I want more...ambitious Oliver wants to get his career motoring after joining the Cobblers

There is the player’s ambition to fulfil his potential as a footballer, and his ambition to be successful in the game.

Then there is the ambition of Cobblers boss Keith Curle to make Oliver the best he possibly can be.

And finally there is the ambition of the manager and player alike to win promotion from Sky Bet League Two this season.

And that is something that has been a recurring theme with virtually every new player that has signed for the club this summer.

Indeed, scratch that, it has been a recurring theme with every player who has signed.

And Oliver is no different.

The big striker has been knocking around the lower levels of English football for his entire career, dropping in and out of the EFL at various times, and he has spent the past two seasons plying his trade with perennial league two strugglers Morecambe.

He felt that he needed a big change this summer, and wanted to try to find a club where he can start looking up the table instead of over his shoulder at the Football League trapdoor all the time.

And he is confident he has found that club in Northampton Town.

Asked what was the attraction when the Cobblers came calling, Oliver said: “I think it was the ambition of the manager after speaking with him.

“He was aware I was moving back home to Sheffield, which was why I turned down the next year that Morecambe offered me.

“Keith said to me ‘I see a lot of talent in you, a lot of ability, and I can get the best out of you’.

“He said his ambition is to get the club where it is supposed to be, moving up the leagues, and that is a big attraction because it will be the first time that I have really been at a club striving for that.

“I have seen the players he has brought in already, and I know the type of manager he is and I was just raring to come here.”

Oliver was well set at the Globe Arena, and manager Jim Bentley offered him a deal to stay on the north west coast, so was it a gamble for him to turn down that deal and try his luck as a free agent this summer?

“I wouldn’t say it was that much of a gamble,” said Oliver, who has signed a one-year contract at the Cobblers.

“Family wise, with me moving back to Sheffield, it was too far to travel and I am at an age now where I have ambitions in football, and I want to achieve those ambitions.

“I felt that coming to Northampton, and working under Keith, is an opportunity for me to do that.

“I really feel like this is going to be a positive season, so for me that was never a gamble.

“My aim is to achieve, and do the best I possibly can in football.

“To do that, you need to be in the right environment, under the right manager, the right players around you, and when I had the opportunity to come here it was something I couldn’t turn down.”

And he added: “Look at the kind of players that have been brought into the club.

“There is a high turnover this summer with the players that have come in, but with the likes of Nicky Adams, Chris Lines, who I have played with, you see that they have all the promotions on their CV.

“They know what it takes, what it is about, and it is that kind of ambition that you see from the club, bringing those types of players in, that you want to be part of it.

“Everybody wants to play as high as they can, and you want to have promotions on your CV and strive for success, so when you see those players coming into the building you want to be part of that.

“The signings Keith has brought in show what he is aiming for this season.

“League two is definitely a league where, if you have a good start to the season and you have the right players, as soon as you get momentum you can get promoted out of this league.

This club shouldn’t be at this level, and hopefully this is going to be a really good season for us.”

Oliver has been training with his new team-mates since Monday, and said: “I just can’t wait to get going.

“Monday was my first session, and it was a very hard session, very gruelling, and I don’t think any part of my body is not feeling it!

“But it was good, it was good to be around the boys. I know a couple of them already, but they have made me feel very welcome, and it seems like a very good dressing room to be in.”