Cobblers boss Boothroyd says Sixfields door is open for defender Artell

Aidy Boothroyd will communicate this message to the 32-year-old when the squad returns to pre-season training at Sixfields at the end of this week.

Artell had a good start to his career at Northampton after a late arrival at the club last summer, scoring four goals in 13 starts and cementing his place in the heart of the defence.

But a torn Achilles tendon saw him sidelined for three months and when he returned, Clarke Carlisle had been signed and was blocking his path to the first team.

That frustration led to a loan spell at Conference club Wrexham, whom Artell helped reached the final of the play-offs, in which they were beaten 2-0 by Newport County.

Carlisle has since retired and Artell’s loan at Wrexham has expired, meaning he will return for pre-season in the Northampton fold and very much in Boothroyd’s thoughts.

“The state of play with David is that he will come back to pre-season with everyone else and I will sit down and have a chat with him,” he said.

“He didn’t play as many games as I would have liked him to and we went down the route of using Clarke Carlisle.

“Clarke has now gone, Nathan is undecided and we’ve got an experienced centre-half on our books who has got three promotions on his CV.

“So I need to sit down with him and see where we go with it. It might be that he knuckles down and gets into the team and it might be that he moves on to another club, we save on his wages and I get someone else in.

“These are all things that we will only know after we’ve sat down and had a conversation.”

With the squad size expected to be small again this season, Boothroyd insists every contracted professional will be considered to play and used Jake Robinson’s return to the first team as an example of both the attitude he requires and the result it will generate.

“There’s a future for everybody at the club,” he said.

“Last year we had Jake Robinson and he’s a perfect example because Jake was in Outer Mongolia but got himself back in the team.

“He went out on loan to Luton and couldn’t get a game there but then he came back to us and did really well for us for a long period of time.

“Then he was in and around the squad all the way to the play-off final at Wembley so I don’t ever put players out to pasture.

“The squad is going to be tight in terms of the amount of players I’ve got and I don’t really see the point in having these players and not using them if they’re available.

“Everybody has got a future until they prove otherwise, as far as I’m concerned.”