Kevin Nolan believes Cobblers must make 'transition' to become more sustainable
Kevin Nolan believes Cobblers have to ‘transition’ to a new way of recruiting if they are to become more sustainable in League One, with an emphasis on signing young players.
Town signed the likes of Kamarai Swyer, Jack Perkins and Joe Wormleighton last summer, all of whom were aged 22 or younger at the time and had been part of elite academies such as West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
Nolan believes that’s a market that Cobblers can exploit further, and there was another example of that at the end of the January transfer window when the club signed Nottingham Forest pair Kyle McAdam and Ben Hammond. Though both are loan deals, Town do have an option to sign them permanently in the summer.
"I think, as a club, that’s where we need to transition to,” said Nolan. “We have to put a little faith into younger players, as well as having the likes of a Crackers (Michal Jacobs), a Jon Guthrie, a Cam McGeehan, an Elliott Moore, some older heads to help with their experience.
"That’s one thing we have to do and it’s something a club like Exeter do really well. We’ve got to find those little gems and bring them on and develop them and it’ll help the club to be sustainable and put a bit more money in the pot for future transfers and future windows.”
The deals to sign McAdam and Hammond are similar to the one that saw Ben Perry join Cobblers on loan last January – but this time the club ensured they had the ‘first option’ to sign them permanently in the summer.
Nolan added: "They were part of a very successful Forest youth team and they are good players and good characters so we're pleased to take them on loan, and then we have that option at the end of the season to potentially keep them here.
"That's really great for the club because we did slip up a bit with Ben (Perry). He hadn't been out on loan and not many people knew a lot about him but then he does well for us and gets a nice move to Colchester off the back of that.
"So it was important that we gave ourselves the opportunity to sign Kyle and Ben at the end of the season, and we're grateful and privileged that Forest wanted them to come here."
Speaking on BBC Radio Northampton, Cobblers CEO James Whiting echoed Nolan’s view, saying: "There’s a lot of players that exit the game from top level academies at 19, 20, 21, a little bit older than historically, and we do see that as a market for us.
"We feel we use the loan market really well but we also want to bring in young talent and have assets that help the club. Hopefully they progress with us and we progress as a club and they maybe go on and that helps money come back into the club.”