Flitcroft playing the patience game on players as season draws nearer

Flitcroft has only brought two new faces in so far, but expects players’ financial demands to drop as the season nears.

He has also been linked with a move for Nottingham Forest forward Tyler Walker.

“It’s been slow – there’s not been the progression I wanted,” he said.

“Speaking to agents and players, it’s been a real waiting game. Players have been wanting top money and good lengthy contracts.

“But it’s about getting the value in that contract and making sure that you don’t over-exert yourself, not just in terms of the budget but also in making sure players are coming here for the right reasons.

“I spoke to a lot of players early doors as soon as the season finished, but they had too much aspiration in terms of the finances. That’s what their agents wanted to talk about.

“I want them to join us for football reasons and if we lose out on players we’ll go for the next one.

“I’m hoping things will happen over the next two or three days. We are negotiating with teams and players at the minute, so hopefully that wrestle will finally pay some dividends.

“We are being patient – and that goes for everyone in the business. Some did their business early and spent a lot of money on strikers, investing heavily in that. So that took them off the board.

“We are now onto that next wave of players. It’s about patience and at times it’s a game of poker.

“We have to make sure the next group of players that come into this building do so for football reasons and a desire to do well week in, week out, having that belief we can drive towards some sort of shared success.”

Strikers, a creative midfield player and a centre half top his shopping list.

“We are light up front and we are light on creativity,” said Flitcroft. “I felt were were short on creativity last season and that’s something we’ve looked at from day one.

“We need someone who really excites fans, someone who gets you on your feet with their dynamic capabilities. That’s the type of player we’ve been desperately looking for.

“Looking at the strikers, we have a couple of options in Danny Rose and Lee Angol, so that’s need filling up. And then we’ve got two centre halves in the building. That is another key position we are looking for.”

He added: “We are all aware we need new blood and the chairman, Carolyn and myself are all working hard on as have continuously since the season finished.

“There was a lot of monetary value that players wanted at the start of the summer. But the agents that were ignoring us and didn’t want to speak are back on the phone now and understanding their player may now not get those expectations.

“We’ve had more circulars on available players in the last two days than we’ve had probably for most of the summer.

“Players are coming back and speaking to managers and new names are coming up. Players we thought were settled at a club maybe aren’t. We still have six weeks to the start of the season so there is plenty of time.”