Mansfield Town squad returns to training

The gaffer was speaking after Stags reported back for training on Monday to begin their pre-season campaign.

“We are very pleased with the business we have done so far,” he said. “In an ideal world, depending on who goes out, we want another one of two in.

“We are talking to one at the moment and we will see how it goes.

“We’re in a nice position in that we have done the majority of our business early.

“If we have got the nucleus in already and are starting the first day of pre-season together then it is great news.”

Stags begin their pre-season campaign on July 13th at Retford United, before facing Matlock, Grimsby, Hull, Coventry City, Basford and Nottingham Forest U23’s.

Clough was a content man after witnessing his players return to training in good shape.

“The players are in good condition and in relatively good shape,” said Clough. “They have been working over the summer and it's nice to see them back and looking relatively healthy.

“They will look a lot better in five weeks' time. The first day is about testing and is very light and we will get into the hard work later in the week.

“We just want an idea of fitness levels right now. We don't want to go mad in the first few days and players get injured.”

Mansfield will kick their new EFL campaign off at home to Bristol Rovers on 7th August.

And Clough knows there is plenty of work ahead before the big kick-off with pre-season giving him the ideal chance to fine-tune.

He added: “You have to use the next five weeks to look at all sorts of things. We are looking at fitness, patterns of play, different combinations, the balance of the team and formations.

“We like to face different styles and different levels of opposition. Retford will be a nice easy warm up and then we will step it up after the Matlock game.

“Coventry, Hull and Forest U23s will be the three games where we are looking to put it all together. It is important we look at as many different things as possible.”