Mansfield Town hope for two more new faces before the weekend as signing spree begins

Former Stags defender Ryan Sweeney became this summer's first signing when he agreed a return to the club on Tuesday.

But Clough is keen to get business done early and is also deep in talks with five players from last season over new deals.

“I think we have just about agreed everything with two more new signings and we hope to get those announced by the end of the week if possible,” he said.

“We had six on the list initially, so it will be good if we can get three of them in.

“One is a goalkeeper who has been away and we are meeting him this week.

“We have put a bid in for one player and are negotiating on that one, and the other one we are awaiting a decision on. They are the initial six.

“Strikers are a bit different at the moment – there isn't a forward among those.

“We will have to wait and see. There are four loan possibilities at the moment and they usually go a bit longer into the summer and even into pre-season. So we will continue to work on those.

“We always try to get our business done early. We have identified these players over a period of months, they have not just come up overnight.

“We have been watching them for some time and think they are going to improve us.

“If we can get four or five in by the end of the month then great.

“If we can get the others tied up as well we will be in a good position going towards coming back in for pre-season.”

Clough released nine players on his retained list and admitted: “It was a difficult one this summer as we think it is time to bring more players in than we normally do.

“We usually bring in four, five, six, that sort of thing, but we felt it was the time to bring seven or eight in, maybe even nine depending on who stays.

“So it was a tricky one assessing over the course of the season who we could best use moving forward.

“There were some difficult decisions in there as those players have served the club unbelievably well over the last few seasons and been a part of the success we have had.

“Aden Flint played a big part in our promotion last season and our survival again this season. But we've got to make those tough decisions sometimes.

“Christy Pym was another one who has been magnificent for us for a couple of seasons or so. But we just felt that since Christmas there had been just a few too many mistakes in there – and at crucial times as well.”

Mansfield have made offers to five other out of contract players to stay on and Clough said: “The negotiations are going well.

“We are still talking to Lee Gregory and we are hoping to get something sorted with him if his knee is okay. That is the only concern. If it's all okay we'd love him to stay.

“Lee is doing some work with Rhys Oates this week.

“Dom Dwyer has been made an offer, Jordan Bowery, Stephen McLaughlin too.

“The only one who may go is Scott Flinders, who has been offered a sort of coaching and playing role which might appeal to him at his age.

“We're just waiting for confirmation on that, but I think it's the sensible route for him to take at 39.

“He has shown his worth to us the last few seasons, even keeping a clean sheet on the last day of the season.

“We are going to miss having him around, so we are certainly going to be looking for a first choice goalkeeper and, depending on who that is, we will decide what we do with Owen Mason and Anthony Nunez.

“It may well be that Owen could be our number two this season, backing up a more experienced one. We will see what is out there.”

A busy few weeks for Clough and his staff include sorting pre-season games.

“We are just about done for pre-season friendlies now,” he said.

“We're a little bit behind with our planning as it's so difficult when you don't know which league you're going to be in until the last couple of weeks of the season.

“Then you are waiting on others as you don't want to play someone in your league, so it rules out quite a few teams.

“I can tell you we are going to Retford for the first one as we always have done, which is nice.

“Everything is a bit early this year. We are back in at the end of June – the lads are in for testing on the 27th and 28th June with the season starting on 2nd August.

“So it is an early start for everybody. We are going to have a few days away somewhere but we will confirm that in the next week or two.”

He added: “We are delighted to be having some improvements at the RH Academy as well which are absolutely vital and very welcome indeed.

“So everything is bubbling along quite nicely at the moment.

“Players are the most important thing and if we can get as many in place as we can then when we come back for testing it will be very important.

“May always goes a bit crazy, meeting lots of players and talking plus sorting the existing contract offers which are just as important. We want to get the lads tied up if we can.”

Reflecting back on the campaign just ended, Clough said: “It was an unbelievably challenging season at times.

“To start as well as we did from the very first day to achieve the position we did in January – the highest league position the club has been in for 40-odd years I believe – showed the heights to which we soared at one stage.

“Then to finish up two or three months later looking over our shoulders, we should not have been in that position at all.

“But we had a lot of challenges after Christmas, certainly with injuries and things not going to plan in games.

“The main thing is that over the course of the nine months we got there and we survived for the first time in 35 years. And we hope to be better and stronger next year.”