Mansfield Town

Our boss is also hopeful that a deal to sign one player could be concluded within the next 24 hours.

“We spent yesterday talking with representatives of players and I’d like to think that we’re very close [to signing someone],” said our boss. “I’m hopeful that a deal can be done in the next 24 hours.

“Everything was fine with one player, but we’ve got to be respectful with all players and their clubs.

“Until someone has actually signed on the dotted line then we’ve got to take it that [a deal] is not happening, but from the talks yesterday, things are looking very promising to bring somebody in.”

Cox also discussed speculation in a tabloid newspaper over the weekend that linked Crawley Town striker Emile Sinclair with a possible move to One Call Stadium.

He continued: “I drew up a shortlist for the chairman and [Emile] is one of the players on that list, but we’ve not just spoken to his representatives – we’ve spoken to a number of other representatives.

“If he was available, Emile is [a player] that we would like to bring in.”

Asked whether we could sign more than one player before Saturday’s home match with Wycombe Wanderers, Cox replied: “It’s an option and is something that we’ve looked at.

“But what we don’t want to do is run before we’ve started to walk on anything. We’ve got our targets and we’ve been tracking them for a while now.

“We’ve been patient and sometimes patience is the key in these deals as there are so many different facets of signing a player that need sorting.

“So I’m really hopeful and I think it will give the club and the players a massive boost, but at the minute we’ve got to be careful because no deal is sorted until the paperwork is signed.”

In other news, our manager is also hopeful that frontman Sam Clucas will be available to resume training in around one week, though Ben Hutchinson may be out for a little longer.