not wish to commit to the cause long term, the best thing they can do is to look to cash in on some of them in January.