Mark Kennedy said that he was excited to have the opportunity to build a squad of players who buy into his philosophy at Swindon Town.

Following the addition of Ollie Clarke as well as Nnamdi Ofoborh and Joel McGregor signing new deals with the club, the former Lincoln City head coach has a group of 15 players at his disposal at present.

Kennedy said that he viewed joining a club with a small group of players as a positive because it would enable him to assemble a squad of players excited by the project he was building.

He said: “There are two ways of looking at that [inheriting a small squad], one thing I did at my previous job [Lincoln] was we pretty much started from scratch to bring in a brand and identity that is connected to the club and everybody is aligned to.

“I think that’s a good thing as you can bring in players who are going to walk through the door excited by the project going forward as opposed to living with negativity in the past.

“It is a clean slate and it is a good opportunity for everybody where we can build a new team and a new squad.

“The players that are here already I think are very good assets for the club, I think we have got exciting players in the building.”

Kennedy currently has a group with an average age of 21.5 and he said that he prides himself as a coach on being able to develop players of all ages.

Having spent time in the academy set-ups at Ipswich Town, Manchester City, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as being at a club in Lincoln that preferred signing younger players, developing talent has been a focus in many of his previous roles.

He said: “I think you never stop learning and developing, I remember seeing an interview with Sir Bobby Robson long after he retired when he spoke about continuing to develop.

“It is heavily geared around the younger players that only they can develop, but I think whether you are 19 or 20 or 30 or 31 you are always learning and there is always room for improvement.

“That is something I pride myself on, it is developing players on a continual basis, it just so happened that the last club I was at had a model of 23 and under and it was quite successful.”