Wycombe Wanderers will maintain their strong relationship with Brentford in the upcoming season, according to manager Gareth Ainsworth who also hinted that similar links with other Championship clubs are in place.

Four players arrived on loan from the Bees – Alfie Mawson, Sam Saunders, Nico Yennaris and Courtney Senior – over the course of the last campaign, three of whom played key roles in helping Blues reach the League Two play-off final at Wembley.

The west Londoners have since parted company with manager Mark Warburton, replacing him with previously unknown Dutchman Marinus Dijkhuizen as part of an internal restructuring.

Despite the changes, Ainsworth believes the two clubs will continue to enjoy a fruitful partnership.

“We might have a strong link with Rangers now, you never know,” he joked.

“We’ll continue our relationship with Brentford. Andrew Howard has a good relationship with the CEO there, I know people, but you’ve got your QPRs, your Readings and we have some good relationships with some good clubs, some strong clubs.

“I’m not going into details but it’s always handy for lower league clubs because, believe me, it’s getting tougher and tougher every year in League Two.”

Michael Harriman is the Wycombe manager’s only loan signing so far this summer, and he expects progress on that front to be slow as players attempt to break into the first team at their parent clubs before considering moves elsewhere.

Saunders, who played 14 times for the Chairboys last term, is a player Wanderers fans would love to see return to Adams Park, but Ainsworth explained that he’s not pinning his hopes on landing a select few players at this stage of the transfer window.

He said: “All the managers will know that every player has a chance and they won’t be loaning players out until right up until the first game, so I’m not expecting any loan deals until the first week of the season and even beyond that.

“Squads will get sorted, players will think that they’re going to be playing and they won’t, they’ll want to go out on loan and it happens every year. It’s all about timing, having it ready, pouncing at the right time.

“Sam Saunders is a great player, but there’s a lot of great players out there that will potentially come up for loan. Like I say, we’ll make sure we get the right ones in for Wycombe Wanderers.”