Boss searching ‘far and wide’ to add new players ahead of pre-season schedule.
Manager Paul Cox hopes to have a settled squad in time for our upcoming pre-season matches against Aston Villa (17 July) and Birmingham City (19 July).
The Stags boss, who is entering his fourth campaign at One Call Stadium, is expected to run with a maximum squad-size of 22 players in the upcoming campaign.
With the goalkeeping position still to be filled, Cox has been in constant dialogue with players, clubs and agents ahead of our busy pre-season schedule.
“I’d envisage by the time that we get into the second week, i.e. the [Aston] Villa and Birmingham [City] games, I want quite a settled unit.
“But if potential signings are available I won’t be afraid to use them in those games.
“We aren’t looking for a great deal. We’ve got 16 players signed up now and we’re going to be running with a squad-size of 22 maximum, though it might work out at 20.
“So I’m going to have to do whatever it takes to make sure that I bring in the right player at the right price for Mansfield Town.”
Meanwhile, our boss will also cast his eye over a number of trialists in a behind-closed-doors match against an un-named second-tier club later this week.
“A number of the players that might come in could be loan signings,” continued Cox. “We’ll probably have a goalkeeper or two in the behind-closed-doors game, but I’ve got to cast my net wide and far.
“We’ve got to keep things wrapped up in our own camp because we’ve lost a lot of players to other clubs in the past week or so, but we’re talking to numerous players and agents.”
He added: “I think there’s got to be a sense of realism in terms of our targets. We’ve made offers to numerous players which haven’t worked out and they’ve moved on to other clubs, so we’re going to keep looking.”
You can hear a full interview with Paul Cox on Stags Player later today. To subscribe, click here.
