Paul Bodin: Port Vale assistant boss says 2016-17 recruitment plans already in place

Paul Bodin won 23 caps for Wales in his playing career and is currently a coach in the Wales under-21 set up

Assistant boss Paul Bodin says plans are already in place to try and strengthen the Port Vale squad for next season.

League One Vale only have nine players in the squad who currently have contracts that run beyond this summer.

"We're slowly putting things into place," 51-year-old Bodin told BBC Radio Stoke.

"There's lot of work going on behind the scenes in terms of looking at players for next season."

Vale can now turn more of their attention towards 2016-17 after seeing their play-off hopes all but ended by Saturday's defeat by Chesterfield - a result that left boss Rob Page fuming.

"You do a lot of work with contacts and trying to speak to players and getting character references," said Bodin.

"Even from the start of this season, we've been watching under-21 players and see how they develop - it's an on-going process.

"For all the work you do, you don't actually sign players until the end of June."