Adelaide United hope they can find a way to prolong brilliant winger Craig Goodwin's stay in his home town when they attempt to kick on in the A-League Men next season.
The Reds' season came to a close with a 2-1 loss to Melbourne City in Sunday's semi-final second leg.
Goodwin was officially on a loan deal from Saudi club Al-Wehda until season's end.
The 30-year-old Socceroo scored 10 goals this season and is one of the favourites to claim the Johnny Warren Medal.
"There's a few moving parts to that and Goody knows how much we want him to stay with the club," coach Carl Veart said.
"But there's a few things that we need to sort out and we'll do everything we can to keep him at the club.
"We saw today how much of a threat he can be. But he just needs some consistent football. He's had a lot of injuries over the last few years."
Talented young striker Kusini Yengi is out of contract and Veart hoped the local talent would stick with the Reds, amid links to Western Sydney.
Yengi recently overcame a serious quad injury and was called up to the Olyroos Under-23 Asian Cup squad this week.
"He just needs some consistent football. He's had a lot of injuries over the last few years," Veart said.
"I hope he stays with the club. He needs to be in an environment where he can flourish and express himself because he's a little bit out there, and you don't want to put too many restrictions on him.
"He just needs to get his body right. I think he's starting to get in that spot now where his body's starting to be able to handle the loads of professional football and I hope he stays with us because he's the type of player that I really enjoy coaching."
Young defender Alexandar Popovic was particularly impressive late in the season and Veart stressed he wanted to keep his young players together.
"We'll try to keep as much of the squad together as we can," Veart said.
"We've got a very good balance at the moment with our senior boys, they're actually providing a good pathway for our young boys to learn from.
"That's where I am as a coach, and that's where we are as a club.
"We want to develop our young players and give them the opportunities to go on and achieve their dreams."
Australian Associated Press
