Crusaders enter chase for Jamie McDonagh but Derry City remain hopeful of his return

The Lisburn lad is currently out of contract and is understood to have held tentative talks with the Shore Road side.

Devine confirmed there has been interest from several other clubs, in both the League of Ireland and Irish League, for the former Greenock Morton man but declared he would love for McDonagh to commit to the Candy Stripes ahead of the 2020 campaign.

“He’s speaking to a lot of clubs,” confirmed Devine. “The reality is, when it’s 40 week contracts, people are able to speak to other clubs and other clubs are capable of enticing players and giving them deals which will benefit the player.

"I would love Jamie back, absolutely,” he stated. “I know Jamie has options and has a young family and has to look after that side of it.

“He was a brilliant player for us last year and set up a lot of goals. You never know, hopefully we can get him back again.

“We’ve lost (Greg) Sloggett, we’ve lost (Darren) McCauley and may lose another one or two, we don’t know at this moment in time.

“There are players who are going to decide to move on. There will be a lot of comings and goings over the next couple of weeks.

“There’s going to be negotiations again. There’s a lot of players I would like to keep at the club, there’s no doubt about that. “But the nature of this league is that other clubs come and offer potentially better deals or giving them different promises here or there on certain things.”