Northampton Town manager Keith Curle has reflected on a busy two and a half weeks since the Cobblers were promoted.
Curle has had a hectic time behind the scenes since that win over Exeter City at Wembley, and he explained how things have progressed.
"It has been a really busy few weeks," he said.
"I gave myself a couple of days off to let the emotion of Wembley settle and then since then we have been cracking on with the recruitment. I met with the players when we talked about contracts. It is never nice to have to go through the job of releasing players but it is part of the job. I have then been planning targets with Colin West and Simon Tracey and planning how we want the team to play and how we want the team to function.
"We have re-signed Sam Hoskins and Michael Harriman and Vadaine Oliver has been made an offer. I have spoken to both Vadaine and his agent and things are ongoing. He has had interest from other clubs and it is a case of making sure things are right for the club and for Vadaine and seeing if we can come to an agreement that suits all parties.
"I am meeting potential targets and I always like to meet potential signings a few times. I have had 4 or 5 meetings with different players so far. The first meeting is to get to know each other, we don't talk contracts, it is purely about them as a person, what their ambitions are and how they might fit in to our dressing room. If that progresses, we speak to their agent to see if we can make things work. On some players we are well apart, on some we are close to where I see them being value for money.
"We have shown good housekeeping from the day I came in. We want and need value for money in whatever we do and that doesn't change. We are strict on the value we put on players and if a deal represents good value we are interested, if not then we go our separate ways.
"We have to maintain the work ethic, belief and commitment that we had last season and to try and improve. Having good people on board is vital and having good characters in the squad is important too. You need hunger, desire and character to try and progress and they are the characteristics we are looking for. We want players who we think we can improve and players who we think will improve us.
"A lot of the players we have worked with we have improved and that will be our challenge again next season."