Kevin Nolan reveals how close Northampton came to deadline day deals - and why they didn't happen
Kevin Nolan has revealed that Cobblers were close to completing a couple of deadline day deals – but in the end he made the decision to walk away.
Nolan and his recruitment team spent the whole of Monday on the phone speaking to players and agents in search of at least one attacking player, but despite the club remaining active right up until the 7pm deadline, nothing came to fruition.
A loan move for a young Premier League forward was on the cards at one point before the parent club pulled out, and with so many free agents available to sign beyond the deadline, Nolan didn’t want to sign an unknown quantity.
"It was a long day and we talked to lots of people,” said Nolan. “We did think we might get a couple in and we were close but when it came down to the deal itself, sometimes you get out-priced.
"You weigh up whether it's worth the type of money that they are asking for and all of us as staff didn't feel any of the deals were right for us and that's why they didn't happen in the end.”
Nolan also had one clear red line that he would not cross – the desire to want to sign for Northampton.
He added: “We went down lots of blind alleys and things didn't come to fruition. We pushed to get players in but I felt some people over exceeded where they were at so then you're trying to convince them and as I've said plenty of times, if they don't want to come to Northampton then I'm not interested.
"Those phone calls became pretty easy and they ended quickly, but we're not finished and we're already looking at a few free agents.”