Austin: 'I believe we have good players... and they are always going to be subject to interest from other clubs'

There has been speculation and rumour around certain Town players over the summer months, with the latest this week linking Sky Bet Championship side West Bromwich Albion with a move for Town goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell.

As well as there being plenty of chat on social media, the Express & Star newspaper in West Bromich has published a story saying the Baggies are keen on O’Donnell, who used to work with their goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler when the pair were at Walsall.

O’Donnell only joined the Cobblers in January, signing from Rotherham United, and he still has two years on his Town contract to run.

There has been social media chatter regarding other Town players in the past few weeks as well, but Austin is not interested in talking about any player making any sort of move, until it actually happens.

“At this stage of the season it is not easy, because you start hearing talk of people potentially talking about your players,” said the Cobblers boss.

“Then you start getting phone calls, not so much me because I don’t take the calls

“I don’t get involved with the agents and I don’t get involved with the money, and I am quite happy with that because I am at my happiest when I am on the pitch with the players.

“But we do get phone calls, Andy (Melville) gets them, James (Whiting) gets them, and Kelvin (Thomas) gets them, and we will get calls about our players, and that is inevitable because we have got good players.

“I believe we have good players, and when you have good players they are always going to be subject to interest from other clubs.

“But I said it a few weeks ago, and that is I will never talk about players we might be potentially looking at, because I just believe it is disrespectful to talk about other clubs’ players.

“I don’t want to get involved in that, but it goes the other way too in that I won’t be happy if people decide they want to come out and talk about my best players, because I also think that is disrespectful towards our club.

“This is a great club, we have good players here, and players do come and go, and you don’t really want to lose your best players.

“People say ‘you don’t want to be a selling club’, but every club in the land is a selling club, even Manchester United sell players. Everybody has a price.”

The Cobblers continue their pre-season training today, as they gear up for their opening friendly of the summer at Sileby Rangers next Tuesday (July 3, ko 7.45pm).