Alan Hardy sheds light on Notts County close-season transfer dealings

Alan Hardy has revealed how Notts County are in talks with non-league players, free transfers from the Football League and Premier League youngsters as he looks to forge a winning team for next season.

Only five players are contracted to the club past the summer and, although he says contract negotiations are under way with some of them, he suggests a need to rebuild.

With League Two boasting quite a few teams from the Midlands or otherwise not too far away from Nottingham, Hardy is also hoping to come out on top of the "Midlands mini-league".

He wrote in the Nottingham Post: "As a football fan and as the chairman and owner of this wonderful football club, I cannot wait for next season.

"It will be a fantastic division next year with a lot of local games and we will strive to ensure we come out on top of the Midlands mini-league!

"Mansfield, Lincoln, Chesterfield, Grimsby and Port Vale are not big journeys to undertake so I am expecting big crowds with big atmospheres.

"We have a lot of work to do moving forward but it is tremendously exciting as we look to put our squad together.

"We only have five players contracted to the club, one of those is the captain Michael O'Connor who will be out for most of the season, so in essence we only have four.

"We have new contracts to negotiate with members of the existing team and have already started discussing transfer targets. Some are non-league players and others have been released by clubs further up the pyramid.

"We also have our eyes on two to three seriously talented young Premier League players and we are discussing moves for them with their parent clubs.

"They do say a loan player only ever comes into his own when he is on his second or third loan spell away from their club.

"The players we are talking to have already been out on loan before and wouldn't it be great to have them here next season."

To read the rest of Alan Hardy's weekly Nottingham Post column, click here.

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