SWINDON Wildcats will be building around ‘franchise player’ Stevie Lyle during the close season as Aaron Nell looks for improvement.

With the Great Britain netminder committing his future to the club for another three years at the beginning of the month, Nell is keen for him to be the focal point of his construction project.

Having invested heavily on the squad last year, Nell is now embarking on his first recruitment drive as player-coach of the Link Centre outfit and has already got his eye on targets he thinks will help give Swindon the edge next campaign.

“Stevie was the biggest signing of the summer in the whole league,” said Nell.

“There were an awful lot of teams after Stevie and we have got him and he is our franchise player and now we can build around Stevie.

“We just need to find that two or three per cent more and that will hopefully create some success.

“There have been a few (players in mind) but it is tough because everyone is playing now.

“In the next couple of weeks we will see what is out there and who is available and we’ll try and build this and have another good season next year.”

No matter who Nell brings into the roster, he is fully aware that the players will have to dig deep if they are to break their run of two seasons without making the play-off semi-finals, having fallen to Guildford Flames at the quarter-final stage on Sunday.

“It is hard work (that is needed to bridge the gap),” added player-coach Nell.

“We are going to get a team that might not be best on paper but we are going to work hard every single game and wherever that takes us, it takes us.

“The top two teams in the league this year have not got the two biggest budgets in the league.

“They have two very good coaches and they have built a culture and a philosophy at their clubs.

“Doug Shepherd took four years at Basingstoke and Slava Koulikov was very quick in Peterborough and I have got to learn from them.

“There are people around who are willing to help and I have got to be a sponge and learn lots.

“The biggest thing in Swindon is that we have got to turn up every night and we have got to have a tight team.

“That is what those top teams do. We are almost there and it is about everyone at the club building.”