Oldham manager Paul Dickov hopes skipper Dean Furman will be able to persuade other key players that their futures lie at Boundary Park.
Former Rangers midfielder Furman penned a contract extension with the League One outfit last week.
However, highly-rated full-back Kieran Lee is out of contract at the end of the current campaign and is yet to decide on his future, as is Chris Taylor, who is poised to seek out a second professional club after 285 appearances for the Latics.
"We knew we had the option on Dean for next year and there was never any question that we were going to take that," said Dickov. "It's a big positive because hopefully it will help the others who we're hoping to re-sign and players that we're looking to bring in to see that we do want to keep our better players for next year.
"Dean, not just on the pitch, but off the pitch is a big influence for us."
He added: "Hopefully I'll be sitting down with Simon (Corney, Oldham chairman) this week and we'll be going through a lot of things, but more than likely it will be the end of the season before we make final decisions. We are working behind the scenes as hard as we can to try and make sure we can retain our better players and hopefully bring a few in for next year as well."
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