The delay of the new Western Sydney club has eased some of the pressure on clubs to re-sign their favourite players.

But Melbourne Heart can now officially start to cherry-pick the cream of the crop if they can persuade available players to leave their current club to join them.

And there are are some top stars ripe for the plucking unless their current clubs move quickly to snap them up on extended deals.

Sydney FC are one club facing a possible upheaval in their playing stock, with almost all their big-name players out of contract at the end of this season.

Marquee John Aloisi, skipper Steve Corica, long-time veterans Terry McFlynn and Clint Bolton and big name recruits Simon Colosimo and Stuart Musialik are all believed to be in the last days of their current deal.

New faces Stephan Keller and Karol Kissel were also brought in on one year deals although both are tipped by club insiders to sign on for more, especially Keller.

Elsewhere there are some standouts now available for hire at the right price, including Brisbane Roar goal-machine Sergio Van Dijk, Reds pair Eugene Galekovic and Scott Jamieson and Mariners Matt Simon and Dylan McCallister.

In the middle of the park, Jets Matt Thompson and Song Jin-Hyung, Phoenix's Jon McKain and Wayne Srhoj at Glory are also in the market for a new deal.

Phoenix were the first to stem the tide yesterday though, snapping up this season's bolter Leo Bertos to a new three year deal before he could be lured across the Tasman.

However that still leaves a potential starting XI of the following reportedly out of contract stars:

Keeper: Galekovic (Reds)

Defenders: Jamieson (Reds), Milicevic (Jets), Keller (Sydney), Colosimo (Sydney FC)

Midfielders: Hutchinson (Mariners), Srhoj (Glory) Elrich (Jets), Pantelis (Reds)

Strikers: Van Dijk (Roar) and Cristiano (Reds).

Subs: Alemao (Reds), Luke De Vere (Roar), Milson (Gold Coast), Dadi (Perth), Birighitti (Reds)

But Heart insisted they were in no rush to sign anyone.

"October 1 is the starter's gun and now the race begins," Heart football manager John Didulica told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"But if it's a sprint you end up making mistakes. We're going to be methodical and considered in how we go about recruiting a team, because if you do it wrong the first time it takes a long time to get it back.

"We should have a coach appointed in the next couple of weeks and my job between now and then will be to throw a net over as many A-League players who are coming out of contract as possible, and provide profiles on them to the coach. He'll know the style of game he wants, and he will identify the players who can suit that.

"I think we need to get an understanding of where they (the players) see their future in terms of football, of what they're like as a person, of what would motivate them to come to Melbourne in the first place, plus salary expectations, of course."