Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas says club face 'challenges' in trying to 'tie down' players to new contracts

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas anticipates the club will face ‘challenges’ when they try and tie down some of their key players to longer term contracts over the next few months.

Town have been proactive over the past year or so when it comes to handing out new deals with Jon Guthrie, Aaron McGowan, Jack Sowerby and Mitch Pinnock among those to be under contract until 2025.

However, a number of key players only have 12 months left on their current deals, including Shaun McWilliams, Lee Burge, Sam Hoskins and Sam Sherring. Thomas confirmed the club will remain proactive but it might prove trickier in the coming months due to the 'significant salary inflation’ caused by wealthy League Two clubs.

"We’ll continue to have those talks but that will bring its own challenges in terms of tying people down to contracts and understanding the financial landscape going into the next year,” said the Town chairman.

"That will be a challenge but it’s a challenge we’ll be ready for and James (Whiting) does an excellent job with the existing players and staff in trying to get them tied down to new contracts.

"That’s something which will continue. I’m not sure it will continue at the same pace that it has done previously because players might look around a bit more, but hopefully we can get a couple tied down.”

Thomas and co-owner David Bower face a ‘conundrum’ themselves between putting more money in to remain competitive and keep up in the current climate, but not to the extent that it jeopardises the financial sustainability of the club.

"As owners we won’t put the club at risk just to pay a bit more money for a player if you’re not getting more quality,” Thomas added. “A player doesn’t become a different player because you’re paying more money. You have to justify value for money.

"It’s a conundrum when we’re in the owner-funded model. We’re hoping that will change over the next 12 months and I think the Football League are making strides with the Premier League.

"It’s not a model we love to be in but there’s a reality to it and if we didn’t fund it, we would have a much lower budget and we wouldn’t be able to compete. At the start of last season, we had a budget but then came the injuries and we probably signed five extra players than we had planned.

"You do have that conundrum of ‘do we put more money in?’ and managers always want one extra but I think we are reasonable and we have always supported managers in our time here.

“We understand that sometimes you need to go above and beyond and we’ll always do that we can, but overall I think the club is in a really good place.”