Southend United manager Phil Brown wants both Graham Coughlan and Dave Penney to stay

Coughlan has been linked with the vacant managerial position at Plymouth Argyle, while Penney was recently charged with assaulting a policeman and is believed to be in the running for the manager’s job at Conference outfit Gateshead.

But Brown would ideally like them to stay with the Shrimpers.

“I thought last season we had one of the best backroom teams in League Two, so of course I want both Dave and Graham to stay with us,” said the Blues boss.

“I don’t want anybody to leave and ideally I would like to even add to the backroom team, if possible, to try and make sure we can also have one of the best set ups in League One.”

Coughlan and Penney will both be out of contract before the start of the new season and so too will Brown.

However, the Shrimpers chief remains adamant he will be remaining at Roots Hall and expects his future to be sorted before the players return for pre-season training at the start of the July.

“The contract situation is still the same and it’s being looked at by my solicitors,” said Brown.

“But I do think it will all be done by the time we come back in for pre-season training.”

Brown, who is currently away in America, is now also planning his side’s summer friendlies ahead of the forthcoming campaign in League One.

However, winning promotion via the play-offs has made that task more difficult.

“I think we’re playing catch up a little bit when it comes to pre-season because our season went on for a bit longer compared to other teams and we weren’t sure what league we would be in either,” said Brown.

“We obviously don’t want to be playing teams in League One during pre-season so we’re looking higher than that now.

“We’ve spoken to clubs, including two London Premier League sides and hopefully we can confirm it all in the next 10 days.

“It would also be great if we could go abroad in July like we did last season but that’s something I will obviously need to talk to the chairman about.”