Shrewsbury Town boss Steve Cotterill appoints former Bristol City head of recruitment Keith Burt
Steve Cotterill has been reunited with Keith Burt, who joins as Shrewsbury Town’s new head of recruitment, the role he also held under the manager at Bristol City.
The Town chief admits the appointment of experienced player recruiter Burt, 65, will help ‘take the weight off’ and insists bringing him to the club can help Shrewsbury ‘jump ahead’ as they prepare for January recruitment.
The former Nottingham Forest chief scout was working at Cambridge United after leaving Bristol City in 2016, where he worked alongside Cotterill for three seasons. Burt and Cotterill also worked together at the City Ground.
“I’ve worked closely with Keith for a few years, we’ve become good friends, I’ve got a lot of time for him,” said Cotterill. “I’m trying to jump ahead quickly into recognising the type of player we want at the football club, so there won’t need to be a dozen phone calls to find out what I actually like.
“Keith will be part of us recruiting players and will take a lot of weight off me with that.
“He will be a fantastic appointment for the football club, just like (assistant manager) Aaron Wilbraham will be. Anyone I bring to the football club will be good for the club.
“I won’t bring them here just because I like them. I like them both, but the reason is because professionally they’ve been first class to me.
“It will be really important for the football club and for me.”
Cotterill explained that League Two side Cambridge were 'sorry' to see Burt depart.
“He was working at Cambridge as (former boss) Colin Calderwood asked him to go in. He started recruiting for them in the summer, helping the young manager that had gone in,” Cotterill revealed.
“They didn’t want him to leave, they were very sorry he left. I’ve known him a long time and when I got a job he was always going to come and work with me.”
Cotterill, meanwhile, will not have Brad Walker available for today’s visit of Charlton in League One, where Town are bidding to end a nine-match winless run with a first home success of the League One season.
Walker, a midfielder who has filled in defence at times this season, limped out of Wednesday’s draw with Accrington with an ankle injury.
Ethan Ebanks-Landell (head) should be fine to feature after the club followed concussion protocol, but winger Shilow Tracey is not quite ready to return. Cotterill said Tracey will step up his comeback from injury next week.
