Kevin Nolan reveals Northampton Town missed out on deadline day signing, after a striker ‘forgot’ to sign forms.
He tried to bring in two unnamed forwards, in the hope of helping get the club out of the relegation zone, with one potential signing falling through when a Premier League club refused to release their player.
Then other bizarrely collapsed as the forward was unable to travel to Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium or the Moulton training ground in time, with paperwork then being sent through DocuSign so it could be completed remotely, only for the player to forget signing it, preventing the transfer from being finalised before the window closed.
This is one to file under ‘unexpected reasons for a transfer not to happen’… 😮
Northampton Town missed out on a deadline day signing because the player ‘forgot’ to sign the paperwork 😬 pic.twitter.com/g0h5dkUFYZ
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) February 4, 2026
“We are delighted with the two lads we brought in and we were hoping to bring in a couple more on deadline day,” he said, per Northampton Chronicle. “We were talking to two strikers and we were working right until the last minute to get them done.
“Unfortunately one wasn’t allowed to come out and that was down to the knock-on effect. The Championship has to wait for the Premier League and League One has to wait for the Championship. Because the club we were speaking to didn’t get what they wanted, the player wasn’t allowed to come to us, which was disappointing.
“Another one forgot to sign the Docusign we sent to them, would you believe, and we weren’t able to get the extension for it, which was gutting. We were incredibly frustrated, as frustrated as everyone else was.
“But I really believe in the squad here. I’ve always felt that to be a successful side you have to share the goals around. We had two defenders popping up with vital goals tonight (Tuesday) and we need to have goals all over the team.”
He told BBC Radio Northampton after Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Barnsley: “We were gutted. One was because a Premier League club didn’t want to let their lad out and one forgot to sign the DocuSign we sent.
“We weren’t able to get the extension [of the 19:00 deadline] so you can imagine that was unbelievably frustrating.
“I’ve been in successful sides and you’ve got to share the goals.
“At Bolton, Newcastle and West Ham we shared the goals among everybody and it was really pleasing to see a full-back and centre-half scoring a goal [against Barnsley], we want to have goals all over the team.”
On McAdam and Hammond, having already signed Elliott Moore and Jake Evans said: “I feel they can impact the squad in the immediate future and we get first option on them [in the summer].
“They’ve come here with a little bit between the teeth to try and earn something.
“I’ve watched them a lot of times with being from the Nottingham area so when we took [Jack] Perkins in the summer, McAdam and Hammond were always ones going to be ones we were going to keep an eye on as well.”
Twitter users reacted upon seeing Northampton missed out deadline day signing after a striker ‘forgot’ to sign forms…
@tinscognito__: Asking lower league teams to use this sort of technology leads to these outcomes. They don’t know what docu-sign is. They think the world is flat and 15 minute cities mean you will be shot if you leave your neighbourhood
@GabSutton: They had to do docu-sign, as the striker’s also unreliable on pens.
@joel_colson: Northampton Town Football Club and the everlasting striker saga takes a new twist… #ntfc
@ReeceDSport: Fair play I would simply give up on football if that happened to us
@RMcCarthy98: If they didn’t panic till last minute probably wouldn’t of been an issue but my god it’s depressing atm ain’t it 😂😂
@LankyCobbler: But then if it wasn’t left to the last minute it wouldn’t have been a problem
@TheShoeArmy1897: What on earth
@mkcobbler: Some would say why did we not do this busness earlier
@craig_lovesey91: 100% saw how shite we are and “forgot” to sign. No way anyone who wants to play does that. Leave all your business to the last minute this shit will always happen.
@roryspurs: Docusign is wild – They can arrange a full medical but not to get a pen and paper to someone!?
@Sniffer2212: Could this be any more amateur?? Surely people were chasing said player?? No doubt KT was rubbing his hands at the deal falling through
@TreenAdam: But Kev said we’ve been preparing for the January window since October and before Wheatley left 🧐 Can we ask some questions at the next presser around this please?
@LenM4: Huge fan of the player agreeing to every term in the contract… and then forgot to sign the damn thing.
@James_ntfc7: Northampton town football club everyone
@DeanoCrues95: I mean there’s always reasons for not signing a player but this is a new one.
@Cobbler27Ed: Fax machines never gave us this shit
@LTFC_Dave: Fairs, not heard that one before 😂
@Decerz_DD: You honestly couldn’t make it up 😂😂
