Kevin Nolan reveals reason for not offering Akin Odimayo a new contract

The 25-year-old defender, who joined Cobblers in 2022, became an important player under Nolan, featuring in 23 of his 25 games in charge, and only Mitch Pinnock finished the season with more appearances in all competitions.

Many expected him to at least be offered some kind of new deal but instead he was one of 11 players released by the club when the retained list was announced earlier this week.

"It's really difficult because it's not nice to tell someone they haven't got a job,” said Nolan on BBC Radio Northampton. “You feel for them because they all made some good contributions but I've got to make these tough decisions and my job is to make best use of our budget and make sure we're better next season.”

On Odimayo specifically, Nolan explained: "AK was one of the biggest decisions and it went down to the wire. He contributed a lot to the team and did really well but it was down to him not being able to finish games. I spoke to him about it and I talked with the staff and it went against him when we were making the decision on him.

"AK's a great lad and I loved working with him and I enjoyed working with him but our aim now is to find someone better and if we can't do that, that's down to us. You have to back yourself to try and improve us and we think we can do that.”