Cobblers will look at 'structure' changes to help sustain the club in League One

Chairman Kelvin Thomas has revealed the club will look at the possibility of making changes to their 'structure' which would help sustain Cobblers in League One.

Town are in danger of making another swift return to League Two after a difficult campaign in the third tier, currently 22nd and two points from safety. It was a similar story after their promotion under Chris Wilder when they were relegated within two seasons.

Previous manager Keith Curle was sacked last month and replaced by Jon Brady, who has now been given the job until the end of the season.

In the meantime, Thomas will hold conversations with various people within the club about potential changes before reassessing the situation in the summer.

"We will look at the medium term and what could come next," said Thomas. "We had some great success under Keith but we didn't look at the medium term.

"We need to maybe take stock and look at the longer term and what the clubs needs and things like style of play and support staff come into that.

"We had a lot of people apply and some good people apply for the job but rather than rush into an appointment, which would keep us in that short-term mode, we will have conversations around what we want to see and what the club needs going forward in terms of the structure.

"There are also people we might want to talk to who are in jobs at the moment and it's not be the right time to leave those jobs, but in the summer it might be different.

"We know what League Two is about and we know we can get back out of it if we need to but it's now about whether or not there is a medium term need for the football club to look at that will help us sustain ourselves in League One."

Whatever happens over these next 14 games, Brady and his current coaching team of Marc Richards and Ian Sampson will remain at the club in the long-term.

Thomas added: "Jon, Ian and Marc are all part of the conversations about the future and that's not necessarily as managers or coaching staff for the first-team. No matter what happens, all three have roles at the football club and that's very important.

"They're an important part of the conversations we'll have in terms of the first-team, the youth team, technical director, all that kind of stuff, because they have a wealth of experience and a love for the club.

"When we have these discussions, they will be around the academy and how young players fit into it."

However, whilst all proposals are to be considered, changes will only be implemented if they are to the benefit of the club.

Thomas continued: "It all still comes down to winning football matches. We do have a philosophy within the club and whilst we might not have a technical director or a formalised structure in terms of the way we're going to play throughout the club, it does happen organically.

"People take on certain roles and responsibilities and you've also got to look at sustainability and cost of that kind of structure and the investment required. There's different ways of doing it and that all of that forms part of the conversation.

"As a board, we've got to look at the proposals and make some decisions but I've had tremendous success with some managers who had autonomy like with Chris (Wilder) and Keith.

"Now we have to figure out the next step more than anything else and the structures we put in place because they have to be about sustaining the club in League One and that's investment in staff and investment in players.

"Those conversations will happen with quite a few people around the club but the important thing now is to win as many of these next 14 games as we can."