Free agents to train with Cobblers ahead of first friendly

Town’s players, including all five summer signings, have been put through their paces by Hogg in the sweltering heat at Moulton this week, and things step up another notch with a trip to Leicester City’s training ground for a behind closed doors friendly on Saturday.

Logan Briggs became Northampton’s latest addition when he joined on loan from Leicester City last week, but the club’s work this summer is far from done.

“The market is still quite slow but it’s starting to move a little bit,” said Hogg on Wednesday. “We will have a few people who are out of contract in training with us so we can have a look at them. We still need players in and we have work to do with the squad.

"I’m really happy with the new additions, they’ve all settled in well and brought what I knew they would in terms of their personalities and their physical and technical abilities. But we need to strengthen in a few positions to make sure we’re able to field a team that’s very competitive.”

Following their success over the last couple of summers, the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) is again running a pre-season training camp for free agents. The 10-week programme started at the end of June and runs through until September.

Forty free agents are training with the PFA this week and Hogg has confirmed Cobblers are keeping an eye on that market, adding: "It’s a really good initiative from the PFA and it’s massive for players to have that because they know they’ll be looked after and it gives them a purpose.

"It gives players a platform to go and get themselves a club and we’ll definitely be having a look and I’m aware of the names. Obviously situations change quickly because players might be holding out for certain things but it shifts as the weeks go by.

"We’re doing a lot of work in the background and a lot of energy is going into trying to find the right people with the right skillset.”