AIDY BOOTHROYD believes he has been able to attract new signings to the Cobblers because of the atmosphere of ambition that is being created around the club.
The Town boss has drafted in forward players Clive Platt and Alex Nicholls and wants to add another in that area, with a right-winger required to compensate for the expected departure of double player-of-the-year Michael Jacobs.
Platt turned down a contract at npower League One side Coventry City to move to Sixfields, while Nicholls walked away from a verbal offer at another league one side in Walsall to become the most recent recruit to the claret and white cause.
To have signed players that were wanted by clubs at a higher level represents something of a coup for the Cobblers and it will have pleased Boothroyd to hear both new arrivals cite his influence as a key factor in their decision to head south.
The precise nature of those convincing conversations remains top secret but the key strand of Boothroyd’s pitch has been one of mutual ambition and dragging the club away from the wrong end of the Football League.
“All players want to be part of something – when you’ve been part of a promotion or a successful campaign it whets your appetite for more,” he said.
“Clive (Platt) I have worked with before at a couple of clubs so I know what he is all about and Alex (Nicholls) is young, he’s hungry and I’m a similar ilk.
“I’ve worked in higher leagues but sometimes when you’re at a place it can exude ambition when you walk in, and I think this club is like that.
“I don’t want to be scrapping around the bottom of the league and to do that you’ve got to attract better players than what you’ve got, and I think we’re doing that.
“You’d have to ask the players why they are signing but I would guess they buy into my belief and my passion for getting Northampton out of the doldrums and back with some positive momentum.”