RONALD KOEMAN has revealed Everton will start contract talks with Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku early next year.
The Toffees secured new deals for Leighton Baines, Gareth Barry and Mason Holgate yesterday.
Baines, 32, has signed until 2019 and 35-year-old Barry until the end of next season.
Both would have been out of contract at the end of this campaign while defender Holgate signed a new four-and-a-half year deal.
Koeman will now discuss the futures of Barkley and Lukaku next year as they were not the priority with their contracts running beyond this season.
The Goodison boss said: “It is not the priority at the moment but in the new year, yes.
“First of all what we did is speak about the squad for next season and of course we knew the players whose contracts were finished (in the summer) and whether we needed to extend them, yes or no.
“You work on the squad and then the players who maybe finish in another year of contract and in the new year we will look at that.
“We will analyse the squad and what we need to be strong.”
Barkley, 23, has a contract until the summer of 2018 but has struggled so far under Koeman, sparking doubts about his future.
But the Everton boss said: “We know he has about 18 months left. That’s not the priority now.
“In the new year we will have talks about his situation and his future but the priority now is playing and winning and see what happens in January.
“I’m not interested in what is said about the future of players. There is no one knocking on the door now about players from Everton.”
Belgium striker Lukaku, 23, revealed last summer he wanted to stay at Everton after being linked with a return to Chelsea, but no new deal has been discussed yet.
