Brady reveals what he's looking for in new signings

COVID making life tricky for lower league clubs
Jon Brady.Jon Brady.
Jon Brady.

Creativity, leadership and a clinical finisher top Jon Brady' s transfer wishlist this month.

It's a case of one in, one out so far in January with Kion Etete returning to parent club Tottenham Hotspur and young striker Chanka Zimba joining on loan from Cardiff City.

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Cobblers are going well this season and currently sit third in Sky Bet League Two, but recent defeats to Swindon and Crawley have highlighted the areas where they can improve.

The 1-0 loss to Crawley on Saturday, in which Northampton missed numerous chances, in particular showed the need for more quality in the final third.

"I feel we need effectiveness and someone who can unlock things for us," said Brady.

"We need a player who is going to be clinical and will put the ball into the back of the net and also probably a leader that will help organise the whole team.

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"We do have good leaders within the team already but just another leader would really enhance us through the second half of the season."

However, it is proving a tricky window so far, with COVID hampering the efforts of lower league clubs to recruit players.

Clubs in the top two tiers are reluctant to let players leave on loan for fear that they might be needed in the event of a COVID outbreak.

Brady added: “For some clubs, they might find it easy. For others, it might be a bit tougher.

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"Certainly for the top clubs in the Premier League and Championship, there are players right on the fringes that might normally go out on loan to clubs in League One or League Two to play games.

"But we're finding in a few cases that some of those players are staying with their clubs at the moment and rightly so.

"We have experienced the impact of COVID ourselves and it can be quite difficult if you don't have a huge squad with great strength in depth, so it's totally understandable."