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NCFC boss Philippe Clement will speak to the media at 13:30pm this lunchtime to preview tomorrow's clash with Wrexham.
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We start with Josh Sargent. "He's training with the second team," says PC. "There's not much more to focus on now apart from Wrexham and getting results."

Sargent isn't available for tomorrow's game. "You can only control the controllable," says Clement. "That can also happen with injuries. It happened when he had a concussion and other people stepped up and we got results. It depends on him [how long he stays with the under-21s."

Clement confirms that the stance has not changed. "I said that he's not going to leave this window. It's not going to happen. I've said it already a few times: this club is in a relegation battle and everyone is focused on coming out of this situation. Josh has two and a half years on his contract."

PC: "There is alignment with everyone from the owners down. There would need to be an amount where we could sell him in this situation."

Clement on the effect of the Sargent situation on the squad: "I don't have any fear about distraction in the squad. They're all working hard in attitude, in team spirit, to get results."

PC on transfers: "I know I'm annoying, like many managers are annoying to journalists. Maybe we could do a week where we do your job and you do our jobs. I've been in football long enough to know that things can change quickly. Nobody new has signed until now, but I can give you some good news: Ali (Ahmed) and Papa (Amadou Diallo) will be in the selection for the Wrexham game."

On the approach to transfers: "Everybody's working really hard to get the right quality for the short and long terms. Nobody can ever give guarantees on anything, it doesn't work that way, but everyone is in contact about what we want to do."

Clement doesn't expect Diallo to play a major role tomorrow. "We need to talk about how many minutes," he says. "What is a safe zone, what is a risky zone and what is a crazy zone. He can't start, so it depends on what the team needs. We will be building his game minutes because he's shown good things, but the circumstances of the game need to be there also."

Ali Ahmed can go for around 45 minutes, "maybe more". Kenny McLean is fit again and "very hungry to start again". PC jokes that "I've made a mistake already - you have one starter" and slams the table with a smile.

Clement: "Until now this was our best training week, so everybody has seen that there is a big difference from four or five weeks ago. There is more intensity and more players fighting to start in a positive way. My favourite moment of the Walsall game was the reaction when Tony Springett scored, especially from the guys who were not in the selection. It's different from a few months ago, when they were living as islands. They feel the strength now of togetherness and competitiveness. We're in a positive way, but we've got a big challenge now against Wrexham. We have big respect for them and it's a really big challenge, but I like a big challenge. The players like that more and more, so we're going to go full for the three points."

On taking elements from the Walsall game: "We've got a positive dynamic because everybody feels more and more natural in the things we want to do. They are doing things more regularly and things are coming back faster when they forget these things. It's keeping this team hungry and full of desire. We know the position we're in, so we know we need a good series of games."

"I'm somebody who wants to put a team in the right circumstances and have the context of the game," says Clement of his knowledge of the Wrexham story. "It's almost an opposite philosophy - they have experienced players and I hear they pay very good wages, whereas we have younger players. It's going to be an interesting game. They are very good with crosses, winning duels and in transition. They have a lot of qualities there and almost all of their players have a lot of experience."

On taking confidence from previous away games: "We do, expect the first half against Birmingham. I never felt apart from that that this team was afraid of a challenge. It starts to become boring, but we've spoken about facing teams in good form before. I feel this fight in the group that they believe that they can beat everybody in this league."

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🟡🟢 That's all from Clement this afternoon. Onto Wrexham.

Posted By: DrDublin on January 16th 2026 at 13:46:18

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