As Wanderers players return for the start of pre-season on Thursday morning, manager Gareth Ainsworth insisted that he is eyeing up more new recruits.

The pool of players currently available to the Wycombe boss stands at 16 after he indicated that Sido Jombati and Matt Ingram were fit to begin training with the squad once again following long-term injuries, although stating that they may not be risked in the “early games” of Blues’ pre-season schedule in order to ensure they’re fit and ready for the opening League Two clash of the season against York on August 8.

Hogan Ephraim is still mulling over the offer of a new contract but Ainsworth is not waiting on the midfielder’s decision before pursuing other targets.

“We’re going to explore more,” he said. “We’ve got 16 now and I always said that I’d like to start the season with 18 permanent players and the loan market will be big again for us.

“I’ll be looking to add to it, there will be triallists coming in, there are still names on the list that we’re very interested in and we’re talking to various parties.”

Wanderers’ success in reaching the League Two play-off final last season, where they came within seconds of promotion, has not caused the manager or chairman Andrew Howard to alter the five-year plan they outlined when the latter came into the club last summer.

Survival was the only aim in year one and although they accrued 29 points more than they targeted that feat will not serve to change the objective of a mid-table finish in the second year of the plan. “There are big restraints at Wycombe and I don’t want anyone thinking that we’re in year five of the plan – we’re in year two of the plan and the plan was a very slow ‘let’s build this club back together again’ sort of plan.

“We’re in a new season, it’s a new squad but it’s the same target that we set for year two at the start of last season. We haven’t changed any targets, we’re not trying to rush forward, we’re not trying to run now that we’ve had a successful season.

“In any business, if you’ve had a good year you don’t suddenly just chuck everything at next year because it would be a recipe for disaster.

“We’re slowly, slowly building and if you have a great year that’s a bonus, and that’s what we did last year but its slowly, slowly building and the players that I’m bringing to the team will improve us slowly.”

Ainsworth and his backroom staff drew plaudits last season for their work in utilising the loan market, with a fruitful relationship with Brentford bringing players such as Alfie Mawson, Sam Saunders and Nico Yennaris to the club.

The club are yet to bring any players to the club on loan this summer but it’s only a matter of time for Ainsworth, who predicts having to work with a squad of similar or less numbers than last season.

“We’re still a couple short and we’ll be signing a couple more before the season starts,” he said.

“The loan market will be enormous again for me this season. Dealing with small numbers, the squad will actually be smaller than last year. We had 21 to start and I think it’s going to be 18, if that, to start this season.”

Five new players have been integrated into the group so far but that’s not enough to satisfy the Blues boss who is targeting more arrivals before they kick off pre-season against French side US Avranches on July 16.

Ainsworth said: “They’re good additions and I’m not finished yet but I’m really pleased with how it’s coming together.

“It’s going to be slow, it’s always going to be slow at Wycombe because we can’t just go out and cherry pick we have to pick the fruit off the floor rather than off the tree.

“We pick the best ones and that’s what we do. People have got to be patient, like I said right from the start.”