YORK City boss Gary Mills admits he does not know what will happen to unwanted quintet Ben Barber, Ben Clappison, Kaine Felix, Jack Higgins and Josh Robinson following their returns to Bootham Crescent.

The five players were all deemed surplus to requirements by Mills and farmed out on loan during the early weeks of his return to the Minstermen helm last October.

Clappison and Robinson both joined National League North outfit Boston United, while Barber (Curzon Ashton) and Felix (Stockport) also agreed temporary terms with teams in the same division.

Centre-back Higgins, meanwhile, was a member of the Southport squad that were relegated from the National League, along with the Minstermen.

But, along with Aidan Connolly, Matt Fry, Simon Heslop, Clovis Kamdjo, Yan Klukowski, Shaun Rooney and Luke Simpson, they are among a dozen members of the squad assembled last summer by previous boss Jackie McNamara who still have 12 months to run on their Bootham Crescent contracts, as does Mills signing Sean Newton.

Goalkeeper Kyle Letheren’s terms, meanwhile, were never made public following his switch from Blackpool last August and there remains uncertainty surrounding Vadaine Oliver’s employment situation at the club.

On Oliver’s signing in 2015, it was announced that he had penned a two-year deal, although McNamara suggested last summer that he had an agreement to keep him on the Bootham Crescent books for a further season.

Scott Fenwick, Danny Galbraith, Danny Holmes, Simon Lappin, Robbie McDaid, Adriano Moke, Sam Muggleton, Lanre Oyebanjo, Jon Parkin, Callum Rzonca and Alex Whittle will all be free to move on after the FA Trophy final against Macclesfield on May 21 when loan signings Dan Parslow, Hamza Bencherif, Asa Hall, and Amari Morgan-Smith will all return to their parent clubs.

Former England under-21 international goalkeeper Scott Loach is already back at Notts County, as he is ineligible for the Wembley contest.

On the unresolved situation regarding players’ futures at City, Mills said: “Things obviously change and I don’t know what the situation will be budget wise.

“We must also remember there are some players who are not here at the moment who have still got another year left on their contracts, so that has to be dealt with. There are massive decisions to be made, but a season can go very quickly and you could be back in this league as quickly as possible and move on again, as long as the right decisions are made.”

Mills has been openly critical of the “diabolical mess” he inherited following the reign of his managerial predecessor McNamara, who remains employed at the club as chief executive.

On the pair’s unusual working situation, Mills added: “We don’t see a great deal of each other. I get on with my job and Jackie gets on with his.

“We’ve not really spent a lot of time together discussing things, because I’ve been too busy working with my players and I manage the team, not the other side of things.”