Cobblers set to announce double signing as Hasselbaink confirms '˜some will leave' in January

It’s anticipated that Northampton will be busy over the next month as Hasselbaink gets to work in terms of reshaping and remodelling his squad in an attempt to turnaround their ailing fortunes on the pitch.

Hasselbaink has not yet had the chance to bring in his own players – aside from Lewis McGugan and Ryan McGivern on free transfers – having been appointed a week after the summer transfer window closed.

But with the January window opening on Monday, and with funds available, the Town manager is expected to strengthen his squad in several areas, especially at the top end of the pitch where they’re lacking pace and creativity in wide positions as well as goals from strikers.

“I don’t think that we need somebody in the middle of the park,” said Hasselbaink, whose side are now five points adrift of safety following Monday’s 1-0 defeat to Wigan. “It’s obvious that we have to do something and we need to freshen up things in certain areas.

“I think we need a little bit more knowhow and a little bit more experience in some places to help us.

“We’re going to some business, yes, or at least we’re going to try and do some business, but we want to have the right people here and the right people who are going to give everything for the club and can take us forward.

“It’s not going to be easy but we are looking and we’re working very hard behind the scenes. I can’t give you names but hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday) or the day after, we would have signed two players.”

While several are expected to come in, others will depart. The likes of Yaser Kasim and Dean Bowditch have barely featured at all this season despite only signing in the summer – they’ve made just seven league starts between them – and Alex Revell has not even made the matchday squad since being sent off against Bristol Rovers way back on October 7.

Those players will not necessarily leave but Hasselbaink will need to tinker with his squad and get the numbers down given the amount of fringe players who have hardly had a look-in of late.

“There will be some people going out, that’s just how it works and how it is,” he confirmed. “There are other people who won’t be happy because they’re going to sit on the bench and I can understand that.

“We want to have a squad that’s really going to fight and be competitive for every position and at the moment we don’t have that balance.

“We need to get that balance right. Hopefully we’ll have a couple of new faces involved for Saturday.”