Gavin Gunning admitted that Swindon Town could be looking to tie down some of their younger prospects to longer contracts.

Despite a difficult campaign, Swindon have had some bright spots with the performances of some of the club’s younger, permanently contracted players during the second half of the season.

Sean McGurk has particularly dazzled, having netted two goals and getting another assist during four starts since arriving from Leeds United in January.

There have also been strong performances from Paul Glatzel, Jack Bycroft, Ricky Aguiar, and Harrison Minturn, with Gunning urging fans to “get excited” about the prospect of these players moving forward.

Swindon have contractual control of all of those players for next season, either with an optional extension or have a deal already in place, but Gunning said that looking to extend their contracts could be something that Swindon consider.

He said: “Possibly, that could be something that we could look at with a few of them.

“I think that by the end of the season, three or four of them will have proper value in them with how they have performed.

“If you look at Glatzel and the way he has performed since he has come in, anybody I speak to is just like ‘Glatzel this, Glatzel that’, he has been brilliant and he probably should have had five or six goals, it is probably best for us that he hasn’t.”

Gunning has been enthused by the performances of many of his younger players since he has taken charge and was particularly optimistic about the potential of Aguiar if he was able to develop aspects of his game.

He said: “That [his involvement] is up to him, if he performs well then, he can play games and if he doesn’t then he won’t play games. Simple.

“It is plum with me, there are no grey areas, play well or don’t. Play well and you will play, if you don’t play well then you won’t play and you might not be involved, it is up to you.

“Ricky is technically a fantastic player, with Ricky it is just learning the game, the out-of-possession stuff, and getting in better positions.

“Technically he is one of the best players in the squad, so if he can bring that other dimension to his game then he can be a proper good League Two player, but that is going to be up to him.”