So the players are back in training, the European Championships are over and our first friendly is just over a week away...the countdown is well and truly on for season 2008/09...
Stuart Gray and his troops returned to Sixfields on Monday as we prepare ourselves for the start of the pre-season fixture list. Every player has gone through an intense few weeks of fitness and dieting and will all be assessed on their return.
Adebayo Akinfenwa has had his steel rod removed from his leg and it will be very interesting to see how he’s progressing. We only had a reportedly 80% fit Bayo at the end of last season and he scored seven times in fifteen games so who knows what he can bring to the table with 100% fitness!
Liam Davis and Abdul Osman joined their new colleagues for pre-season training and will hopefully fit in well to their new team. The squad is pretty much the same as it was when the season ended and this should mean that the team spirit can get going right away. Stuart Gray has done a shrewd job in getting players out of contract to sign up early and hopefully the lack of a massive change in ranks will work in our favour.
Further signings are still to be revealed but July will be the time that managers and players return from holidays and we should see more activity than in the last few weeks. A striker to accompany Bayo will still be the main target but loan signings may well be used again as well.
One loan signing could be Mark Little. Wolves have scrapped their reserve side this season and this will see a massive dip in first team football chances for the younger and fringe players in Mick McCarthy’s squad. Little is down the pecking order at Wolves and talk is of an offer being made to the defender to bring him back here for a season long loan spell. It would certainly build up competition at the back with the likes of Chris Doig, Mark Hughes and Gabor Gyepes already in place and Liam Dolman still waiting in the wings.
Still no word on any outgoings and Mark Bunn remains at Sixfields for the start of pre-season, something that is more baffling than anything. Whether we’re asking for a price that’s out of range for any possible suitors I don’t know but it’s still incredible that no more firm offers have been put on the table.
With the first game of pre-season on July 10th at Brackley, we await with high anticipation the first glimpses of the new faces and the fitness of the returnees!
Up The Cobblers!
Danny
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