Jack PerkinsJack Perkins
Jack Perkins
It was the glowing words of Ben Perry that helped persuade Jack Perkins to leave Nottingham Forest, a club he had been at since the age of eight, and make the permanent switch to Northampton.
The 21-year-old has this week made the big decision to say goodbye to the City Ground, where he had risen through the youth ranks, and sign a two-year deal with Kevin Nolan’s Cobblers, becoming Town’s first signing of the summer.
"I’m delighted to be here,” said Perkins. “It’s nice to have signed and I can’t wait to get started. I came in a few weeks ago to see the lads and meet the manager and do a bit of training. I found it really good, the lads were very welcoming and I enjoyed it.
"It’s a nice feeling to know the manager likes me as a player and wanted to bring me to the club and I really like the place so it was definitely something that appealed to me and I was keen to sign.
"There’ll maybe be a couple of weeks now to relax but then it’s all about getting back in the gym and making sure I’m fit and ready for the new season.”
Perry, a midfield team-mate of Perkins at Forest, impressed on loan at Cobblers in the second half of the season. "I had a chat with Ben as well and he couldn’t have spoken any higher of the place,” Perkins continued. “He only told me very good things about the club and once I spoke to him and I knew Northampton were interested, I couldn’t think of a better place to go.”
Another pull was Nolan himself, with Perkins adding: "The manager had a great career at the top level and I can’t think of a better person to learn from. Even in just those few days I was here and trained with the team, I could see what he wanted and I feel there's so much I can learn in the next few years and that’ll help me improve a lot as a player.”
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