BRENDON King has already set his sights on three main transfer targets that could form the spine of his team in 2012/13.

The Weymouth boss, who agreed a new one-year contract at the weekend, is keen to get the bulk of his squad in place by the start of pre-season and is already holding talks with several players.

Sam Poole, Ashley Wells, Craig Duff and Mark Ford are already committed to the cause while Ben Gerring is set to leave and Tom Manley has retired due to work commitments.

King told Echosport: “The aim is to get the bulk of the squad in place by the end of June.

“We know what the budget is and now it is about trying to work within that.

“We have three main targets at the moment that know this level and have all played higher as well.

“If they sign they will form the spine of the side and we will then see where we go from there.”

Commenting on the players that finished last season at the Bob Lucas Stadium, King went on to say: “Sam and Ashley have already signed for next year and Craig and Mark have agreed deals too but we will not be retaining Ben.

“He is keen to get back into full-time football and the club has agreed to let him go and do that.

“Tom has also chosen to retire to concentrate on his teaching career and at the moment I am still talking to the rest.

“It promises to be a busy few weeks but we are very hopeful we will have some more good news soon.”

When asked about the prospects of keeping hold of key players such as Stephen Reed and Warren Byerley, King said: “I am talking with Reedy and I am hopeful he will stay.

“I have also spoken to Warren and I don’t foresee any issues there.

“He loves playing for Weymouth and it is where he wants to be so that is not a problem.

“He has been seeing a specialist about his knee and if we can help speed things up a bit quicker in that regard hopefully he won’t be too far off joining us for the start of pre-season.

“He has a bit of cartilage floating around but with keyhole surgery nowadays you can be in and out in a day and the fact Warren keeps himself fit anyway means he should hopefully be back not long afterwards.”

Ollie Tribe’s future remains up in the air due to university commitments while further talks are set to take place with Scott Dixon and Jamie Beasley.

King added: “We have not retained Ollie as he needs to sit down and think about where he wants to go.

“Being at university at Exeter, getting to training has been difficult for him and at the end of the day his education and career come first.

“If he is going to continue playing at this standard then I have no doubts it will be with us but if he decides to step down and play somewhere closer to Exeter then that is of course up to him.

“Whatever he decides, he has been a fantastic servant to the club. The fact he is only 19 and has already made over 100 appearances is an incredible achievement.

“As for Scott, we cannot sign him on contract anyway due to his university commitments with Team Bath but I will be speaking with both him and Jamie as well over the next couple of weeks.”