Watford will start contract negotiations with Jonathan Bond next week, with the goalkeeper's agent saying the Hornets remain his client's "first port of call".

Bond is one of five players who are out of contract this summer and not included in the list of released players which was published by the Golden Boys two weeks ago.

Watford have refused to confirm whether Bond and the other four men - Manuel Almunia, Lloyd Doyley, Fitz Hall and John Eustace - have been offered contracts.

The Hornets would also not comment on whether they wanted to retain the five players beyond July 1 when their current deals expire and they would become free agents.

The Football League has released the annual Professional Retain List and Free Transfers document which shows who is out of contract and which of those players have been offered new contracts as of May 18.

The document indicates Jonathan Bond and Lloyd Doyley had been offered new contracts prior to mid-May but the Golden Boys would not confirm if that was correct.

We contacted each of the players' agents or representatives this week and Bond's was the only one who was either contactable or willing to comment on the record.

Despite the odd mistake, Bond really impressed during his ten appearances for Watford last season and enhanced his already impressive reputation.

The 20-year-old 's agent Richard Des Voeux said they did not want to discuss a new contract before the play-off final and confirmed talks were due to start next week.

Des Voeux said: "At the present moment there is no news. The bottom line is we said to the club to wait until the end of the season because they had a lot of things to consider and nothing was going to be decided in Jonathan's mind before the end of the season. Then we could all sit down together and that is what we are going to do.

"Jonathan has been at Watford a long time, he is a big fan of the club and is happy so the first port of call is Watford."