James Wesolowski chose Shrewsbury Town over Australia return

Summer signing Wesolowski, who was born in Sydney, had been mulling over a lengthy contract to play Down Under when Mellon pounced, swooping to persuade him to remain on these shores.

Mellon and his assistant Mike Jackson had to move quickly to secure a meeting with the highly-rated Oldham Athletic midfielder, who claimed the Latics' player of the season award last season.

But once they laid out their plans for Town, and the role they saw him playing within it, the former Peterborough man opted to remain in England.

Mellon said: "We knew he was available and he was always been a played that we have admired.

"So we phoned him and said 'where are you?'. He said 'I'm in Leicester so we said, 'at 11am tomorrow we are coming to see you'.

"He said 'OK'. We met him the next day and he was going back to Australia.

"There was other interest in him.

"There was good interest in him, but me and Mike (Williams, Town chief executive) had a good chat with him and told him what we wanted to do and how we wanted him to be a part of that.

"He flew back to Australia and his agent said he had a three-year deal tabled to play in Australia, so he's got an awful lot to think about.

"But I got a phone call from his agent a couple of days later saying 'I don't know what you've done to him but this lad wants to come back and sign for you.

"So we were delighted and we tried to get the deal done as quickly as we could."

The deal was eventually confirmed at the start of this month, and Mellon is adamant that the player will add some necessary fire and steel to his midfield for next season.

He said: "He is a fantastic footballer, his ambition matches ours and he has certainly got the fire that is going to be needed next season."

Wesolowski also rejected a new deal at Oldham before joining Town.