Foyle saw Cobblers as an 'exciting project' ahead of return to recruitment role

Martin Foyle felt the Cobblers represented an 'exciting opportunity' ahead of his return as the club's head of recruitment last week.

The 58-year-old briefly held the same role alongside Chris Wilder and Alan Knill in 2015 but soon departed for Motherwell, where he has spent the last six years.

However, after deciding to leave Fir Park, the former Port Vale, York City and Hereford manager made the move back down south.

Asked what drew him back to Northampton, Foyle said: "Probably the manager and I know Marc Richards well - I had him as a player when I was at Port Vale.

"I know Dan Watson as well, also from Port Vale, so there's a little bit of a connection there but personally, for me, the most important factor was that there were going to be foundations put in place at the club.

"When I was here before with Chris Wilder and Alan Knill, it just wasn't right. They knew it wasn't right but now the owners at the club and everyone here, with what they want to do, it sounded like an exciting project."

Foyle played a 'significant' role in his six years at Motherwell, during which time the club reached two cup finals and twice finished in the top six of the Scottish Premiership.

"I was generally recruiting from England at Motherwell so I was covering League One, League Two and the Conference and obviously leagues below as well," Foyle explained.

"I was trying to take the boys up the road - as we called it - and sometimes that was a hard sell, but we had a purple patch when we got one or two lads in who came in and settled very well.

"Then it's a friend of a friend and word goes around that we treated people properly and all of a sudden we started to get a little bit of success. We reached some cup finals, we finished in the top six and then the top three and it just grew and grew from there."

On why he left, he continued: "Everything at the club then changed and they've gone in a different direction so I made the decision to leave. They wanted to be more data-led but at the end of the day, you've still got to find people who want to play for the club, rather than just coming for the money. "