It was a busy week of recruitment for Port Vale last week as Rob Lainton, Cristian Montano, Joe Davis, Sam Hornby and Graham Kelly all joined the club.

With Tom Pope also returning to Burslem earlier in the summer, that now brings the total of fresh faces acquired by Michael Brown up to six. Reflecting on the business so far, the manager said:

"It is nice to finally get some players through the door. We are obviously still working hard on lots more and it will take time, probably through into July and maybe the first week of August for some loans.

"We are working very hard to get the right characters in and players who want to represent this football club.

Despite it being the off-season currently, the manager insists he hasn't really had a break as he looks to assemble a squad that can challenge in League Two this season.

He said: "It has been a busy time even though it's the holidays and this is where the hard graft starts now. We are not far away from getting back in and we are looking forward to getting a good atmosphere in the stadium.

"I am sure the fans can't wait for our first home game."

With regards to players from last season who are in discussions with the club about their futures, Brown confirmed that he is still in contact with them.

He said: "We are still speaking to some, obviously players want to play in League One and some may even want to try another country.

"That's where we are. We are talking to a few and we may tell a couple to go somewhere else, but we are still looking at all the options and we will see where we get to."