Brady and Calderwood meet with players and agents as Cobblers look to build on their strong foundations

Work on recruiting players for next season is well underway at Sixfields with manager Jon Brady looking to capitalise on the strong foundations he already has in place.

Town’s season only ended a week ago when they were beaten by Mansfield Town in the League Two play-off semi-finals, but in the past few days Brady and his assistant Colin Calderwood have been meeting players and agents.

The Cobblers boss feels he is in a much better position now than 12 months ago when he was essentially starting from scratch following relegation from League One.

Seven of the 10 most used players from last season are contracted to the club for at least another year, with Liam Roberts, Shaun McWilliams and Fraser Horsfall the only exceptions. All three have been offered new deals.

"We had a smaller foundation last year but we feel we are in a better starting position going into this summer,” said Brady.

"I think the important thing is that we now build on that and if we can build around the foundation we currently have and knit a team together, we feel we could be in a strong position.

"It doesn't stop for us. The morning after the play-off game I was back in the building and we are working tirelessly to try and put together the best squad we can for next season.

"The work does not stop and we will keep working throughout the summer and hopefully come back even stronger for next season.”

Last week, Brady had the unpleasant job of telling six players that they would be let go, while Joseph Mills retired.

"It's never nice to have those conversations,” he admitted. “I had to do it for four years with the youth team and when you work closely with young lads who are desperate to do well, that's hard.

"I don't think anyone on the outside knew how close our staff and our players were, we were hugely close, and people make throwaway comments but it was like a family.

"To say the journey stops here for some family members is extremely tough to do and it's probably the worst part of the job as a football manager.

"We have been lucky because we have some great human beings that have been on board and who gave their all for the football club. They were all fantastic characters."

Cobblers may also look at doing deals for one or two of their loan players, such as Tyler Magloire and Josh Eppiah.

Brady added: “With those two, we are trying to do some positive talks but their respective clubs may have other agendas and that's completely out of our control."