Town go Dutch with midfield ace

Shrewsbury Town have gone Dutch by signing midfielder Benjamin van den Broek for the promotion run-in.

The 22-year-old has agreed a deal at the Prostar Stadium until the end of the season after turning down a string of other offers from around Europe.

Club officials finally received long-awaited international clearance late yesterday afternoon, but van den Broek was not due to be involved in this afternoon's home derby with Hereford.

Instead, his first taste of English football will come on Tuesday night when he is due to make a reserve team outing at Burton Albion.

Van den Broek - who was also attracting interest from FC Den Bosch in Holland and Lierse SK in Belgium - became available when his Dutch club HFC Haarlem went bust last month.

"I'm delighted we have got Benjamin in," said Simpson.

"He's an attacking right sided midfielder who can also play centrally and has been known to play out on the left.

"His favoured role is probably the 'Dutch No 10' position playing just behind the strikers.

"He had a lot of more lucrative offers from club in Europe but he had a dream to play in England and now he is determined to show us what he can do between now and May and earn a longer contract."

Van den Broek was originally pencilled in to play some part in last week's reserve game against Macclesfiel, but Haarlem's eight day appeal against their financial plight hadn't concluded.

But the youngster elected to remain with Shrewsbury in training in an attempt to catch the eye of Simpson and his coaching staff,

"Full credit to Benjamin for that because he had other offers but was determined to come to England," Simpson added.

"He got stronger with each training session he had with us.

"He's played at a good level and hopefully that will be enough for him to adapt and cope with our League."