David Unsworth's squad for the new 2023/24 season is set to soon start taking shape, with Oldham Athletic close to announcing their first summer signings.

Latics released nine players in the summer, with a further four of the 17 who remain under contract being encouraged to find new clubs as manager Unsworth looks to operate with a smaller squad compared to last season.

Oldham have lined up their targets and have made significant progress in the market as they look to plot a return to the Football League and secure at least a top seven finish.

And Latics are looking to get at least one deal done before the end of next week.

"We are bringing in four or five players, replacing players that have left and they will all improve the squad from where it was last season to make it stronger, but it's going to be a smaller squad," said club chief executive Darren Royle.

Asked if the loan market was something Latics would look to explore, Royle added: "It has to be right. My preference is that we own and develop our own players and hopefully we will get to a point where we have assets that we can sell as well, because we have to balance the books at some point."

And Royle admitted player trading was part of the business plan going forward for the club.

"We can maximise all the different facets - there are five pillars to the business, retail, event centre, gym, club, community trust and we can monetise them as much as possible non-matchday but that's still not enough to have a self sustainable club," he said.

"And when you look at it most football clubs don't sustain themselves and they're reliant on owners. That's the whole thing about the white paper (from Tracey Crouch's Fan Led Review), to reduce this reliance on debt and try to make it a healthier business model. We're in a really good place building stuff back up again but player trading has always been the club has relied on to generate income."

Royle cited Academy product Harry Vaughan's sale to Hull City as a recent example of this.

"Harry's done brilliantly. It was finding a platform where he could project himself and he's taken his chance and we wish him all the success, and if he achieves great things it's good all round," he explained.

"One thing the club has made sure of since we took over 10 months ago is that we've protected ourselves in all transactions, and all assets that we've looked to sell on.

"Sometimes you can't keep hold of a player if they want to leave and sometimes I think it's actually the right thing and I think Harry is a brilliant lad and it's just worked out well for him and it could do for us and Hull."