Brady confirms Cobblers are aiming to sign 'seven or eight players' this summer

Jon Brady says Cobblers are aiming to sign ‘seven or eight players’ over the course of the summer transfer window.

Left-back Patrick Brough was the first man through the door at Sixfields when he arrived on a two-year deal from Barrow earlier this week.

But with a strong core of players already under contract, there is no need for a major overhaul this summer and Cobblers can afford to be more measured in how they go about their recruitment.

Several clubs in League One and League Two have already been busy in the early weeks of the window, but Brady and his recruitment team are happy to bide their time.

"It's my third summer doing this now and it's the usual story,” said Brady. “Myself, Colin (Calderwood) and Alex (Latimer), who does the analysis side of things, work with James Whiting pretty closely and we have our targets.

"It goes pretty mad early on in the window so you have to let the dust settle and take stock and then sift through your targets and we are working very hard at that at the moment.

"We are trying to recruit seven or eight players in certain positions and we're right in the middle of doing that at the moment.”

Asked whether he’s noticed much of a difference between recruiting for League One compared to League Two, Brady added: "League Two has ramped up a lot more in terms of the finances involved with Notts County and Wrexham coming up but the disparity in League One from the bottom to the top is so much bigger.

"Clubs have budgets of £12-14million and that's on a different level to us and we're certainly not competing in that market. We are looking for players who fit our profile and are on upward curves in their careers.

"We work to a budget and we're certainly not going to be in that top echelon of clubs in League One, but we believe in what we've done with our recruitment and we feel that we can improve players who come here.”