Thomas happy with Cobblers' transfer business despite not adding to the squad before the deadline

Chairman Kelvin Thomas believes Cobblers had a strong summer in the transfer market despite not being able to add to the squad in the days before last Friday’s deadline.

The club brought in six players this summer, four of which arrived on loan, but manager Jon Brady made it clear shortly before the window closed that he wanted to bolster his squad with another attacking player.

That did not materialise though and instead Brady will have to make do with what he has, at least until the window reopens in January.

"It’s a fine line because everybody wants that extra player,” said Thomas. “There’s not a manager that I’ve ever worked with that’s not thought they’re one player away from having a complete squad – but that’s their job.

"I expect managers to push and push for players because they want to get the best players on the pitch. We set the budget but the final say within the budget always goes to the manager at this club and it always will.

"Jon has proved himself over and over, with Colin (Calderwood) and the rest of the staff, when it comes to recruitment. Not every deal will happen but football is always a moving vehicle and not everything goes how you want and how you planned, but overall we’re in a decent place.”

Northampton's budget is nearer the bottom end of League One, and the gulf between themselves and some other clubs in the division was highlighted on Tuesday when Oxford United, who are thought to have a top-five budget, made 10 changes but still fielded a strong team for an EFL Trophy tie at Sixfields.

Thomas added: "I’m not going to hide away from the fact that we don’t have the biggest budget in the league. You saw that even on Tuesday night because you look at Oxford’s budget compared to ours, you would expect them to have more depth.

"But I think we had a good summer and we’ve definitely improved. We didn’t sign anyone on the last day and maybe we wanted another forward in but we have a budget and we had already increased earlier in the summer that to bring in a couple of players, not by fortunes but by a decent amount.

"Everyone wants a bit more but we have to be realistic in what we put into the club and it’s not all about budgets and it's not all about money and we are competing with these teams. We’ll work with what we’ve got and will crack on and work hard.

“Signing new players is exciting, especially on the last day, but we can’t forget the group we’ve got and who we have in the building because the players here have been successful over a long period.”