The Hotel End

Anyone got any yet?

Couple of rumours so far only about current players, Guttridge off but Lee Collins staying.

I can't wait for the first hilarious post about us signing Malcolm Christie ::)

Isn't Steve Howard supposed to be signing? :o

Have heard a certain ex-striker may be returning.

Eric Sabin please please please please

Ian Henderson I assume.

Gary McSheffrey is a Coventry player, signed by Boothroyd in 2010, who has been told that he isn't a part of their plans anymore and may well have his contract paid off. Judging by previous signings from our manager I'd say this counts as a rumour!

Loves a beer doesn't he? (Allegedly)

For the record I think Ian Henderson is dog ****.

He's been offered a new deal by Rochdale (for some reason) so I highly doubt it.

It's Gary Mulligan. He will sign on Wednesday :'(

Boothroyd might be off to Sheffield United?

Out of contract Guillem Bauza?

Rory Delap and David Hunt to sign to offer some competition to Ben Tozer.

Given how strong Elokobi is, surely he must be able to throw a football pretty far? Out of contract too.

Aidy won't made much efforts to retain Bayo. Good luck to him with his new club and I hope he scores against us -- although just 2 consolation goals in 3-2 win for the Cobblers please.

Aidy will offer Roy O'Donovan  a contract but a League 1 team, or a richer League 2 team, will snap him up. I would prefer if you didn't score against us.

They will be lots of rumours over the summer, but few will sign until we panic in the weeks before the new season and get some slow, old, recovering from injuries players.

However I would be delighted, as ever, to be proved wrong.

I've been told by several people that Matt Duke has signed a pre-contract agreement.


Tozer to return to the West Country is another rumour I've heard.

Would have no issue losing Tozer, apart from his throw he doesn't excel in a particular position.

The problem with Tozer is that through no fault of his own, he's been dragged from one position to anther without being able to learn a specialist position.

Didn't GJ say that he thought Tozer would play in the Premiership one day as a central midfielder? Well, if he did genuinely think that then I'd imaging Yeovil may have a look at him.

Kelvin langmead to Yeovil.
Akinfenwa to gillingham.
John Johnson to Luton town.
Roy o Donovan to mk dons.
Shaun harrad to Northampton.
Gary mcsheffrey to Northampton.
Luke Oliver to Northampton.

Chelts are unloading a couple of strikers

I'm not surprised as they don't score many goals.
It certainly cost them in the run in.
We need quality strikers not second rate signings if we are to improve.

Please no

So you're still doing the drugs then >:D

New to this forum but I think you need experience to get out of this division,  I think Cureton and Matt Oakley are worth a look at beings Exeter cant afford to keep many players on next season just look at Calderwoods final year the amount of experience we had then.

Scarily high chance of all but one of them happening, can't see Harrad coming back

Langmead isn't championship quality. Sorry.
Don't see Bayo going back there after he snubbed them to sign here.
JJ is probably conference standard, so this makes sense.
MK Dons have 4 strikers already so I doubt it.
I f***ing well hope not.
As I said before, quite likely.
He's been injured since October and under contract. I suppose it's possible but I'd rather keep Langmead.

I think we have seen the end of bayo and gutts. gutts is less effective when the're not together.

This season will be the biggest test for Aidy,  Johnsons signings will be gone. This will truley be A ADB sqaud.

I do think are style of play will be more entertaining with a more mobile front line and more efffective flanks.

a fullback and a winger too match Widdowson and hackett would be my first signings. Ishmel is a lost cause and Johnson has never been the same player on a perm deal.

I must also add that im really looking foward to seeing what Powell,Moyo and Toney are like in pre season. Would be great if hornby could push on also.

If Guttridge does go, I'd love to see us build the midfield around Hornby. I think the boy is already a serious player and could potentially be a star.

Powell? Do you mean Dias?

But aren't Platt and Demontagnac contracted for next season

I forgot Dias but theres a lad called Callum Powell who looked really good in the fa youth cup.

Not if they get sacked!

I mentioned this on the coach home and the idea was scoffed at by several around me because of his age. But he played 22 games this season and I thought he played very well in most of them. I certainly think he's the most creative player we have in midfield and out of everyone who has played in the centre this season he seems most happy to keep the ball on the floor and play a 5 yard pass rather than launching it into the air.

Didn't even know about him, what position does he play?


There's about a -200% chance of either of them being sacked or leaving the club at all, although Demontagnac will hopefully drop to the bench for someone as good as Kyel Reid (I'm not holding my breath).

I have played against Powell many times at school level and i must say i would be very suprised if he did make it...He is lightweight!

Ishy and Harding are the weak links i.m.o

TBH, I have preferred our midfield when both Gutts and Hornby have been playing and complimenting each other.  ;)

What do they say then? Do tell!

Hornby: "Ooh I love your balding pate Gutts" ?
Gutts: "Your impish youth does it for me NSB boy" ? We should be told.

OK.."complementing"....  :-*

You are obviously far too young to remember Atkins sacking Charlie  Bishop.
And minus 200%?

That was because he tw@tted him (or someone), wasn't it? I recall there was some argy bargy anyway.

Exactly what I've heard.

I've heard we are after Peter Leven following his release from Oxford.

Harrad would be a poor signing IMO. Offers very little other than a better than average finishing ability. O'Donovan is a better option.

We need someone like Rene Howe who has a decent goals record, but with other attributes (pace and strength).

He was a poor signing first time around and he's done sweet FA since he left us. Why we would want him back I do not know. I hope the rumours are just thyat - rumours.

We like to link ourselves with all our old players all the time. People who make up transfer rumours are lazy I guess, or just don't know many footballing names. Harrad is unlikely IMO.

A fully fit Luke Oliver would be an excellent signing for you. However, there are rumours that the injury that has kept him out since October, could be career threatening. He came out onto the pitch at the end on Saturday, and he was limping badly. I cannot see him being fit for start of next season, even if the rumours are way off the mark

Bayo to Portsmouth (no substance other than he's just followed a Pompey news site on Twitter)

Well he's definitely off so perhaps that would make sense...top stalking sir.

Bayo was mentioned in dispatches in Pompey circles today. However they already have Patrick Agyemang who is a similar player (and build, although not quite Bayo-sized). Agyemang has already signed a deal at Pompey so I'd be surprised if they wanted a player of a similar ilk.

I feel that there will be a lot of ex players returning rumours on this thread.  ;)

You never know, we signed Clive Platt! Lol

The Pompey News Sports reporter has said twitter has been abuzz withe the Akinfenwa rumours but claims he isn't a target.

Darn, you beat me to it. ;D

Just saw that myself. Wonder where he will end up.

Except Bayo is miles better than Agyemang.

I've been made aware of Ben Tozer buying property down in Plymouth ... but that could just be to do with his family being there of course.

Ex Bedford Town FC lad Rene Howe I heard via local football Bedford people being mentioned around these parts.

Boothroyd off to Sheffield apparently so hopefully the new manager will get rid of everybody over 30  ;D

Hackett back to Oxford apparently. Madness if there is any truth.
And personally, I wouldn't miss Boothroyd if he joins the Blades, I'd love to see us try and play a bit of football.......

Hope not

Do they not have skysports in Sheffield?

How I feel at the moment, it really wouldn't bother me.

Pure speculation.  There is no mention of AB's name in the Sheffield press being connected with that job.  I very much hope he stays with us and all the signs are positive for our club despite the abject performance at Wembley.  I don't think too many changes needed to become a promotion side but for sure there will be some comings and goings this summer.  The exits we will hear about later this week.

More a wishlist than rumour, but I see Anthont Grant has been transfer listed at Stevenage as they're trying to cut cost, always impressed me at Southend and also a bit of an unlikely one but I see Ashley Vincent has turned down a new contract and will leave Port Vale.

I see on the sky bet website that the Boothroyd to Sheffield rumour is gathering some pace as he is the second favourite:

http://www.skybet.com/football/specials/manager-specials

Who would do a better job for you with what you've got?

Be careful what you wish for boys, you wouldn't be the first losing play off finalists to be relegated the following season.

or 5th - if you read it right.

i think that just means that someone put £10 on it - so they shortened the odds slightly

Going the other way Dave Kitson is available.....

I wouldn't go holding your breath as regards quality signings.

DC 'we have been running over budget this season and will try to get things back in line financially'

Now that doesn't sound too promising to me as regards squad strengthening!!!

The money from the play off semis,tv money,wembley money does not seem to be going into an increased playing budget next season.

I can't see many people queuing to get season tickets on the back of this news.

Are we saying we needed to get to wembley just to balance the books!!!

I put £20 at 14/1 on skybet on Boothroyd to join us 1.5 years ago, and within seconds the odds were cut to 5/1. It is entirely formula driven and responds to money put on - there isn't a bookie behind it with a stubby pencil, scratching his chin....

Mercenary. Nasty, detestable, lazy & ginger. No thanks.

What do you want him to say?

"Yes, we made a bucket load of cash from the play offs, so Mr Agent why don't you double the amount you were going to ask for in our negotiations, because we can afford it!..... Loadsamoney!!!!"

Shoey is the sort of bellrash that want us to overspend to get quality players and then when it isn't sustainable he is the sort of bloke that will be the first to moan that the chairman has mis managed the finances.

Of course we are in a good place regarding money/wages but like the previous poster said, we're hardly going to scream from the rooftops.

I will hold you to that Neil come the first day of the new season.

I think that despite the cash windfall we will replace our free transfer strikers with other free transfer strikers of a lesser ilk.

I do not think that we will be kicking on by purchasing a desperately needed goalscorer currently under contract from another club.

I am only going on the form of the last half a dozen seasons.

Neil the chairman has said we are going to balance the books because we are over budget.

Unless you think he is lying that means a reduction in budget does it not.

I don't think I'm misreading that am i?

What money are you putting on him leaving us soon?

I'm not concerned about us not shelling out on transfer fees. Everyone knows its all about the wages you pay at this level as players only usually have one or two year deals then look for the biggest pay packet. We got widdowson And Hackett on frees, fleetwood paid 300k for jamille Matt, hadn't turned out wellso far for them. If we pay the wages we will get the players no doubt

i would like to see some experience come into that squad. just looking at some of the payers that have been released there are some decent ones at this level. controversial i know but Luke McCormick  :-X and Peter Leven would be the sort of plays that would come into mind and at a good age.

McCormick has resigned for Plymouth Argyle hasn't he?

I wouldn't worry about the goalkeeping position to be honest. Nicholls won't come back (no benefits to either the player or Wigan, might even end up on their bench next season in the Championship) and I'm lead to believe we have already agreed to resign Matt Duke. Snedker looks a more than able number 2 whilst he's developing.

£0.00 - but you can't win 'em all.

I don't agree with the lazy having seen him recently at Pompey, aside from that he scores goals and puts himself about, perfect...   ;)
.....but probably wouldn't come down to our level.

Pompey's fans hated him, because he isn't very good and gets paid far too much. I happened to see him return to Fratton Park with Sheffield United and he wasn't very good that day either, I remember him being subbed off.

Isn't Kitson the player that many consider to be the "secret footballer". Known to be a well spoken and thoghtful guy no wonder he stands out in football lol.

Good source? Would have expected us to get an answer on Nicholls first (maybe we have already).

When Dave Kitson was at Cambs utd many seasons ago his talent was spotted by NTFC and folklore has it the Manager of the time told CUFC that they liked thier ginger striker and would be willing to pay 50k. The deal was struck and
The very next day Cambs Utd other ginger striker Tom Youngs was unveiled as our new signing!  :-[

Bye Bayo :(

How on earth will the club survive now ::)

daRealAAkinfenwa‏@daRealAkinfenwa3m
I did not chose to leave Northampton but I whole heartily wish Northampton fc all the very best in the future major luv #BMO

Hopefully he saw Rene Howe on his way out...

Nope, but he did bump into Paul Benson.

I did wonder how long it would be before someone mentioned him....

what makes everyone think were singing benson? any reliable source or info?

I hope not, to be honest. I know Charlton and Swindon fans who really don't rate him, and he's 33.

who gets the feeling another p.e. teach aka steve guinan is gunna be signing! will be trully gutted if so!

Not old enough.

We needed some singers on Saturday...  :P

thats what im on about deepcut ;) i think that should be our first priority !

That, my friend is precisely on what I base my opinion. Ask any Pompey fan who was the biggest scumbag to wear the star and crescent in recent times and I'd wager the answer would either be Ben Haim or Kitson.

I'm gonna throw Liam D*ckinsons name into the mix. Big striker, and recovering from an injury ... seems to tick the boxes!

That's not a bad call but here's one which could happen bizarre though it may seem.

I was told that we enquired last season about a certain ex Southend hothead and that AB is a big fan and had been down to hold talks with a view to signing.

As one cult hero leaves could another arrive??

Can we tame him and keep him on the pitch??

Undoubtedly talented but undoubtedly mad ;D

Weren't we linked with Moshni last summer for a bit?

He's been on trial at several clubs but in the end they all said "no thanks". He went back to SOuthend but I think they finally gave up and released him. No idea where he is now, if anywhere. Talented he certainly is, but also a grade "A" nutter.

Moshni? Can you imagine him sharing a room with Demontagnac? Trouble waiting to happen...

Love to sign him.

by any chance anthony grant up for free by stevenage shoemaker?

I would like Leon Clarke playing for us

Personally, I think we should move the talk of strikers we'd like to have into its own thread, something I tried to do yesterday...

Then this thread can be used for actual rumours!

Has anyone got any?

http://www.football-rumours.co.uk/NorthamptonTown.php

I'm waiting for all of the rumours sourced from this infamous website  ;D

I know ADB really rates Jamie Cureton...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22595404

I know he's 37 but perhaps worth a short term deal until Nicholls returns...

According to that ridiculous website we're supposed to be signing 'Nhaki Wells' from Bradford - must be Nahki Wells' brother or something...

Also Akinfenwa is supposedly signing for Walsall/Rotherham/MK Dons after telling ADB he wanted to play League One football (which is obviously bollocks as he said he didn't want to go).

Oh and Widdowson + Hackett are supposed to be signing for Walsall as well...

P.S. - A genuine rumour (in the chron article about the retained list) is that Nana is close to moving to Yeovil Town.

Interesting you mention Rotherham - I wonder if an agreement wasn't reached months ago for Bayo to go there and Odejayi, who they've released, to come here. Already signed once by Aidy for Colchester.

Not sure if this is a rumour. I'm pretty convinced Nana tweeted that he was signing there next season and also posted a photograph of himself at their play-off final from within in the Yeovil end.

Really hope not, Odejayi has a woeful goalscoring record for a striker

That doesn't matter. He may be another massively 'underrated' footballer that other players love losing with..er I mean playing with.

Sure i'd already read that we'd agreed a deal with a left winger from Hartlepools? His name escapes me though.

i may be wrong in thinking this, but I have it in my head that Alex Nicholls hadn't the most impressive strike record when we signed him and he was doing ok  :)

nicholls was a foward out wide not an immobile cf.

this guy is truley awful and a running joke amoungst my friends.

Evan Horwood? Released from Hartlepool, Left Back/Midfield.

I'm not recommending Odejayi - just trying to work out what the truth might be behind the rumour. That said, I've seen him play for both Colchester and Cheltenham and he looked pretty effective on both occasions. I accept though that two games isn't much evidence to go on.

Seeing as there doesn't appear to be much flying about in the way of actual rumours, I'm just going to list a bunch of strikers available on a free transfer.

Carlton Cole
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
Rene Howe
Mathieu Manset
Calvin Zola (Has been offered terms by Burton)
Marvin Morgan
Akpo Sodje
Colin Nish

Out of those I wouldn't mind any of the top 5, but I appreciate the first two might be a bit expensive :D

Aside from that, I'd love us to sign Hazma Bencherif. Remember him being Macclesfield's best player by far when they were still in League 2, just released by Notts County and miles better than Harding. Probably the defensively minded midfielder we need.

Barry Corr from Southend is out of contract I think?

Zola - no thanks , Turned us down once and has never played two good games in a row in his life.
Corr - Please no
Manset - Dream on
Howe - i would take
Hamza bs- always liked him

Never gonna happen but Maghoma from burton would be a dream come true.

I'd say Manset is a pretty realistic signing, given he recently got released by Carlisle after whatever trouble it was he got into at Sion.

You're right about Maghoma though, would be exactly the left winger who'd propel us to automatic promotion with Hackett but Rowett seems to believe that he's headed for League 1 or possibly the Championship, and with his record I'm not surprised! Looks far too good for League 2!

Evan Horwood, that's him, ta.
Of the strikers listed above, i'd take Marvin Morgan, even if he is a bit of a knob.

The same Morgan who spends all of his time promoting his Fresh Ego range of clothing?
He should fit in a treat.  ;D

(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/64422_512106642160481_531653141_n.jpg)

More a left back than left midfielder, would hope for somebody better

IF Horwood is a target, perhaps its as a plan b, incase Collins leaves.

Maghoma is quality but no chance of us getting him. Not interested in any of the other (realistic) strikers touted. Cole or Ebanks-Blake? No chance. Also I hate Marvin Morgan, ever since he "gunned down" the North Stand. Cock.

Manset is still pretty unproven. He may have torn us apart in that 4-3 reverse, but not sure what else he has done. A bit of a gamble, but there are worse options.

Isn't Bensherif a laughing stock nowadays?

How about Enoch Showunmi? Seems to be wanted by a lot of fans who keep chanting his name.

Personally wouldn't be amazed to see us linked with Craig Beattie in our search for a striker, released by Barnet a couple of days ago.

Has been a journeyman over the past few years but prior to that he's been an effective player at a far higher level than League 2.

Was only at Barnet to try and regain some match-fitness, so wouldn't read too much into that.  Could see him bullying League 2 defences if he finds his feet and fitness.

I wouldn't take the "gunning down" celebration to heart, it had more to do with the nickname of the club he had just scored for. I'd imagine, unless Moyo and Toney are gonna be given chances, we'll be looking for around 4 forwards.....
And the Horwood thing was tweeted a month or so back by thier local journo, if memory serves.

Ebanks-Blake has a broken leg and damaged ankle ligaments.

I'm bored of seeing these old lazy journey men rocking up at our club.

Go out and find a new hot prospect Aidy. I dare you...

I'd have thought that would mean other teams wouldn't go near him with a barge pole, at least until January. 15 goals in a relegated side is great going given Bayo got 16. I'd rate our chances at about 1% but you can't rule it out. Wouldn't expect him to be signed straight away with his injury, if we wait until near transfer deadline then you never know, he might be getting worried that nobody will sign him and he'll end up like Aliadiere (unemployed for a year). Don't forget that we got Gabor Gypes when he was recovering from an injury, and it was clear he was too good for us, made a nice quick profit on him, could do the same with Ebanks-Blake with a bit of luck.

Obviously we have a 1% chance but nobody quite knows how much Bayo was on, combined with all the other releases and the Wembley money, not to mention if we sell Hornby in the summer...

If Bayo was on around £30,000 a week, then yes, we may sign Ebanks-Blake. Sadly, we're closer to the 0% mark of signing someone like him ...

Well if all of our experts are to be believed ( ::)), we have just saved ourselves about eight grand a week just by shelving Bayo, Robinson and Turnbull. So combine this with the Wembley money and there should be plenty in the kitty to bring in some real quality... SHOULD BE >:D

I wouldn't have thought Ebanks-Blake would be on that much, but sadly you're right about the percentage :(

But then everyone on here would moan that he didn't cost any money and only has played three games and scored one goal. So by default he must be crap.  :o Still what's new  ;)

Well, there are three once-good bench-warming CFs up the road: Izale McLeod, Alan Smith and Ryan Lowe....?!

Lights blue touch paper, runs for cover....

Go on then I`l throw this one in the hat,on Wednesday I followed an Aston Martin Rapide along the a45 to the Sainsbury roundabout then on to sixfields roundabout where it turned right into the sixfields area, reg no 99VS.Any ideas  ???

Richard Branson.  VS is the Virgin IATA code.

I saw that on the thursday. Couldnt see who was driving though.

a player with plenty of money if hes got an aston martin! id like to see us gamble on andre gray of luton, hes meant to be the real deal!!!! next dwight gayle?

Vinny Samways?  ;)

Probably someone from Elite motor tune out on test drive. They are based down St James Mill Road, a quick burn down Walter Tull Way.  ;)

Is he the Full-back? If so, I concur. Watched him at the back end of last season v fleetwood and he was awesome. Surprised he's still at Luton.

Every time a transfer window opens we get one of these 'rumour' threads, and every time we get the overwhelming majority of people failing to understand what a rumour is.

Hint 'I would like us to sign...' is not a rumour.

I heard that one of our season ticket holders wanted a transfer from the north stand to the west stand.

Lets face it, we're not really in the ball park for a marquee, fee based signing of a proven goal scorer. We're more in the market for picking up a freebie and hoping they come good. Thing is, we don't have a great record at that. Okay, Nichols potentially was such a case and might still be. Arguably, ROD could be a good one but not quite so prolific. But for every ROD and Nichols, we've signed a dozen Harrads, Platts and Constantines!

Proven scoters at this level are few and far between. Pope may turn out to be another Tubbs for example; looks great for a season but steps up a level and doesn't look quite so good. If we are going to splash big cash, the player needs to be able to cut it at L1 too and so the market shrinks again. You can kind of see why loans then become an attractive proposition, they cut out the risk.

Personally, I'm amazed me put platt on anything more than a rolling one year contract but there you go.

It will be interesting to see what happens if Cameron signs. If Langers returns as skipper surely he and Cameron are the preferred pairing? What then for Carlisle? I think we need Cameron's pace. Carlisle is a good organiser but surely that will be Lamgers job as skipper? Or will ADB accommodate all three?  I wouldn't want us going at three centre backs and building a style around that as we're knocked if one of the trio gets injured. We either have to stick Tozer in as a filler or change the style.

I would also like to add it is this fecking iPhone and not me that is responsible for my spelling mistakes!

I really hope that was a joke, selling now for the prospect of a 5% chance of bringing in someone on a high wage is ridiculous.

Problem solved :)

Jamie cureton is name going round we may sign to but is 37, according to twitter he hasn't signed a deal with Exeter yet

I think he'll be sold at some point next season, but I'm not really being serious about Ebanks-Blake as I think Ipswich are interested :D

Give it another couple of years and we might be interested in giving him a long term deal.

Leo Fortune-West

Is that our 'extra finance' source?

WTF was he doing at Barnet?? I saw him play for Hearts last season and he was awesome. Turned down a new deal with them and ended up at Barnet, he's had a bit of a mare there.

No, he's a striker. Their full-backs last season I think were Jake Howells and Curtis Osano (ex-Diamonds). If Andre Gray is under contract then we won't be able to afford him.

I'll throw a name in the hat. John Frendo at Hitchin in the Southern League Premier. Big strong targetman who scored 44 goals in 48 games this season, and has 103 in 123 since he signed for them. That's the sort of player we should be looking at.

http://www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com/southern-league-step-four/5897/top-field-is-home-from-home-for-ace-frendo/

Sounds like a similar player to Damien Reeves......can't understand why nobody takes a punt on players like these!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/damian-reeves-proves-good-goals-1766884

44 goals in 2011/12 and 41 in 2012/13, I like the bit in the aobve report about being available on a free if he agrees terms with a league club!

That's really weird about John Frendo being mentioned, was talking to a work colleague today who follows Hitchin and he was Los mentioning that he had he best goal scoring record in non league and could make it at a higher level.
It's about time we looked a taking a chance on bringing someone through from Non league, Boro seem very good at it

Ignore that one. Just checking to see if I could pick any bargains up in the clubshop.

It's always a risk. Lewis Wilson was scoring a few at that level, and I remember Bradford took a punt on someone from the BSN/BSS tier who was breaking-records down there - he ended up scoring something like 4 in a year for them.

That would be Ross Hannah I think.  He came from Matlock Town - he is now at Grimsby.

James Hanson of course came from non-league circles.  He for me played like we would have loved Platt to.

Although not so much in other positions at this level I still believe where strikers are concerned you do get what you pay for.

You mean take a gamble on non league players like Courtney Hebert and Lewis Wilson? They didn't work out did they?

Let's be honest.
after that load of Cr@p at Wembley
who will want to sign



DOOMED
on hold till the free transfer leftovers are signed.

alright my lovers :-* :-* :-* :-*

Your right, it didn't work for those two, so lets never ever try that again...!

Missed you babe. :-*

You mean Courtney Herbert, an unproven teenager who had scored a handful of goals in the UCL Premier, and Lewis Wilson, an unproven teenager already rejected by a professional club of lesser standing, who had literally scored just a handful of goals in the UCL Premier.

The difference is Frendo and Reeves are men, proven goalscorers who have consistently done it at a far higher level and standard than the UCL Premier.

Exactly.

At present we have Platt and Hackett and o'Donovan, Nicholls will remain a doubt in my mind with no pre-season it would be unfair to expect him to step back in the team possibly midway through the season and start banging in goals. Mayo and Diaz have no real first team xperience

I've seen Frendo play a lot over the last 3 years - probably 30 odd times. His goal scoring record speaks for itself. He is a natural finisher and has scored some amazing goals for the Canaries. I would go as far as to say one of the most natural finishers I've ever seen at non league level. However there are three main issues with Frendo. His work rate is poor and at FL level he will not get the time and space on the ball he gets now. Secondly, our style of play will never suit him. He is not great in the air but needs the ball to feet in and around the box - perversely that is exactly the way that Hitchin play. Finally his disciplinary record is shocking. Guaranteed to get a couple of red cards a season on top of bans for totting up.

Agree in principle we should look in the lower leagues but JF is not your man I'm afraid

Welcome back, buddy ;D

It's almost that time in the year when we have the who spotted who slipping into Sixfields or filling up at a petrol station somewhere near Northampton!!

But there's a difference between taking a punt on lads in the local leagues, and spending hundreds of thousands on the cream from the Blue Square Premier. You could argue there's potential to recoup the costs several times over (McLean, Mackail-Smith), but there's also the possibility of wasting six figure fees on players you then can't shift. Posh can afford to do that, we can't.

We can however afford free transfers like Clive platt who can link up play but struggles to score goals.

Like I say with strikers you usually get what you pay for.

Wouldn't mind seeing Guillem Bauzà back. Currently without a club and looked very impressive when he was last with us.

By the 3rd of August if Gary Mcsheffrey is not in a cobblers shirt i'll be suprised.

ADB has just said on the bbc hes going no where and he wants 2 widemen a gk and a forward

McSheffery is gd shout

Have Coventry released him? 43 appearances last season...

Yes....and two goals. Enough said.

2 Widemen?
Hackett, Demon, Dias + 2 more and Nicholls and Roy O

his words not mine  ;D

Nicholls and O'Donovan aren't widemen in the 442 sense, so i can see why he wants 2, an uprade to Demontagnac and a back up to Hackett.

It will be a hit and miss with Gary i think

 Apparently Matt Duke has basically signed for us, just keep it on the down low for now!!

I thought Dias would be Hackett's back???

Although I can understand an upgrade on Demon

Hackett will already miss pre season though and possibly the start of the season from what i gather. Bit unfair to ask Dias to fill those boots so soon if you ask me...

If he's been given a professional contract then he should surely be good enough to play in the first team, while he might not be Hackett mark II surely better to give the lad a chance. I'm sure nobody would complain if Hornby was asked to fill in for Harding for a long period of time

Not now, but a year ago they would have done.

2 wide men? Can't see us off loading Demontagnac, so i'd guess that adds further fuel to the Hackett to Oxford rumour :(

[/b]

More likely you would see people complaining that Harding is playing over Hornby now.
Honestly can't see Hackett leaving either. Aidy knows he's often our most effective offensive player.

He's a winger. McSheffrey would be a standout player at this level. Him on the left, Hackett on the right. That would be frightening.

That's what everyone said about Platt ::)

And your idea of 'keeping it on the down low' is by posting it on a public forum?

Anyway, watched Damian Reeves when he played against Corby in February and didn't think much of him

Even lazier when the youth of today can't be arsed to reply properly without it looking like a quote

Next time you write a blog, you won't be getting a shout out from me.

Can we have a seperate thread for peoples wish lists and one for a non-league striker round up for that matter. This thread is supposed to be for genuine rumours. The only one I've seen so far is that Matt Duke is going to/has signed.

Harding should never have been offered a new contract! He isn't good enough and gives the ball away too much.

McSheffrey would be a great signing and Cureton would be excellent short term option, but is that what we need?

I really hope they go no where near Izale Mcleod, he is an overpaid waste of space! On decent money at MK Dons.

 :-*

I hope we don't sign Izale Mcleod but wouldn't mind Cureton for his experience

On the McSheffery rumour, He was at wembley. Read into that what you want.

Well if he was there, there'd be no chance in hell of him wanting sign for us..

He would be a very good signing at this level.

I have heard tonight that matt duke and Gary mcsheffrey have agreed to sign.
Mcsheffrey is sorting out a compensation payoff with cov and will sign early next week.

Also heard we are close to signing marlon harewood as bayos replacement.

I suppose he hasn't learned that signing old non-scoring 'Championship' strikers isn't really a great policy...

I heard that Shoey has heard nothing.

Pardon Neil.

According to the comments here,  (http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/garry-mcsheffrey-hints-hes-leaving-3311791) McSheffrey is much better up front or as an attacking central midfielder than he is on the left wing. I think he'd be a good signing though, and at 30 he should still have plenty to contribute.

Harewood would be a massive mistake IMO and we would be back to square one in terms of having two big old, immobile strikers.

So if Harewood isn't the answer, in your opinion who is? 

Answer to us needing a target man?Adebayo Afinfenkwa

Do we need a target man?

Rene Howe would be my choice. And yes, I do think you need a striker with a physical presence in this division. If you look at the promoted teams, they all had a big strong targetman: Hanson, Odejayi, Pope etc.

The departure of Bayo will only make sense if we sign someone with power, pace and mobility to replace him. Otherwise we'll simply be replacing the best immobile targetman in the division with an inferior model.

AB will play with a target man.  He always prefers to play with 2 fast wide men and you need a big forward on the end of crosses, preferably a mobile one and that is where Bayo came up short and, for that matter, so does Platt.

We discuss target men as if One of Aidys tactics is to aim the ball at them. It's all about the space remember!

Just asking the question. Would Howe be the answer? Looking at his states It doesn't suggest he would. Of course ADB may change tacked and play a different style after all he has had a good clear out of players he didn't see would take the team forward.

Stats? Howe scored 16 goals last year for a struggling side, roughly the same as Akinfenwa. That's good enough for me.

16 goals? That's good enough for you?  :P

Also heard about Matt Duke signing on  :)

Duke would be a good signing, was a shame he had to go back to Bradford but if he had stayed here I expect we wouldn't have had Nicholls this season, so it's all swings and roundabouts really.

McSheffrey is better in an attacking midfield position if FIFA 13 is anything to go by... (it probably isn't)

Rene Howe, a 26 year old who has a decent scoring record in this division, is a far better option than a 33 year old who hasn't had a decent record for about 6 years.

Forward thinking.

Would be a big shame for me if Lee Nicholls didn't come back next year. While you can understand a parent club wanting to test their young players at a higher level, I don't think this really applies to goalkeepers, which is a pretty solitary position and they would be doing the same things whatever level they play at, so for Wigan I don't think it would be a bad thing to send him here again, a place where he would definitely be number one, a place he seems settled and somewhere with a highly respected goalkeeping coach.
While Duke is a solid enough league goalkeeper, Nicholls already is a quality keeper and would be a huge loss for me.

I heard Duke was at Wembley, read into that what you will.

Cobblers Summer Rumours starting 11.
(To date, subject to change)

Duke.
Collins Langmead Cameron Widdowson.
Hacket Guttridge Hornby O'Donovan.
Howe McSheffery.

 ;D

I don't think there is any need to panic on the striker front. I have spent the morning playing FIFA with Alex Nicholls and Roy O up front. Works a treat.

 ;D

Jaques Maghoma is out of contract at Burton, Aidy would be a fool not to make an approach.

I have spent the morning playing Subbuteo and unfortunately Alex Nicholls is still broken!

He'd be a fool to think he'd like to stay in league 2

No chance

If real football worked like FIFA then Lewis Young, Courtney Herbert and Chris Arthur would all still be at the club...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22660681?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Budget-cut. Time for the flapping and the moaning to begin.

Its fairly obvious that the wages of Artell, Turnbull, Carlise , Akinfenwa , Johnson, Moult and Robinson could be spent better.

If Aidy is shrewd with his signings, then I imagine Ishmel and Platt will be the only two that don't represent great value for money (assuming they are on big wages).

All that said, I feel its a bad PR move to come out and say the budget is going to be reduced as many Numpties wont understand that we will probably still end up with a better squad.

Carlise , Bayo and maybe Robinson were the only players in the above list to really play a role last season.

Sounds very sensible to me. GJ spent too much on inconsitent, unreliable players (which makes his achievements elsewhere all the more baffling). We've finally got the stage where AB can fashion his own squad and we can become a leaner outfit.

Platt and Ish have their detractors, but I actually think both could play their part next season (although certainly not in the first choice 11).

I also like the sound of this:

"If anything the fans will look at one or two of our signings and think they're really exciting."

McSheffrey would just about come under the 'exciting' bracket for me, as would Howe. 

"If anything the fans will look at one or two of our signings and think they're really exciting." I wait with bated breath ;D

Certainly giving us the bad news all in one shot, probably a good shout to be fair. It allows the more logically challenged supporters to be happy when we do make some signings.

Would imagine DC would include Duke as one.

Surely the most important point there was that our budget will again be in the divisions top 7, AB wouldn't even been to overachieve and we will be in the playoffs again.

As long as we can get rid of Artell then I don't think the 'budget cut' will have too much impact. I don't imagine that someone like Howe would be on the same wages as Bayo was, and I'd argue he is of equal quality and in some ways is probably better (mobility).

The only 'big earner' I can see us signing this summer is McSheffrey, and I don't think even he would be on higher wages than Bayo or CC (assuming that Nana wasn't actually our biggest earner :D)

McSheffrey is an ex-championship player, I'd imagine he'd count as exciting. Duke less so - even though he looked solid for us when we had him last, he's been here before, it's not exciting is it?

McSheffrey + Duke both sound the most likely they're pretty certain (Though we were all certain of Gareth Williams when GJ was here, weren't we?). Not heard anything about Howe.

If we got those two in, I guess we need one more defender, one more winger and possibly one more striker and one more centre-midfielder depending on whether AB think Hornby's ready to be first team week-in week-out for us. McSheffrey would be on money if he came, so I wouldn't expect us to spend too much on the others.

Completely agree but I think what fans think is an exciting signing and what the chairman might like to believe as an exciting signing may well differ.

Surely Artell is out of contract?  Not exactly encouraging or motivating news from DC that the budget is being reduced.  Makes you wonder where we would be if we hadn't reached the play-offs.  With gate money, Sky money, shop sales and Wembley it must have been worth minimum £250,000.

It certainly does seem strange timing...after the Wembley 'bonus' and with the development news around a week ago (DC's words 3 weeks ago or so that they were around 4 weeks from making an announcement)

My concern is that we will have a cracking first X1 but not the strength in depth required to sustain a top 3 challenge over the course of 46 plus matches. We will see, Im still cautiously optimistic about next season though.

He signed a 2 year contract

Artell on a 2 years contract - if that is the case this is not very clever, as is DC announcing a budget cut a week after a Wembley PR disaster.  If we are making a "big" signing or two we need to be shouting it from the rooftops  and not making negative comments or media statements that will be interpreted as negative.  This is basic stuff snd DC should know better by now.

You are right in saying that this has been interpreted as negative by a fair few fans and that it was a pretty poor time to do it. However, in my eyes he has merely done it to try to manage expectations ahead of next season where many of the fans I know have already said if we don't go up in the top three it will have been a poor season.

Aside from that, I'm not sure how much of an impact it will actually have on us. Bayo, Carlisle, Robinson et al leaving has given us a good chunk of money to spend on wages and I don't foresee anyone coming in on the kind of wages that Bayo was on. If only we could get Platt of the wage bill...

I'm not surprised the budget is being cut. We need to reduce the clubs output after a very unsuccessful season.... Just think how much the club must of lost after only getting to Wembley ::)

What ever did happen to Jacobs fee? Hopefully we spent it on Platt.

Who sees the signing of a goalkeeper as exciting? I certainly won't be blowing my load regardless of which keeper we sign.

"Thankfully we got to the play-off final and made some money back - not as much as people think, but that's sort of paid back what we spent," said Cardoza, who took ownership of the Sixfields club in 2002.

If we didn't mess around getting fancy suits made and staying in 4 star hotels maybe we would of made a bit of money?

How stupid must we of looked after the game when our players were all in their custom fitted suits and Bradfords were walking around in their training gear after absolutely embarrassing us on the pitch?

Would he ??? :-[

if the McSheffrey rumours are true then that would be a huge coop. He will be another "championship quality player" who has 2 good feet, an eye for goals, and can play in a few different positions. If 2 seasons ago, we could see our squad/potential squad, we wouldnt have believed it. On paper, surely one the strongest squads in the division.

MK-do you want me to define the word 'positive'?....life is so much more fun with a positive attitude!

In DC and AB we trust!

MK - do you want me to define the word 'twat'?

You do define it pal!!

It's not surprising the DC wants to cut the budget. Tony Cardoza splashed the cash when he arrived but since he took a step back to install his son as Chairman over 5 years ago there's been no extra investment and the club has broke even each year. Don't forget that whilst DC is chairman it's TC that's the overwhelming major shareholder and it's his decisions that determine the future of the club.
I dont know how anyone knows the budgets of each league 2 team as the clubs are small enough concerns to not have to reveal any of these details and they are closely guarded secrets. If they are choosing a random figure of top 7 for spending you've got to assume they think we are the seventh highest spenders otherwise they would say top 6, 5 or 4.
I dont have a problem with being a club that watches the cash but if that's the case we've got to appreciate on money terms we are a club fighting for that last play off spot rather than shoe-ins for promotion.

Do people really think that the club splashed out on the Wembley suits? I bet at most they paid cost. It was an advertising campaign for House of Fraser. The club would have paid no more than £100 a suit if they weren't supplied free.

As for DC saying money is tight, is that not what you do when you are trying to buy something? What do you expect him to say? "Look at us we got LOADSAMONEY".

I did think that. I tend to take these sort of statements with a pinch of salt. The proof will be in the pudding when we line up in August...anyone with brains will be able to work out whether we have a better team and squad than that which finished the season off. And that surely must be the aim!

I think the point is going and getting measured for a suit as if it was the FA cup final, we was at Wembley because we failed. I was surprised AB let it happen tbh . Dare I  say he was lent on for ticket publicity.

What a load of bollocks. It was the suits fault!!!!

No ,but a lot of people seem to think that you don't just rock up to wembley for a game on live tv and hope for the best , most people with a reasonable level of intellect realise that the preparation has got to be right otherwise players can freeze on the day. Take for example the first 30 minutes of Northampton v bradford last week.

stop taking about the budget this is about tranfers rumours

It is traditional for players to wear suits at Wembley you fool

You do realise it wasn't the FA cup final.

Bradford wore their track suits.

Not that this was a deciding factor by the way.

No need to apologise honest.

You do realise it wasn't the FA cup final.

Yes

Bradford wore their track suits.

Their choice

Not that this was a deciding factor by the way.

Glad you agree

No need to apologise honest.

I didn't ask you to apologise

If they (Bradford) want to lower the tone of the occasion by dressing down that's their decision. If we are going to lose we might as well do it in style - which of course we did ::)

But etiquette would suggest an apology as you you said tradition and it wasn't, its ok I don't want one now.

I personally think we should have treated it as a normal game as much as you could ie no BBC cameras watching you get fitted up in a suit . It's all futile now anyway I will discuss if you wish but lets Live and learn move on next season please.

Well nobody is talking but budgets ... just suits!!!

We froze, apparently, as the occasion was to big for us, maybe we were the architects of our own downfall, by "bigging up" the occasion, that's what ya man is tying to say.

Well it's 11 more than Platt scored... ::)

Exactly. He's got burnt like that before - witness us paying over the odds for Josh Low etc. Agents we're negotiating with will probably have seen the Wembley run and think 'great, I'll add a few £s to our demands'.

Reducing the playing budget is entirely sensible given that we've been carrying quite a few non-playing high earners and the squad arguably needs tweaks rather than major surgery.

It can be spun whichever way you like but it hardly seems that getting to wembley will help us to kick on.

No doubt some were hoping that going to wembley would be a launch pad for the club next season,like many other times it is another false dawn.

I find it hard to realise under what conditions the club COULD move forward under the current set up.

Ah yes.....the redevelopment ::)

Where has this Rene Howe rumour come from?

He's left Torquay; he is from Bedford; he has played for nearly every local team except us; he is a big unit like the departed Bayo.

So in other words putting two and two together and coming up with ten.

That's why this is the "rumours" thread.

You can spell your name Jill or Gill. You don't use both initial letters. But considering you seem to think we lost because we bought suits, why don't you spell it PJgill. The P, of course being silent.

I have absolutely no idea what your on about, congratulations for managing to get through a whole sentence without mindless abuse though. At least I don't think it's abuse. Well done.

Can't see ADB signing another "target man". He has one! A player in the Alex Nicholls moud is what we are crying out for.

Have I got this wrong? I thought you were blaming the suits for the loss. What you're really saying is we won't be able to afford a 25 goals a season striker because we bought the suits. Yeah?

PS I don't do 'mindless abuse', I just tell the truth.

says cricketside

We have Alex Nicholls and hopefully Roy O'Donovan. Id say we are more in need of a target man

I have my doubts over Nicholls. cant see him coming back anytime before jan/feb next year.

Yeah, from what I recall when Platt came in, he was always going to be Bayo's replacment, AB simply couldn't get rid of Bayo last year when he wanted too (which I guess is probably why we're overbudget, I guess the wages wouldn't be that different). I would be surprised if he went for another target-man.

              I think he could do a good job for us, he must be ideal to play with O'donovan.

I would assume AB will go for the players he didn't get last year but made positive enquiries for,  this being the case you can add Anthony Griffin (Orient, ex PV),  John Joe O Toole (Col U) and Constable from Oxford. 

With regards to cutting the budget,  clearly it will be cut from what it was at the end of the season not the start.

Wilson, Moult and Turnbull have already been replaced from within by Hornby, Moyo and Dias

We were still paying Higgs and Nana who offered no value on the pitch but took an element of the budget.

That leaves Lee Nicholls,  Johnson, Bayo, CC, Robinson  ......... Replace them 5 (4 of which are  in the high earner bracket),  and you have still managed to cut the budget and the squad size without actually affecting the quality of the squad.

You would also assume that Artell will be gone come the end of August.

All in all,  anybody who expects DC to shout from the roof tops that we are flush with cash is a bit naïve IMHO.

I hope you are right Alfred.

We will see what the team looks like in August.

So in other words a rumour, as this is how newspapers get their stuff, seeing a player who is available (Rooney/Howe) and taking a random club who might want and be able to afford them (Arsenal/Northampton).

A rumour doesn't need to be true to be a rumour, nor does it even need any substance. When I created the rumour about McSheffrey up on page 1 of this thread I only based it upon past activity (a tangential link at best) and yet it is now being assumed as certainty that we're signing him!

A rumour is even stronger, when it comes from more than one source though.  :)

http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threads/31108-McSheffery-to-Northampton

Most football agents are signed up members of many football club forums, just to put out the rumours to fan the flames to get the interest started. Gonzales must be representing Mcsheffery perhaps?

Damnit! I've been found out!  >:(

Still, at the rate we're going if Coventry were to go out of business we might gain ourselves some more fans...

From what I saw last season, I really hope we don't go back in for Constable. Wouldn't mind Anthony Griffith though, we haven't really had a big strong presence in the Centre of the park since Abdul Osman was bizarrely released.

missed ya loads.....

love ya :-*

Anthony Griffin is exactly the type of player we need. That would be one hell of a signing!!!

He's called Griffiths isn't he? He and O'Toole would be great signings.

Both would be excellent signings but unlikely. ADB has already offered contracts to Harding and guts so I guess he has almost made up is mind. I believe o toole and griffiths both have one year left on there deals.

Amine Linganzi seems to be available and could do a similar job.

Word on the street
Hornby being chased by prem clubs
Tozer talking to championship club
Gutts considering offer
Harding offer not what expected
Luton interested in Jonno
Several goalkeepers spoken to, Bunn being Fav
Franny Jeffers a possibility

In our dreams ;D ;D ;D ;D

Apart from that one and Jeffers, who has been set to join us for the same amount of time that Darius Vassell has, the others wouldn't be that surprising.

Nothing to do with Cobblers but Billy Sharp (ex Rushden) has joined Accrington Stanley on loan for the 2013/14 season.

He will score hatfuls in this s h i t e  league

He will score hatfuls in this s h i t e  league

This is an honest question. Is the 4th Division now worse than the 4th Division was? In your opinion, of course. When did it change from good to bad? Thanks.

The same Bunn that played 20+ games in the Prem. Yeah, ok.
Unless you meant Dunn.....

I think you will find it is a wind up re Sharp!

I think you will find that was a wind up by Billy Sharp himself

Hey! It's been a real s***e month... please, God, don't go making it any worse!

In all seriousness, we could do a damn sight worse than Chris Dunn, and that is a fact.

Shame collis is coaching

Looking on the PFA website, I actually had no idea how many players are really available. Bunn is sadly not one of them. Duke is not on there either but he's out of contract I believe, but other experienced keepers who may drop down included Carlo Nash, Nicky Weaver and perhaps Jan Mucha (unlikely), but I would have thought Duke would be very likely.

There are a crap ton of strikers available too, and the one that stands out for me aside from Howe is Davide Somma from Leeds. He burst onto the scene a few years ago in the Championship but has been really unlucky with injuries and has missed about 18 months, apparently he is being invited to Leeds' pre season training but I don't see them retaining him, I think he'd be worth a punt, 6'3 and can score goals, I remember the last injury prone scorer we signed turned out to be quite a success...

But of course unlikely, just saying :D

For reference: http://www.thepfa.com/transferlist

Duke is probably not on the list as traditionally contracts run until 30th June. Try looking at the list again in July

Johno ...who cares
Tozer ...championship?what as a tea boy! Like him but no chance
Jeffers...why would we want him
Gutts...considering offer! Well we ve offered him a contract im sure its a manitory process he has to go through!
Harding....whats that mean lower wages? Or just was expecting one at all after his recent form
Hornby..sure hes had lot of clubs looking at him but hes got lot to learn and prove he can consistantly perform. Personally i think he will end up in championship! Going for about 300k due to our history at selling players cheap!

Left winger
Goal keeper
Passing mid
15+ striker
Our contract offers is what we need to hear about

Hamza Bencherif  :-X

The four targets adb tried to sign when he first took over were.
Clarke Carlisle.
Chris Hackett.
Jon Parkin.
Hameur bouazza.

I wouldn't be surprised if we try to sign the latter again.

It's probably more to do with the fact that Bradford haven't actually announced who they're releasing, a lot of players are on there whose contracts are running out as from now they are essentially free agents.

I've had a friend mention Isaac Osbourne earlier today. Seemed unlikely, but apparently wants to live nearer to birmingham:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22534625

Rory Fallon as a replacement for Bayo? Not got a great scoring record as he's more of a target man, but the goals he does score are often spectacular and he's spent almost all of his career so far at a higher level than this one. Looking to move back down to England apparently having been in Scotland for a couple of years.

I hope you're f***ing joking? :o

I read somewhere that Duke is out of contract - had he played another game for Bradford he would have got an extension automatically.

heard that Tozer has had talks with sheff weds, also bournemouth are sniffing around.
He might move back down south to be closer to family?

        I don't agree with that, there are a lot better 'keepers around than him.

Are they that desperate for a long throw specialist?

Southend keen on signing Rene Howe according to their local paper, it's a little bit of a non story though, something along the lines of 'of course we'd be interested'.

States that Plymouth, Exeter and Sheffield Utd monitoring him.

Karl Hawley would be a decent signing, had a decent season in League One last season but isn't a player that attracts much attention.

Interesting list, loads of players who I would potentially like plaking for Cobblers.

Im going to throw one name out there as played under Aidy before at Watford. Wages would be a massive stumbling block though............Heider Helguson

Kieron Dyer is due a new club.......

I don't think that's disagreeing with me, as I stated there are a lot worse.

Please not Dunn...bloke's a liability. Will never forget him throwing the ball in his own net at Burton.

You have got to be totally dense not to realise the value of someone who produces that number of assists. He can also do it in any league.

There's no doubt that he could make a
Career higher up due to his incredible long
throw. That said, he once transferred for very big money onthe back of actually football talent and he's still only 22 we would miss him for sure, but maybe we can evolve our tactics. People blamed Bayo for our long ball game but perhaps the real reason was Ben Tozer!

I think the manager maybe the real reason for our long ball game....

Waste of time when we had him on loan from Preston!

I've heard a couple of snippets tonight.

Richard Lee a possibility if Duke doesn't happen.

Steven Gillespie name mentioned as a 'rumour'.

Lee was at Watford with Boothroyd wasn't he?....

I would have thought that Gillespie is a bit short for Aidys taste, especially if ODonovan signs on as well.

Closer to family ??? His family live in Daventry don't they ???

He comes from Plymouth. His mother sat behind me at Home Park and argued with those moaning about him.

He does have some family in Daventry though, poor chap...

 ;D

Would make a lot of sense if he doesn't sign on though.

Who was the foreign striker who played in the lower leagues two or three years back.
May have been on loan from man city??
Scored a hat load in a short space of time and then went abroad as I recall.

Rumour has it we've been in talks with a foreign based ex league striker.

That's all I know.
Only one I can think of is jake jervis but I wish I could remember the other lads name

Our division?

Was league one or two.

Nippy black lad,may have been on loan from west brom?
Pretty sure he was Dutch.

Saido Berahino?

I've remembered.

Sherjill McDonald.
He did look decent now playing in America.
Can't see it being him we've spoken too.
Be very happy if it was though!!!

Anyone else know who it might be?
Pablo counago?

Sherjill MacDonald...

Well a foreign based ex Man City, ex league striker I know of is called Darius Vassell!!! :D

Sherjill Macdonald plays for Chicago Fire in the MLS.

Next.

Not to mention that his base salary is $400,000!!!

Which, when converted into GBP and divided by 52 is £5106 per week. I'd say he's just out of our price range...

If a 4th Division team played like Bayern in the CL Final last Saturday it would have been called "a long ball game", because it was Bayern it was described as "getting the ball forward quickly" ...   ::)

Spot on. "Great long accurate passes"

Here's a name that was mentioned last year alongside Hackett and O'Dono:  Jordan Stewart.  Spent the last 3 months of last season at Cov.  Although he is left sided so may need to ship out the Demon to make space.  Plus he has his own clothing brand.  ;D

Hes more of a left back, so no.
I know nobody agrees, but I reckon Demon could still be a good player for us.

Based on what ? He has some footballing ability but his attitude stinks.
Loads of yellows last season mostly for petulance when things didn't go his way.
Think he will only figure next season if Aidy doesn't bring in another decent left midfield / winger.

I admit that he is a yellow card waiting to happen. Kevin Thornton was a court case waiting to happen, yet people still want him back. I'd rather he show a bit of passion than be completely placid. I'll think you'll find that most of Demon's yellows were clumsy or rash tackles (ala Paul Scholes/Widdowson), rather than things associated with bad attictude, ie: kicking out, kicking the ball away, dissent etc (ala Rooney/Thornton).

We started to see glimpses of what he was capable of late in the season, and not only was he an attacking threat, but he did his defensive duties well too. Yes he needs to be more consistent, but who doesnt? I'm not his biggest fan by any stretch, but I can see his value in the squad if used correctly.

I think we saw the best and worst of Ishmael in the play offs. Home leg he was excellent and gave a good balance to the midfield which enables Hackett to exploit the right side. At wembley he was a passenger and have Collins behind him absolutely no chance.

I was about to post something similar on reading down this thread before reading your input...

You are spot on. Take his booking against Oxford as an example. He charged back about 50 yards and made a challenge...one for the team I remember saying at the time. His one at Bradford was an example of a 'Scholes' challenge of which there have been many!

I certainly don't buy into this 'bad attitude, lazy' etc. He almost always puts in a huge amount of effort. My issue is more with his decision making. He is perceived as being a 'dribbler' and as such usually ends up gets tackled and losing possession. For him to take on his man consistently, he needs to at least get past him on a good percentage of occasions. Last season we rarely saw him achieve that. There was very little evidence to see him excel in crossing as well, which for a wide man in that role is imperative. I would like to see him cut inside more, or perhaps even be utilised in a more central capacity. He lost his way at Walsall who saw him as being a maverick, I was expecting to see an Asamoah type player when we signed him! He's nothing of the sort, its down to Aidy to use him better in my opinion. I've certainly not given up on him...

Lewis Hornby was being tracked (and supposed bids) by a Premiership club until their manager recently left.

Glad I'm not alone. fully agree with everything you say there. He needs to channel his talent, efforts and gain some confidence. Perhaps he needs to be playing regularly in order for him to do that. Depending on who Aidy brings in, I'm not convinced he's going to get that though. As a bit part player, we probably wont ever see the best of him.

Playing with Demontagnac is like playing with ten men, always takes on one player too many, on the odd occasion he doesn't lose the ball his crossing and shooting is some of the worst I've seen from any cobblers player. it's just zero end product, I'm normally a fan of the flare player as oppossed to the hard worker but he just doesn't contribute anything positive and I wouldn't even trust him to be able to come on and change a game for the better. He might come good but for me he is so far from being a productive member of the team I would just get rid rather than put up with yet one poor performance after another.

Would we be thinking the same if he was right footed ?

My frustration with ish is that he rarely just puts his head down and turns on the after burners, use your pace man! It's ok attempting trickery etc but on sixfields pitch and most others your going to struggle to keep control of the ball. Should take inspiration from Hackett, one step over, get to the byline and cross it. Still like him though!

Ryan smith of Skoda Xanthi may well be on the radar. quick tricky winger..

I heard it was Manchester City, and that a deal had actually been done. Guess we'll find out eventually.

That would be absolutely criminal if true. the lad needs to learn the game and play regular first team football at his age. 

I'd heard them also, but just they were interested and had tracked him for a while.

I think Hornby has a brother in our youth system who is even better.

For what it's worth I think Hornby will stay.

I hope that he does.

I'd be surprised if Hornby wasn't being tracked by these big clubs with their huge scouting networks. The moment a 17 year old makes his debut in league football I'd imagine they'd flag up on their radars straight away.

Didn't they buy Huws from Swansea ?
I'm sure as he is English there will be plenty looking with the level cobblers are playing at. What he has done to date is impressive, but still loads of potential.
Will be interesting in coming weeks.

Pretty sure c***stable won't be leaving Oxford yet.

Everyone loves Beano ;-)

His name is Fraser. He played in the recent NSB U-13 team that won the National School's Cup at Chesterfield.

http://www.nsb.northants.sch.uk/?_id=2179

Side also included a lad called Glenn Middleton who we sold to Norwich City earlier on in the season. Pretty sure that one of these lads has already been signed up by Tottenham Hotspur too.

every season there are rumours of someone going to a "big" club, as far back as Roy Hunter (Wimbeldon) and Ali Gibb (Rangers). Hornby is good but I'd be amazed if Man City come in for him, but having said that, he was keeping Huws out of the side at one point. I think he's the kind of player that would more likely attract Liverpool as could see him fitting in with their attempted style of play.
Anyway I think its rubbish, and it would be a poor move for him to move now, so hopefully we can sign him up on a long term deal and see his stock rise. I do think he could play in the prem one day, but hes not there yet.

Unfortunately, sometimes if a 'big' club comes in for them they have to move when the opportunity arises, especially after a good season.  Even if it means that they don't intially get first team football and end up as reserve team fodder.
The following season they may play like a drain either: through form, style of the team play or injuries and they may miss their one opportunity for a share of the big time/bucks.
Bird in the hand........  ;)

I think I have heard it all now, Hornby to Man City. There really are some silly folk who use this board.

On a serious note... I heard Man United are tracking Harding after hearing City are in for Hornby. Moyes is of the opinion that if Hornby is of city's standard Harding must be superior after keeping him out of Northamptons side.

Demon / Ronaldo swap deal, plus a paella pan.

Not sure we'd get Ronaldo but the paella pan is tempting  :D

If Hornby goes to Man City i'll s*** in my hands and clap...

Get real people...

Never used that gag before

.............s h it s on your wrist  ;D

....daggers from your missus... ;D

I know it's the rubbish football rumours site, and I know it's probably only a cobblers fan having a laugh, but still.


We can dream can't we?

£10m bid from Necastle for Derbys Hughes (others monitoring). Hornby to Derby as replacement ??
Makes sense to me
Or was it Harding ?

I dreamt last night that Clive Platt was leaving the Cobblers for a part in Coronation Street as Martin's long lost cousin.  

I've stuck a rumour on there about The Chuckle Brothers buying Rotherham, let's see if it gets past their 'review stage'.

Heard Tozer to Sheffield United. Ties in with rumours about Boothroyd going there

Ive heard both the chairman and manager are on holiday hence the lack of any news.
Don't know if it's right as I'm not a travel agent but it would explain why other clubs are getting on with business while there seems to be nothing happening at ntfc.

Im sure there will be some irons in the fire and things will happen at some time.

Keep Calm and wait till the end of June ..............

AB has a mobile telephone so everything is ticking along nicely. 

From what I can understand contact has already been made with AB's 3 top targets and will sign towards the end of June when they also return from Holiday,  all 3 are contract to their current clubs until 1st July so we are in no rush to pick up their wages and they are in no rush to lose out of loyalty payments.

Of the OOC players Cameron still being paid by Cov so again not rush but the deal is already done.  The 2 players offered reduced terms unlikely to stay.  The other 2 are considering other options, but compensation due for 1 which is "putting a few off" 

Cureton was a target but he didn't want to up sticks so opted to stay in the SW so was a bit of a non starter

Artell is free to leave if he can get himself fixed up

Hope we can suitably replace Gutts then, he was the only one other than Langmead I was desperate to keep.

Well, losing Gutts would be a major dent in the quality of our squad IMO... fingers crossed that he signs on for the campaign :-\

You've got to assume Gutts is looking to go elsewhere. He said all the right noises but I bet he was severely pissed off at not being picked towards the end of the campaign.
When he was playing at Aldershot and they came to Sixfields he practically ran the show, every ball from their defence was aimed at him.
He should be looking for a team that plays like that rather than having to watch yet another Tozer hoof sail over his head.

I'm glad we didn't sign Cureton. He's 37 (soon to be 38) and the prospect of him playing up front with the 35 year old Platt doesn't bear thinking about. I hope RO'D signs, because you need a striker with that kind of work rate in your squad at this level. I'd also back him to at least get into double figures if given a whole season. Other than that, I still think we need a forward with pace AND power to replace Bayo, not just a fairly static Cureton-style 'fox in the box' type.

Were Harding and Gutts both offered reduced terms? If so, I think that was a bit short sighted. Wembley apart, Gutts showed some good form following his recall and is a good mentor for Hornby. What we don't want, for the sake of continuity, is to be starting the season with a completely new midfield (which could well happen given Hacket's fitness and Hornby's youth).

I posted on there a while ago that Heskey was going to sign for us to partner Bayo up top for a beast mode strike partnership and that managed to get on ok  ;D

To be fair, Gutts was in good form prior to being dropped, too. Which makes it all the more galling that he was dropped for so long ???

And probably cost us automatic promotion.

Agreed.

I thought he wasn't dropped, more nursing an ankle injury? He certainly was a bit injury-prone in our first go round with him.

just pop into town on any friday or saturday night and i am sure he will bore you with the full story of being dropped and his contract offer.....................

I would take one of their keepers too, both free to leave.

Player and agent down at sixfields today.*

No idea who,didn't recognise him!!

*making an assumption he was a player as was seen with a chap in a suit carrying paperwork into the club.
Apologies if incorrect and getting anyone unnecessarily excited but he certainly wasn't one of the various ground staff currently driving tractors in and out of sixfields!!

I can barely contain myself

they have 6(!) keepers on their books, so which 2? No idea why clubs at that level get in financial trouble...

Surely their not relaying the pitch? Biggest waste of time & money you'll ever see...

6?? Madness. Anyway, I meant their main 2 (Fielding and Legzdins) and theyve bought in Lee Grant and both want 1st team footy. Not saying we are likely to get them, but shows that there will be some decent keepers available.

Pay attention to your car cleaning..   ;D

In fairness I did have the car cleaned ;D

So the BREAKING NEWS is that Shoey saw a footballer at Sixfields today.  Marvellous!

That is as good as it gets I'm afraid.

As noted I also saw a tractor ;D

You're exaggerating! The "news" is that he saw two people, one of whom might have been a footballer and the other might have been his agent...at a football club, between seasons...

But was an agricultural type or more JCB construction vehicle?

Green John Deere carrying sand into sixfields.
I witnessed the tractor perform this manoeuvre on four occasions.
It may have made more journeys both before I arrived and after I left.

I would just like to point out that this is not a rumour but is fact ;D

Good for you, shoey! Better than most of the rubbish on here.

;D  (http://www.katzy.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/thumbsup.gif)

Quick question Shoey. How do you know it was a player and his agent if you don't know who either of them are ? Could have been two of the people who own the company doing the pitch,coming down to see how it was getting on  ;D

One got out of a car reg plate AGENT 1 and the other got out of a car reg plate FOOTBALLER 1*

* This is a rumour and cannot be taken as fact ;D

 ;D ;D

Building sharp sand or soft sand pit sand ? If you are going to report to us on such matters please furnish us with the full details!!!!!

Shoey might have witnessed the first knockings of redevelopment.
Now that would be a real scoop !

Strong Rumour I have heard today is Cuereton to Cheltenham - Followed by Benson to us - I would be happy with that :0) - Pos would mean R O'D not siging tho?

Also heard Moult to sign for Nuneaton today - No suprises there I guess!

Also not a rumour - But if the Duke thing does not come off - I see Dean Gerken who Aidy worked with at Col U is a free agent!

Nana,gerkin!!

Are we a football club or a fruit and veg stall on the market square ;D

Benson alongside RO'D?  Would have thought that that would be a good combination?

Howard, Gabbiadini and Forrester supported by Forest legend Paul McGregor.

Aaaaahhhh. What should have been devastating.

Thought I would beat 38williamsp to it..... Richard dune will be released in July and Northampton town will sign him on a 5year deal and a meal on wheels each day thrown in

Have i missed something? Back of chron says we are after the lump from rotherham! Whose just a much much worse version of Bayo whats that anout

He will probably be a lot cheaper though which has got to be good news when you are cutting costs and trying to keep the budget in line.

Does the article mention Rene Howe at all?

Hopefully just paper talk. Hopefully ???

Would be a terrible signing under any circumstances but considering we already have Platt for next season it just makes no sense at all.

Apparently on Twitter, Matt Richards from Shrewsbury is nearly a done deal? I'd be really happy with that.

Close to signing matt duke according to the chron.

Always been impressed by Richards from Shrewsbury...used to boss games from the middle of the park...hope that ones true!

Also seen us linked with out of contract Barnet winger Keanu Marsh-Brown.
Believe we were linked with loaning him from Fulham, under Mr Johnson, which worries me in some ways...

Where on Twitter?

Summer loans being considered for Moyo, Dias and Snedker.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/cobblers-considering-foreign-loans-for-young-trio-1-5156607

Delap released by Stoke. Surely a replacement for Tozer if he decides to leave?  ;D

I have to say I couldn't find it either. But I also read thefootballforum, and this was mentioned in the league 2 rumour mill, so I thought it was worth adding in here.

It's on one of the many bull**** "I'm an agent and i'll continually post rumours but can't reveal my identity" Twitter accounts.

Not to be taken seriously.  :D

FootballLeagueAgent
@ tweetfootball92

That is the problem with not having twitter  :-[

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/northampton-town-linked-with-move-for-striker-odejayi-1-5166681

no thanks

I really hope this is a case of someone putting two and two together (AB worked with him at Col U) and making five.
Odejayi is essentially just a slightly better and younger version of Platt - another immobile non-scoring forward.

Howe is also mentioned in the article, and hopefully there's more substance there. We'd face competition for him, but he's the one player I've seen mentioned who I think would represent an improvement on Bayo.  We should do whatever it takes to sign him.

nIt is so very easy for us armchair pundits to sit in front our PCs and say "no" to such and such a player.  I can claim so expertise on the merits of Howe or Odejayi.  I have seen them play for the opposition a few times but I have no lasting memory of them.  I am sure it is the same for everyone else who nonetheless becomes an immediate expert by taking a look at a player's record on Wikipedia.  What I would hope and expect is that AB and his team have been looking at prospective targets for some time and know what they may bring to our squad.  As we all know attracting good players to a L2 club with a modest budget is a challenge in itself.  So far AB has done exceptionally well on that score.

I'd think/hope the Odejayi one is a bit of a smokescreen.

He will have to do even better this year because we have released our top scorer and are trying to replace him despite another year of cost cutting.

Given this it is hardly surprising that we are only looking at players of odejayis calibre(5 goals in 45 matches last season).

I think the supporters deserve much better than another bout of budget cuts.

God help us if we don't have a wembley appearance or cup run this season.

You can always count on Shoey to make a comment on the financials!  However, there is substance in what he states.  I have to say I was surprised at DC's comments about budget cuts following the unplanned income from the play-offs.  Then we had the usual spin about the redevelopment appearing in the Chron a few months ago since when, and not for the first time, the silence has been deafening.  But I mustn't criticise DC without whom the club would be in peril. It makes the redevelopment all the more important since the club will then have an income stream independent of gate and season ticket funds.  In the long term it will also make the club that much more attractive to new owners/investors.  In the meantime (and a very long meantime it is proving to be) we have to exist as others do in this league. Clubs like Cheltenham and Burton have much lower gates than us which presumably is reflected in their playing budget and still compete effectively.  We have to do the same.  It comes down to good management and I am confident that AB is the man to take us to the next level.

I think you make some good points there vintage.

As regards competing with Cheltenham and burton it will be interesting to see if we can match their spending power and ambition.
As you rightly point out neither get bigger gates than us and neither had the unexpected bonus of a wembley appearance.

That said I have a feeling the other two clubs will outspend us and will spend transfer fees on quality signings to try to achieve promotion where as we will make budget cuts and rely on a few free transfers and loans.

I can't see why these clubs on lesser gates can compete in the transfer(ie buying players) market and we cannot.

Why is this??

It's very simple economics. Football clubs do not run like other businesses because lenders, owners and benefactors accept that they are not like other businesses and allow them to run with much higher levels of debt than other businesses can. This is because they are also viewed as social assets and it's very hard to get at them - look at the trouble it causes when they do completely overstep the mark: in the case of Portsmouth, for example, dozens of local supplier businesses were wiped out because they were expected to bear their debts when the football club wasn't.

Cheltenham and Burton will spend more than us by getting further into debt: their expenditure will exceed their income but they will (rightly!) expect that they can get away with it. Look at us, too - general opinion seems to be that we are already indebted to Mr Cardoza by £7 million plus, which he would simply not tolerate in any of his other business interests, but it's highly unlikely that he will seek to recover it from the football club because it's his "hobby" - and I'm very grateful to him for that!

I think it's also a complete myth that, at L2 level, paying a transfer fee gets you a better player: it's all about the wages. For example, I'm betting Chris Hackett is at NTFC and not a Championship or L1 club because we are paying a Championship level wage to him, not because of a transfer fee. You need to think of L2 footballers more as self-employed tradesmen: an electrician who (in the days when we had a viable economy) would have taken a 2-year deal at one housing or retail development rather than another simply because he was offered more money.

My guess would be the cost of running the stadiums. I would guess that sixfields is fairly expensive to run and it isnt overly utilsed during the week or on away weekends. This is part of what the expansion would give us, a secondry income away from match days to pay the bills and support the playing staff.

What transfers are these then? What smaller clubs have outspent us so far?

I still don't think the club is particularly well run. I think it's run to the best of the chairman's ability but considering he claims to have spent over 7 million so far there does seem to be a culture of inefficiency at the club.

Ah, vintage Cobbler .... the sweet voice of reason!  How much I agree with every measured word you write .... and how dull, boring and obviously, old you and I both are  :)

Howe's Wicki entry says he has signed a four year deal with Queen of the South.
Cant find anything about this any where else though.
Anyone ?

Oh so true Kaptain Kobbler!!  The wisdom of the years and too many failed league campaigns to recall.  The abject failure of Gary Johnson was one of the biggest and most bitter pills to swallow in recent memory.  I am satisfied that in AB we have a good manager and will progress as a club.  The biggest problem may not be finding a goalscorer to succeed Bayo but holding on to Boothroyd.  Until now DC has generally not demonstrated much skill in his managerial appointments.

I would very much prefer Calvin Zola or Rene Howe to Kayode Odejayi.

;D

Reducing the budget sounds pessimistic. Saying that we are offloading some high earning deadwood from the squad and fringe players that are never going to feature and replace them with players that are going to contribute to the team and not cost as much overall is probably more accurate.
 Bayo wasn't deadwood and scored. Other than that from a first eleven perspective who is really going to miss Moult, Wilson, Turnbull, Robinson (nice fella doesn't count) etc and if Harding and some of the others don't sign?

Apparently we are bringing the budget back into line.

Into line with what I have no idea.

I assume into line with the last few years budgets that have not been quite enough to see us one of the top six budgets in the division.

Last season I would hazard a guess that gillingham,port vale,Rotherham and Bradford all had bigger budgets for players and were promoted.

This season I think Bristol rovers,fleetwood town,Portsmouth,Cheltenham are most likely to be promoted given their greater budgets.

I think Oxford,burton Albion,Hartlepool will also be there abouts.

You dont half talk some s$it do you

Jesus f***ing Christ this is a depressing read.

We've not even f***ing signed anyone yet!!! Wait and see what our starting 11 is for the first game before crying into your copies of Razzle about how we aren't spending money on good players etc.

f*** a goat.

The sun is shining you depressed bastard, so stop being so miserable!

Shoey - where are you coming from?  Money doesn't buy or guarantee success. Good management does.  Cheltenham a bigger budget than us?!!  That is ridiculous.  I am optimistic but you have to be to be a Cobbler.  If you are not, you don't qualify.  Leave it to AB to bring in the quality we need before you negatives top yourselves in state of close season depression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvZBg7qLzU8

Vintage - you and I are patently cut from the same cloth, but I wouldn't agree that we're in imminent danger of losing Boothroyd.  When he joined us, he stated very deliberately that he wouldn't repeat the mistake he made in leaving Colchester in the lurch, seduced by paper-thin temptations of joining a 'big' club, such as Coventry.  He knows that the Cobblers are a 'project'  - a stepping stone towards re-establishing his reputation - and I've nothing against that.  I'm confident Boothroyd will find the right men this summer and that we'll be challenging for promotion more strongly than last season.

What are you Championship Manager types going to do if we sign a player you dont agree with because it says so on CM?

Kaptain Kobbler - you misinterpreted my comment.  I don't think we are in "imminent" danger of losing AB.  He seems to me to be happy here (and we supporters are happy with him).  AB sees the immense challenge of turning around an underachieving NTFC as a medium term project to establish our club at a higher level.  But football in the main is so short term.  There are those amongst our number all too ready to criticise and get on the back of targetted players and the manager. This tendency surfaces quickly from time to time after a poor performance.  I can forecast the knockers having a go at AB's  "hoofball" tactics if we are not top of the league in September and if a job with a so-called bigger club comes along he may be tempted.  I recall Gary Johnson talking about introducing a passing game with better players and exciting the supporters with his words. The actions did not follow and his management or lack of was a disaster.  What happened at Yeovil beggars belief.  Trust me - the challenge will be holding on to AB for more than another season and you can be sure that our experts will then be on the case for a successor with the aid of Wikipedia.

So can I, worryingly.

Thing is, we finished 9th in League 1 under Gray which included some excellent results notably the 4-2 win over Swansea. In those games we had a front 3 of Houbertz, Bayo and Andy Holt. It was hardly tikki-takka then, but people seem to have this downer on Boothroyd's tactics.

Everyone is crying about Odejayi because he only scored 5 in 45 appearances last year but that's 45 appearances in a promoted side. He couldn't have been that bad or they wouldn't have kept picking him, would they?

Ok, I see the 'manager-is-always-right' brigrade is out in force again. No one on here is claiming to know more about signing players than AB, no matter how much 'Championship Manager' they've played. That doesn't mean, however, that we won't take a constructively critical look at the manager's decision making. All managers make mistakes and make poor signings. Some make more than others. Even Alex Ferguson plumbed for Taibi and Djemba Djemba. We talk about these things because we care about the future of the club.

If you're happy about the prospect of us signing a player who has scored 30 goals in the past six seasons to replace our top scorer then great, I envy your optimism. Far be it for me to have the temerity to make a suggestion about who we should sign, but I would have thought that someone with a bit of pace and power who scored 16 goals last season might be a better bet to move us forward. And yes that's based on his goalscoring record and seeing him play a few times - is that enough for me to express an opinion or should I leave all this technical stuff to the experts?

This is all speculation at the moment, and we don't know who AB is actually targeting. However, this forum would be pretty pointless if it degenerated into a group circle jerk in awe of our supposedly infallible leaders. Hopefully there's still enough people here who care enough to think critically about what happens.

P.S. BackofTheNet, Rotherham have transfer listed Odejayi, which suggests that he's not as highly rated there as you imply. In any case, Platt played a lot of games for us, and we weren't exactly a million miles from Rotherham's points total. Does that make him a good player?

Platt is a good player. i dont understand why so many people cant see that.

I second this.

I third it.

Bungle - I think people should wait until we sign someone before dissecting the managers decision?!

I can't understand why people are getting so wound up and posting massive long dissections of a decision that hasn't even happened yet? Just wait and watch for things to unfold over the summer, and see who we actually sign before breaking down completely.

Plus, I also think Platt is a good player and is wrongly vilified by a large percentage of fans

I'd say he's an average player.

Id say he's a very long way past his best. Glimmers of talent are there but he's relaxed in the knowledge he has a contract, and quite honestly his legs and heart aren't there anymore.

I'd say if you found a tenner on the floor you would moan that it wasn't a twenty!

Courtney Cameron as a potential new winger?

Ex cobblers youth team player, just released by Aston Villa and spent this season on loan at Rotherham so is in our kinda league.

Clive Platt is an alright player in terms of holding the ball up, but there's no way he's as good as Bayo and is a non-scoring striker. Odejayi is a non-scoring striker. Also, Platt doesn't suck in the opposition defenders in the same way that Bayo does, as they don't consider him to be as much of a threat. This then makes O'Donovan/Nicholls' job harder as the space isn't created.

With a big scoring striker like Bayo or Howe, some defences have to apply more pressure on them than the smaller player, meaning they get more space and get the better opportunities (note how O'Donovan always seemed to play better when Bayo was on). Scoring strikers provide more of a threat than non-scoring ones. It's just a fact.

Clive Platt is a good player.  The problem with him is not so much that his legs have gone but his ongoing back injury.  It is most unlikely that with this injury and at 36 he will be able to play in anything like 46 games next season. 

Looking around at other clubs transfers, it's interesting to see that, for all the panicking about us losing ground on transfers and being on holiday etc, there's 10 teams who haven't made any moves yet, and the majority started their holidays two weeks before we did.

Basically, Mansfield have bought a fair few in, and that's about it.

Ill admit I havent seen as many games as most of you over the last 12 months but on what evidence is Platt a good player?
The games I have seen he has been awful and completely lacks a first touch which as a 'hold up' player is crucial.

He has a 50p head as well. No apparent control over where his headers will go.

I dont like knocking players but for me he has seemed lazy and disinterested when I have seen him play.

Went to the majority of games last season. On his day Platt is an effective target man. His link up play is good and he is strong in the air. I'm hoping that with a long break over the summer he will come back well for next season. Those that see him regularly will know that he is a good player for league2 just struggling with chronic injuries.

Isn't it true that most out of contact players don't sign a contract till a month after theirs expires cos the parent club have to pay them an extra month if they fail to get sorted?

Most contracts finish at the end of June. That's when you see all the player movement. Usually some of them have agreed but its not allowed to be announced.

I don't actually think that either Platt or Odejayi are 'bad' players per se. In fact I think they're very similar: competent, if pretty mediocre, unselfish targetmen. However, this inherent similarity is the reason why Odejayi would be such a poor signing IMO. We had a dearth of forward options last season because Bayo and Platt were too similar to form an effective partnership; that would be compounded if we signed Odejayi.

Hard to believe that so many think Clive Platt is " a good player ". He may have been once but why are you now so willing to accept such mediocrity ? Sorry , but he's a striker who just doesn't strike ! He carried an injury through most of last season and honestly did he really make much of a contribution ? Will he improve next campaign ? I doubt it. He is unfit and too old to shake off niggles easily.
Plenty on here didn't get particularly worked up about Bayo being released but now you are championing someone who was essentially
brought in as his replacement and isn't up to it. In my opinion there is no contest between the two and if we had to lose one or the other we got rid of the wrong one. Platt was an AB mistake , same as Ishy was. He makes mistakes......... All managers do.
Hoping for some inspired signings this summer along the lines of Widdowson , Hackett or Collins but wont be surprised if we end up with a couple of duds as well. It happens.

He still is a good (not brilliant) player under contract, so get over it. If you think otherwise as do some others so be it, but he is our player so get behind him. Bayo has gone now, let go.


Because we are not all glory hunters that go and support Manchester United from an arm chair! We are realists and Clive is a good player at our current level.

This.

He really isn't.

Probably the last year of his league footballing career.

We disagree.I can live with that fact, can you? Another fact (once more) is he is under contract for one more year and barring career ending injury will play a part in next seasons games.
He will have my full support.

Steve Harper.

NOT A rumour but I just read that John bostock has been released from spurs.... Would love it If we could get him.

Not a rumour but I just read that Andry Arshavin has been released from Arsenal... Would love it if we could get him....

This subject gets worse every summer... Can't help but keep checking this thread though, more fool me..!

William Gallas has been let go by Spurs , would be OK as a back up for Langers and Cameron

Can i just say that a lot of people keep mentioning Alex Nicholls but i've heard from a very reliable source that he is on a fine line between playing and not being able to play again. He keeps on getting infections and i don't see him coming back sorry guys. :'(

Least my one is realistic since he was on load for Swindon last season.

Also linking back to the striker.. Brett Williams has been released from Reading.. Possibility, thought he looked good at this level.

Spent all last season on loan at Woking not making any sort of impact...no thanks!

Would love us to pick up a couple of gems from the non league though...we never seem to go down that route unfortunately...

Lewis Wilson,Courtney herbert ???
I'd agree these were hardly gems.

Richard Brodie,matt tubbs,Aaron mcclean etc were gems but they required purchasing and were not free transfers.

This may explain the fact that we have not unearthed any gems by going down this route.

You can add birchill,kedwell,Boyd and Mckail-smith.

Good strikers cost money.

Would hardly call Brodie a gem

Now let me think , how much did the two strikers who destroyed us at Wembley cost ?










If you can't remember ,Wells was a free and Hanson cost £4500 , so they CAN'T be any good ,they didn't cost enough  ???

I have been waiting for wiltedjohn to post that Bryan Harvey and Dave Bowen have been restored to life and are returning to us on a free transfers from Heaven FC.

Richard Brodie is great example of how wrong it can go. £300,000 for a player that could only manage 5 goals at this level before falling back into non-league. Hmmm, wonder if Cardoza would consider that a wise investment.

And for every Mackail-Smith, there's a Scott Rendell and a Liam Hatch. Both six figure transfer fees from non-league, both already back at that level.

Paying any sort of fee is a massive g.amble in this tier. Much more astute to use put the money into wages, there's more than enough decent players found on frees.

Hackett, Bayo, Smith, Gyepes, Hubertz were all acquired on frees, in contrast Low, Youngs, Turnbull, Peter Clark, Harrad all cost a transfer fee.

The only way do it is with 50-75k bids for players open to progression. Fair enough Cardoza got his fingers burnt with Kirk and Harrad but astute scouting and reasonable investment is the way forward. Very much in the Peterborough mould. signing frees is only treading water.

Did you see that Sammo had bidded for Rene Howe but the deal fell through? That means he had targeted Harrad, Zola and Howe. Not too shabby.

You wouldn't get anyone decent for £50-75k. Our last target Jamille Matt (3 goals in 14) went for over £300,000.

Of course, the better way is spend 100k plus on a player you can sell on later and buy another. Sammo was on the verge for getting both Zola and Harrad for under 100k. It is possible especially if you act early and pick off players from clubs with little money.

I really think we should pursue Gary McSheffery, he needs a new challenge, knows aidy, is a proven goalscorer and could form a partnership with a fully fit Clive platt ?

What's possible? we signed Harrad for a fee and he was pretty awful, around the same time we got Bauza on a free who looked great for us.

I think he'd play more on the left wing if he did join?

One swallow does not make a summer. We could have had Zola and Howe for peanuts.

Instead we got Bayo for nothing who out scored both in both of the last two seasons!

I'd say that, as well as Peterborough's strategy of buying non-league talent has worked for them, you have to be prepared to get burned. They bought a lot of terrible players as well as good ones, and it's difficult (or maybe impossible) without a large wad of cash that someone is quite willing to **** on a long-shot. Experience at this level will genuinely be better serving than 'hunger' from someone who may or may not make it, and there is the same amount of talent available for free as there is required a fee.

Now adays, a much higher proportion of teams budgets is spent on wages than on transfer fees anyway, even at the highest levels. They're a bit of a non-factor.

Plus, we also have a steady supply of young, hungry, untried players. They're called our youth team, and Aidy is fonder of giving young players a chance than most.

Also, right now they're both available to purchase without a transfer fee.

Yeah I can live with disagreeing, and he'll have my support too. But the debate was more about where we stand in the firepower department now Bayo has gone. And a big lump from Rovrum, who doesn't score goals, is not (in my opinion) an improvement on the (limited) options we employed for much of last season.

Didn't we have a big lump who didn't score goals, since January, when Bayo was here?

Nope , we had two big lumps who didn't score goals ..........

Word is harrad and duke to sign tomorrow

You got this off Facebook didnt you  ;)

Duke is a certain signing it looks like but unsure about Harrad i know AB likes him.

I would like to see Harrad back to be honest

Give me some credit... It was twitter!

The Football League twitter feed has mentioned Duke and Harrad too

It's not actually the football league twitter feed though, is it.

Well if people believe what they see on made up accounts fair play!!

I just saw that we offered a deal to Sanchez Watt on  twitter so ::)

Yeah I saw the sanchez watt rumour. Really can't see that sadly. Neither duke or harrad are unrealistic though.

Well Duke seems a done deal!

Isn't AB away on a charity event? Hmmmmm

So we're signing our playoff rivals rejects, anyone remember who Burton released?.

Hot a big fan of Harrad..Like Duke though. Boothy should be sniffing around Oxford didn't they release some decent strikers.

Strong rumours that we have been in talks with defender Leon Cort... He is set to chose between us, Plymouth and Wycombe

He has just signed a contract extension with Charlton.

I don't think we'll sign Harrad, Duke is nailed on. Would love Sanchez Watt but can't see it.

They released a whole load of players. An Oxford fan I know thinks they're going to struggle badly next season. He said they're 6m in debt too.

Anyway, first team players they released: Luke McCormick, Damian Batt, Michael Duberry, Harry Worley, Liam Davis, Tony Capaldi, Simon Heslop, Peter Leven, Josh Parker, Tom Craddock, Jon-Paul Pittman and Justin Richards.

Craddock has gone to Portsmouth, McCormick back to Plymouth and Heslop (ex Kettering) to Stevenage. I wouldn't mind Batt, maybe even Pitmann who'd be something different to what we've got.

I have now heard from four different people (one of which being a journalist in the Nottingham area) that we are currently in talks to bring Gavin Mahon to the club.

It certainly looks like a possibility to me. An experienced tough tackling centre midfielder who has previously worked under Aidy at Watford.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/colchester-united/which_club_will_sign_watt_1_2229749 (http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/colchester-united/which_club_will_sign_watt_1_2229749)

Former Colchester United loanee, Sanchez Watt, is attracting interest from a number of clubs after being released by Arsenal this summer.

Flying winger Watt made a big impression during his loan stint with the U’s at the start of Joe Dunne’s regime from late September.

Together with fellow Arsenal loanee Craig Eastmond, Watt helped the U’s to pull away from the League One relegation zone before his loan stay was cut short by a long-term hamstring injury.

Dunne has since signed midfielder Eastmond on a permanent two-year contract, following his departure from the Emirates at the end of last season, and the U’s boss has already intimated that he would love to capture Watt on a similar deal.

However, there are no shortage of clubs ready to snap up Watt. These include a number of League Two outfits – the likes of Northampton, Plymouth and Burton are all reported to have offered the 22-year-old a deal – while U’s League One rivals Stevenage are also rumoured to be in the race to sign Watt.

I see Gillingham have signed Amine Linganzi, shame I really wanted him here!

David Hunt released, anyone on here have him back?

If the interest in Sanchez Watt and indeed Shaun Harrad is genuine, it suggests to me that we have seen the last of Roy O'Donovan in a Cobblers shirt.

F*** me have they got any players left?

Also, isn't Gavin Mahon about 50? David Hunt would be a good shout after Crawley released him

Well report in the Chron suggest we are after Sanchez Watt.

That can be taken with a pinch of salt.
The chron reported on the 6th June that a goalkeeper signing was nearing completion and not a peep since!!

We can only assume that matt duke has received a better offer elsewhere.

Nowadays the club keep signings close to their chest and the chron get no more info than anyone else.
Hence this story has leaked out from another newspaper elsewhere as opposed to the chron itself.

The days of the chron having the inside scoop and having exclusive transfer news are long gone.

The Chron normally just recycle rumours they've read on the net, rarely have any scoops

don't remember seeing the Odejayi rumour anywhere on the net?

It was already on this thread on 22 May.

Irritating twitter rumour - Posh enquiring about Hackett.

Their pikey chairman has just denied it, so thats OK then.
@DMAC102 if you want to keep an eye on him.

Or... he's agreed a deal but is under contract (probably for more £) at Bradford until 30th June and isn't that desperate to sign until his deal has expired. Plus half of the football world is on a beach somewhere so things will start happening formally as we reach the end of June.

Forget about Hunt, signed for Oxford

Ive said it before that it is common practise for out of contract players to wait for a month after theirs expires because the parent club have to pay them an extra month. Expect some signings beginning of next month.

Suppose that means we are still paying Jake till the end of June
What chance of him getting another league club after the last two years ?

If he gets a league club, I might start start touting myself around to a few clubs.

I can't believe how pathetic you all are. I might even grab a smile when he scores against us next season.

I've always maintained that Robinson is a good player and will score a lot of goals once he leaves us. He's just one more striker that we've broken. I dunno what we do to them...

Robinson had plenty of opportunities to show us what he could do over his 2 years but hard though he tried the quality needed was lacking.

He looked a real class act. Would have also loved to see him here.

Currently we have 14 contracted players, offers pending with Tozer, Harding, ROD, Cameron and Gutts...that we know of for sure.Plus a few irons in the fire. With over 7 weeks until the season starts we are in a reasonable position, I'm happy to see how our squad develops in the coming weeks ahead.

Certainly not in the doom and gloom situation that some believe us to be in!

Hopefully quality over quantity is the priority with loans throughout the season as and when.  ;)

Either that or we are simply not putting all of our eggs in one basket...

Jefferson Lake tweeted today that Harrad has had no contact from us.

And that the plan if ROD signs is to play him as a number 9 and bring another left winger in. And we want "a big one" this summer apparently. Me nosing into a conversation between him and The Edgey Mole there  ;)

 ???

left wing - Gary Mcsheffrey maybe

Got to love transfer-rumours.com

Absolute crap that is posted but cant help but check all the time.

Apparently, Sanchez Watt and John Bostock about to join along with a season long loan for Matt Tubbs

PMSL :-)

Watt is the only realistic target I can see there, Bostock would probably cut it at a higher level,

If we sign Tubbs, we'll go up.

What if we don't sign tubbs?

OK I'll be the first to say it. "We're doomed I tell you, doomed."

OK I'll be the first to say it. "We're doomed I tell you, doomed."

We`ll have to sign Crocket then ;D

JL tweet  "spoken to Aidy Boothroyd. Vast pile of #NTFC news coming your way in tomorrow's @ChronandEcho"

He then went on to say that its about the current (out of contract)  players......

It will be the usual Chron stuff.... Tell us what we already know then say a few things that might happen. The Chron is a waste of time since it went weekly (it was bad enough when it was daily but at least it was up to date back then)

Every season same old rubbish 'whay haven't we signed anyone?' Not many deals will be completed before end of June as with every other f***king season!

Sad but true. :'(

It would help if there were other football writers in the Chron other than Jefferson "dull as dishwater" Lake.

Heard we've approached Matt Green whos out of contract this summer with Mansfield. Scored 25 goals for them last season

Source?

H P

Latest from Mr Lake:

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/northampton-town-monitoring-the-situation-of-goalkeeper-duke-1-5184933

He was the one saying a deal was nearly done last week. What a melon.

To be fair he is not in the loop so it's hard to know what's going on

The club dont leak rumours so it's hard to write anything.

The link between the club and the chron hasn't seemed the same since the Steve riches debacle.

That said it could be that the club no longer has Gary Johnson who seemed to be linked to different players every week and nowadays the club has a much different ethos.

This one would surprise me. Mansfield are this years bankrolled millionaires, and there's apparently League 1 teams interested.

Keep throwing those darts fellas. I'm sure one will hit the bullseye soon. Zzzzzz

I'm not impressed with our lack of interest in Howe. The fact he's fairly low on our list, with probably a bunch of aged non-scoring strikers (Marlon Harewood comes to mind) ahead of him isn't very reassuring. I'd be happy with Matt Green though, even if he seems like someone who would fulfil the O'Donovan/Nicholls role rather than the Bayo/Platt target man role.

What was the other 'big cobblers news' then? The preview of the back pages that Lake tweeted appeared to suggest that Aidy wasn't happy with the players taking their time over contracts but I only gleamed that from the headline.

Only himself to blame there, if you don't set a deadline of course they are going to take their time...

[quote author=Gonzales link=topic=8046.msg155040#msg155040 date=1371160556

What was the other 'big cobblers news' then? The preview of the back pages that Lake tweeted appeared to suggest that Aidy wasn't happy with the players taking their time over contracts but I only gleamed that from the headline.
[/quote]
It was just a sweetener to get us to pick up the paper or buy the app.
Then when you do its just a classic J. L. anti-climax. He has no better info than the man in the street.
The Chronic and the Telegraph have become dead in the water since they went weekly and its a sad demise.

Um, there's some on the chronic site today?

"Cobblers boss Boothroyd wants strikers who do more than score"

A striker who does score goals would also be nice though!

Headline is a bit misleading though when you actually read the quotes, of course he wants his forwards to score goals that's a given surely.

However, it does imply that he will be looking at players like Nicholls and O'Donovan types rather than a 6'3 target man.

I have no problem with that, as it also suggests quite a different approach and style of play for next season.

Not sure I agree. I think the style and approach will be the same next season but Platt will be the focus. I'm betting we will also sign a Bayo replacement as back up and a wide left player better than Demon to improve the service from that side...but same shape and style. Not necessarily knocking that...but realistically it is what Adiy has always done.

I read that as

We are unlikely to be able to buy a quality striker or indeed be able to attract even the quality free transfers such as rene Howe due to a lack of finance.

We will however be around to pick up the pieces of the remaining free transfers that haven't found a club and get them in.

I think we may be able to get a top striker in but only on a loan agreement as we are unable to compete financially and buy a player.

I'd like to think I am completely wrong but I must say the lack of positive news (only news about players such as Howe who we now know we can't afford) does tend to send one down that path.

Let's wait and see but all the rhetoric does seem to lend itself to us tempering any expectations.

Nope... You read it like that, because that's how you wanted to read it as.

Shoey - which clubs in L2 are we unable to compete with financially?  The ones that come to mind are Portsmouth who have just come out of Administration and whose finaces are unknown to me and Oxford who are said to be £6 million in debt.  On the wider transfer front don't expect much news before the end of the month when players are out of contract.

Absolutely. Remember both Hackett and Widdowson didn't join us until mid July last year.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PuCQlrCk3Jo/US-HCcs81II/AAAAAAAADE8/udRtpDxscHg/s1600/boring-marketing-content.jpg)

We will only know who was nearer the mark when we see who we are pinning next years goal scoring hopes on.

I'm sure we all agree we need an out and out 20 goal plus goalscorer.

It just seems from the press that we are being prepared to be underwhelmed.*. **

*chron quoting a certain ex Torquay striker wanting £130000 a month indicates we will not be one of the clubs wanting to sign him.

**quotes such as I want a goalscorer who does more than score goals.
This to me indicates a Clive platt type all rounder when any fool can see we have released our top scorer and need an out and out goalscorer.

That's just reading between the lines that are being reported.
Does anyone reading the current quotes believe we are going to buy an out and out goalscorer??

£130,000 a month !!!! Really  ;D

He wants 30K a week...blimey...wouldnt want him signing for that much!!!

I'd like to think I am completely wrong...

You wouldn't! What a bloody fibber. You'd hate it if we got someone 'amazing', but know there's little chance.

f*** me, shoemakers logic. Boothroyd says he has 20 targets he likes better than Howe, so we must be skint?

I don't.

Gillingham won the league and their leading scorer only scored 14 goals.

 ;D

Keep these coming mate.

The thing with Gillingham is that they had 2 goalscorers who scored 26 league goals between them. For us, Bayo scored 16 (who is no longer here), and then Langmead was our next highest scorer with 7. Nicholls got 7, but he's likely to miss the first quarter of next season. It's very difficult to find 2 strikers that will each get 12 goals, when was the last time we saw that at Sixfields? I think we need 1 striker, who gets 18-20 goals, and then let the others chip in around him.

If O'Donovan signs on, he's more than capable of that amount. Don't think it will be that hard to find another player like him, Boothroyd seems to be able to spot that sort.

O'Donovan 18-20 goals ? Rather doubt that. Personally I think Nichols would have struggled to score that many as well , even if he hadn't been injured.
Neither were prolific at their previous clubs and unearthing a star from either our division or even higher that we can afford will prove quite difficult I believe.
There will inevitably be some luck involved if it happens at all. We had an 18-20 goal striker and we released him.

Tom Pope wasn't prolific before last season either.

The point was, Gillingham won the League with two players scoring 26 league goals between them. Something I think O'Donovan and Nicholls would be more than capable off.

Spot on.

Not with the f***ing ball whizzing over their heads they won't!

Can't say I'm too fussed if ROD stays or goes to be honest. From what I've seen hes been bang average in a lot of games.

Wonder what games you was watching??? I know everyone has opinions but I thought he always gave 100%

I didn't suggest he wasn't giving it his best just that he's okay but no more.

Out of contract players who are in demand are certainly going to try it on (or at least their agents will). That does mean to say they wont eventually settle for a wage far less than their original demand. Someone like Howe might easily end up with a contract in the region of £80-90K but I doubt he will get offered any more than this.

Seem to be a lot of our "support" who confuse effort with quality.
Having said that, i'd be happy if ROD signs on, decent player Imo, whose capable of those rare moments of magic, that can be the difference between winning and losing in this tight division.

I've often said that in this division, strikers with more than one key attribute are as rare as rocking horse poo.

You either get targetmen (Platt, Bayo, Hanson), grafters (ROD, McGleish), speed merchants (Nicholls, Wells), skillful 'false 9' forwards (rare exceptions like Martin Smith and Bauza), or fox-in-the-box finishers (Kirk, Harrad).

The best teams have a variety of different options within this range. We have Platt, who despite his much-discussed failures in front of goal, is a reasonably competent targetman at this level. If ROD signs, we will have a decent grafter, who will run the channels and put defenders under pressure. I'd back ROD to get into double figures, but I think he'd need to be paired with someone who could chip in with a decent amount himself (i.e. not Platt). 

I find AB's dismissal of Howe a bit puzzling. If we can't afford him, fair enough. But are there really so many better options out there than a striker with power and pace who scored 16 goals last season? Time will tell.

I'm with babybear, effort is never usually the problem(especially with AB teams), so let us not get this mixed up with quality.
There are many who try but if you have the correct attitude and character and possess quality it makes for a winning formulae.
Headless chickens Never win Anything, neither do those not willing to take risks.

All this stuff that everyone knows before its in the media - can you post it here now pls? I'm starting to get bored. Thanks.

Scott Brown (Cheltenham)  ;)

cant see it as he is still under contract. but i would take a punt on Darren Carter.

Not with our hoofball approach..

Robert Green (QPR), Kingsley Black (out of retirement), Wes Brown (Sunderland)  ;)

Billy rainbow
Andy Grey.
Eduardo da Silva
Long John Silver.

Scott brown (Celtic) ;)

A millwall supporting friend has told me that Northampton have held talks with their winger come striker dany
N'guessan*
I can believe this as he was the same chap who told me we had tried twice to sign Hackett on loan before he eventually signed.
Also he can play as a striker and also out wide.
Maybe he is a striker 'who does more than score goals'.


* This is a rumour and not knowing mr n'guessan on a personal level should not be taken as fact ;D

I think he would be a superb signing. Has done well at a higher level though so would be very surprised if he dropped down to L2.

Turned down a reduced-deal at Colchester United. Was a first choice selection under Aidy Boothroyd.

"I felt I never got the chance to impress him. It wasn't that I was given the chance and messed it up, he just decided he didn't fancy me and that was that, I wasn't involved. The new manager has been like a breath of fresh air. It's nice for the forgotten players that were left disappointed by the old manager to feel wanted around the place again."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_White_(footballer_born_1986)

Wouldn't mind him, Col U fans seem to be sad he's gone

I'm feeling a bit Blue about how these rumours are forming.  ;)

Swindon, Crystal Palace, Yeovil.

In that order?

I had  John white in a football manager game with Wallsall alongside Nicholas and Demontagnac, and all I remember was that he could equally play right back and left back.

I hope the Yeovil  link isn't Alistair slowe...

Would be a good addition to the team, looks however that he doesn't get forward much, 265 games without a goal. That's a goal drought only matched by Bayo!

Anyone mentioned Zola from Burton yet  :-\

Zola would be a very good signing but he turned us down in Sammo's time because his wife didn't want to move from the north west.  This made his subsequent move to Burton puzzling!  I read elsewhere Shrewsbury are interested in him and that would be on his doorstep.

Whats happening with tozer and co??? Any news only bothered about gutts to be fair

They are all at Sixfields this week to resolve their future. After today the club can withdraw its offer.

today is deadline day for them..................not too fussed either way about any of them to be honest.

I'd like O'Donovan and Cameron to stay, and as much as I like Guttridge it is probably best for both parties if he leaves, it's pretty obvious ADB doesn't rate him that highly.

I think Tozer will stay as I know he's fairly settled in the area and I doubt many clubs will pay a fee for him, as for Harding I'm reallly not fussed either way.

I think we'll need a new centre midfield for next season.

i agree - and its long overdue

All of the five have had other offers apparently and ADB will not increase the offers on the table from us....wouldn't like to see all 5 go, what with pre-season training starting in nine days time.

Be patient, I am sure we will be better than last year and play better football. Are any of the five a big loss ? I think not.
It is not ideal to replace all 5 at same time but like I have said they are hardly irreplaceable. Hackett, Hornby definite starters so only two places to fill on first team sheet (maybe Ish has been to anger management and been training hard?).
Will be clearer very soon.

Are Hackett and Ishy really midfielders though ? Hornby is still raw and needs more time to develop.
Wouldn't be bothered if none of the five sign but will be surprised if none of them do.
If Harding and Gutts do leave it will be a chance to re-model the midfield into something more effective.
That will only be of course if the ball isn't whizzing over their heads most of the time !  >:(

I'd be amazed and a touch disappointed if Hornby wasn't one of the first names on the team sheet next season.

Just listened to the Cardoza interview :

* Same approach as last year, small squad but quality imperative.
* He expects most of the 5 offered contracts to sign but concedes one or two might not.
* Aidy and coaches have a list of 4 or 5 players they want in each position so getting players in isn't going to be an issue.
* Could be movement by the end of the week
* New kit is selling really well
* ST sales in line with what they expected, hope to shift more when a few signings are announced.
* He could do with a holiday
* Said that Fleetwood, Chesterfield, Southend etc will have biggest budgets, put ourselves in that group also.

That was about it really!

No mention of Hackett leaving for 80 grand? 

Might be bit less than that actually  ;D

Highly doubt Southend will have 1 of the biggest budgets, they keep failing to pay their players as it is.

Not really related to us but Calvin Zola has gone to Aberdeen!! The SPL is tinpot.

Does his wife know ?  ;D

We used 34 players last season....hardly ended up a "small, quality squad" did it? Also interesting that the Chronic says that we spent more money on players last season than we did in the previous 8 years. That period takes in the last season of Calderwood, the Gray reign, and even the Johnson year......but ADB spent more than any of them!  ;)
Also says that Aidy has a list of 15 centre forwards he'd like to bring in.......

The fact that a league 2 player can go to a team like Aberdeen really does highlight how poor the spl is to be honest!

Turnbull, Bayo, Robinson all big earners not bought in by Aidy. We used loads of loan players as squad fillers, Mukendi, Roofe, Huws etc, we never had a load of players at one particular time.

I should imagine Mr Carlisle contributed massively to any budget overspend :afro

I thought Carlisle was moaning that he took a 90% pay cut to sign a contract with York?

Haven't heard this one yet. Any more info than that?

According to Twitter he's been seen shopping in Peterborough's Queensgate shopping centre for fittings and fixtures for the new house he's just bought in the Fens. What could that mean?

Of course we won't be selling our best players.
We are trying to improve last years squad.

We are still trying to get bums on seats and selling your best players will not help that.
The club aren't stupid. ::)

Hearts are selling all their players, having just gone into administration and got a 15 point deduction...Might be worth Boothroyd going up there and seeing if he can pick some flesh off the bones.

If the rumour you are referring to proves correct I think we will all be in your camp Shoey. For me, he's the obvious quality in our team.

The rumour about hackett is not true!!

Boro's chairman has dismissed it.

Considering that Hackett left Millwall to be nearer his home in Oxford ,I doubt that he'll be going to Pish

Its just some kid on Twitter, who claims to be an agent.