Gillingham’s contract offers are non-negotiable insists boss Peter Taylor.

Taylor has offered both Adebayo Akinfenwa and Chris Whelpdale the chance to extend their stay with the Gills.

Popular striker Akinfenwa and attacking-midfielder Whelpdale are both understood to be attracting interest from elsewhere.

But Taylor won’t be getting involved in a bidding war.

He said: “The deals are what they are. We haven’t put offers down there to increase them.”

A bid for Akinfenwa was submitted towards the end of last season by Northampton Town and they are likely to be among the teams trying to tempt him into signing.

“Goalscorers are what clubs are always after aren’t they?” said the Gills boss.

“I am sure we will know by the middle of next week on that.”

Taylor has confirmed there is interest from other clubs for Whelpdale’s signature.

He said: “I am hearing Chris is thinking about going to another club and good luck to him if that’s the case.

“We can only offer what we can offer.”

Gillingham confirmed the players they were releasing on Thursday morning, which included Myles Weston, Craig Fagan and Steven Gregory, but Taylor hasn’t ruled out going back to them with offers.

He said: “I am not ruling out going back for some of those players but at the moment, on their terms, we’ve decided not to offer them new contracts.

“I am looking to build a team and I have identified a few players that of course I wanted to stay and looked at other areas where I thought there might be something else a bit different out there, a new face and a slightly different type and so on.”

With clubs up and down the country releasing players, Taylor has a sizeable pool to choose from.

He said: “That (market) has always got bigger and bigger every year and that’s what you say to the players.

“When a player isn’t having a great season you can say to them, ‘do you realise what is going to be available at the end of the season if you don’t watch out?’ You don’t want to be on that list because it’s getting bigger and bigger.”