Loans are not the cheap option for Cobblers, insists chairman Kelvin Thomas

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas insists signing players on loan is not the ‘cheap option’ after the club made four such additions during the summer transfer window.

Kieron Bowie and Marc Leonard returned to Sixfields from Fulham and Brighton respectively after impressive loan spells last season, while Town also added Huddersfield’s Tyreece Simpson and Newcastle goalkeeper Max Thompson.

The club made just two permanent additions – Patrick Brough and Manny Monthé – before the deadline to go with the 16 first-team players they had under contract from last season.

"Players want to be here and it's about the culture that's been developed by Jon (Brady) and his staff,” said Thomas. “Getting Marc and Kieron back shows that because these are players that could have gone to ‘bigger’ clubs. They came back because they enjoyed themselves last season and they want to try and repeat some of their success again this season.

"The loan player market has changed dramatically over the last five to 10 years and I think some people still believe that loan players are the cheap option when in reality they aren't. If it's a first loan, you do tend to get players a bit cheaper, but once they do well and they're successful, you don't get those prices repeated.

"But as we've seen, our loan players have contributed and they will continue to do that. They fit within the budget."

Keeping together the core of last season’s promotion-winning squad was key for Brady and Thomas, with the latter adding: "(Tom) Kingy was probably the only player that left that we wanted to keep. We offered him a deal but he got himself a very good contract at Wolves and we're really pleased for him because he was fantastic around the club in his time here.

"But we kept the squad together and we've spoken about that consistency and it's always good to have that at a football club."