Curle coy on whether Smith has a future at Cobblers

Cobblers boss Keith Curle was not giving much away when asked whether or not Harry Smith has a future at the Cobblers.

The 25-year-old forward will spend the rest of the season on loan with Motherwell in Scotland after struggling to establish himself in his first 18 months at Northampton.

He still has another 18 months to run on his current deal but Curle did not rule out selling him permanently once he returns from Scotland in the summer.

"Harry is still under contact at the football club and still has another year on that," said Curle when asked if Smith has a future at the club. "We invested in Harry and the one thing you want with an investment is to have it in the shop window.

"So if he isn't getting the game-time here, it's important for him to go out on loan.

"When I was at Carlisle, I signed Sam Cosgrove from Wigan. He came in but couldn't get in the team and couldn't get in the shop window and it took a little bit of time for him to adjust to how I wanted him to play.

"But the penny seemed to drop and he played three games, scored one and made two assists and the club sold him to Aberdeen and I think recently he turned down a multi-million pound move.

"Going away to play games, scoring goals and getting that confidence up can only help a player, even more so as a centre-forward because you don't want to be a bit-part player. You want to be leading the line, you want to be the focal point and you want to be on the score sheet.

"That's not what I could guarantee Harry so he's taken the option of going on loan to get that game-time. If you have a look at his montage of goals, the lads can score different type of goals.

"It's the other side of the game and a level of consistency that I needed to see more from Harry because I do believe he will score goals."