Caldo: Take it or leave it with Hibs offers

The Easter Road outfit have opened talks with top scorer Derek Riordan, midfield ace Liam Miller, Portuguese forward Ricardo Vaz Te and goalkeeper Graham Stack, while discussions are due to take place with Ghanaian defender Francis Dickoh, who has told the club he wants to stay.

But Calderwood insisted he'll be looking for virtually instant answers, anticipating everything will be "tied down" within five days of Saturday's final match of the season against Aberdeen.

Disclosing that Hibs are already "quite far down the line," in their bid to lure Ivan Sproule back to Edinburgh - although nothing has yet been concluded - Calderwood said: "We have been in discussions with them (the out-of-contract players] all this week although it has been a bit spasmodic with Eddie Turnbull's funeral, tonight's game and travelling that distance and another match on Saturday.

"Francis wants to stay so he is another we will speak to, but everything will be tied down within the five days after the Aberdeen game."

Many expect it to be a "buyer's market" this summer with clubs releasing a large number of players as they seek to trim costs and Calderwood hinted he believes some might find it difficult to win a deal, saying: "I think if I was a football player now and I had two offers I would pick one and take it quite quickly."

To that end, Calderwood will be expecting a rapid response to any offers he might make. He said: "I know some people want offers so they can say they have been offered x, y or z by a club either here or in England then use that to get more.

"So any offer made will be there for 48 hours or maybe a week. If they do not want to commit after that then I will walk away. You make a choice.

"If you want an offer and we want to give you it then it is not there for you to go fishing. In all honesty, if we make an offer we want the player to sit down face-to-face and say 'that's fine.'

"That shows real good intention that he wants to be here and we are showing real good intention by offering him money.

"What we won't do is make an offer, find out he has been offered a fiver more up the road and then come back and give him ten quid. It will be the offer."

Calderwood, of course, will also be seeking to bring further new faces to the club and although he doesn't expect a rash of announcements, he believes agreements can be made and contracts signed at a mutually convenient moment although he also expects his wheeling and dealing to continue until the transfer window closes at the end of August.

He added: "What we definitely must have is an allowance through the pre-season and right up to the deadline is to have funds available to add to the squad because as many people as you think will be available now, I think there will be almost the same wanting to come on trial and wanting to do a pre-season."