Northampton Town manager Jon Brady insists talks are ongoing with centre-back Fraser Horsfall amid interest from Bristol City but has indicated an internal deadline has been set before the Cobblers have to move on and try to find a replacement.
Bristol World reported on Tuesday that City were leading the race for the out-of-contract defender who was a mainstay in a miserly Cobblers backline as they missed out on promotion from League Two.
Although he’s never played in the Championship, Horsfall’s size and aerial power offers the sort of attributes Nigel Pearson wants in a centre-back as he seeks to address the Robins’ poor defensive record in 2021/22 as they shipped the second-most goals in the Championship.
Bristol Live understands that talks have taken place between City and the 25-year-old earlier this month, with the club having already looked to the lower leagues to bring in Mark Sykes on a free transfer from Oxford United.
Northampton have made a contract offer to Horsfall, who arrived at the club from Macclesfield Town in 2020, to extend his stay at Sixfields but Brady accepts there has to be a timeframe on how long they can wait for him to decide his future.
Ideally Brady would like to keep Horsfall plus teammates Shaun McWilliams and Liam Roberts but that chance seems to be increasingly unlikely as interest grows higher up the pyramid.
“We have strong relationships with each of those three players and obviously we tried throughout the season to try and re-engage those players to new contracts,” Brady told the Northampton Chronicle. "They have waited until this situation and the end of the season and at the moment talks are ongoing.
"We are doing our best and time will tell on that over the next couple of weeks. We are in constant communication with them and we will see. It’s a realistic process and we have spoken to them about that and there are certain parameters that we have set with them.”
Although City have one new face through the door in Sykes, while Severnside rivals Cardiff have made four new additions, it remains very early days in the summer transfer window, which doesn’t officially open until June 10, coincidentally when the Robins squad are due back to High Performance Centre to conduct pre-season testing.
This period towards the end of May and into the start of June is widely considered the quiet time in the market as players make decisions on their future before clubs are able to then complete deals.
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