Curle in discussions with several targets as Cobblers look to accelerate recruitment drive

Cobblers' summer recruitment drive is expected to pick up pace over the coming days and weeks with manager Keith Curle in discussions with several of his main targets.

The Town boss has admitted to missing out on some players, mainly for financial reasons, but negotiations are ongoing with others ahead of the first game of the Sky Bet League One season next month.

On Saturday, Joseph Mills joined Jonathan Mitchell and Christopher Missilou as Town's first three signings of the summer, but with the squad still short on numbers, at least another four are expected.

"You have waves of activity within the first few weeks of the transfer window," explained Curle. "When the season ends and players are up for grabs, players and agents have more power.

"But further on, the power shifts towards clubs because players' value will be what somebody offers for them. We're not trying to get players on the cheap, we want value for money.

"There are some players that I've spoken to where we haven't been able to financially compete with what's been offered elsewhere and you say good luck to them, if you want to go and earn that money, I wish you well.

"There are others that had certain expectations and we're still talking to them. We weren't able to meet their initial expectations, financially, but they're now coming to in and around our remit of the value that we put on those players.

"That's not to say we're undervaluing players but we show good housekeeping and we're trying to get value for money and we want quality."

Curle wouldn't put a number on exactly how many more signings he wants to make, with it somewhat dependent on players going the other way.

He added: "It's hard to put a number on it but I've got an idea of how many players we want to sign and there are still players we have within the squad that may makeway and could create room for other players to come in.

"We want to have competition and some players may feel they won't get the game-time so we'll allow them to further their careers elsewhere."