Five Summer Signings on the Cards!

Steve Cotterill would appear to be lining up a hectic summer in the transfer market.

This would also suggest that additional financing could be found for players from an increasingly ambitious Board.

The gaffer has indicated he would like five new additions to the squad

Cotterill states:

'There will be movement in the summer I would say and I think we need five players - five positions that I would like to be better in.

'If we could do them it would be a decent squad with good competition.

'I said 18 months ago I thought this league was like Premiership Two, but it's getting closer to the Premiership if you have a look at the teams that are in it.

'There are some clubs in our league now that are, certainly attendance wise, bigger than those that are in the Premiership now.

'The three teams that come down from the Premiership will all be bigger and better for being there and will be certainly be well supported coming down.

'Then you might have Nottingham Forest and Bristol City coming up, while if Scunthorpe go and do what Colchester did last year, then they are going to be a tough nut to crack.

'It is getting forever bigger, so we've got to make sure we get better players into our squad and not stand still really.'

Steve Cotterill also refused to be drawn on the situation regarding our out of contract players in the Summer.

Danny Coyne, Graham Branch and John McGreal are the players who will be out of contract. Frank Sinclair has of course also joined Huddersfield on loan with a view to a permanent move.

'I'll be talking to the players involved before I talk to anyone else.' says Steve

Its difficult to know whether the five new players would be partly funded (eg salaries) by the release of those out of contract therefore or whether there will be an increase in squad size compared to the 23 players we have at the moment. It sounds more like the latter so lets hope the Board continue to 'walk the talk' and financially back the manager.

Steve has had a bit of a torrid year after that awful winless run but let's hope a strong finish and the excitement of seeing new players arrive might be the tonic the fans need and we can see increased season ticket sales.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.