Elliott Bennett: I’ll give my all for Shrewsbury Town

Bennett, 32, who was club captain at previous club Blackburn, where he was out of contract, is one of Steve Cotterill's high-profile signings for Town this summer.

The experienced and versatile former Premier League man, who is from Leegomery in Telford, has clocked up well in excess of 450 career appearances across all levels, including a couple of top flight campaigns with Norwich, where he made more than 50 appearances.

He may have played for the likes of Brighton, Norwich and Blackburn, but Bennett is a home boy at heart and spent the last six years commuting from Telford – where he was born and his young family still live – to Blackburn on a daily basis. A commute he became very familiar with.

Ex-Wolves youngster Bennett, who has been playing for right wing-back under Cotterill with Town and is likely to do so as his main role this coming season, knows all about Shrewsbury and the Shropshire community and vows to give it everything for the Salop shirt and badge.

"I'm not what to say I'll score this many goals or get this many assists," said Bennett, whose younger brother Kyle has also enjoyed a lengthy career.

"All I can promise people that watch Shrewsbury is that I'll play for the badge on the shirt and try my best to do exactly what they would, leave everything out there for the shirt.

"Good, bad or indifferent, people won't be able to say I've walked off the pitch and didn't leaving everything out there. I think that's really important.

"The fans support the club, they are the constant, there forever. The least you can do is run around and work hard for 95 minutes with the pride of wearing the shirt, because there's thousands of others who'd want to be in my position.

"So I'm very fortunate, I've never forgotten that no matter where I'm win. The only thing I can promise is giving everything for the shirt, no matter a good or bad game."

Bennett spent time on loan at both Crewe and Bury from Wolves in his youth days. He faced Shrewsbury in memorable – for Town – League Two play-off semi-finals for the latter, before moving on to Brighton, where he spent a couple of seasons in League One.

After a couple of impressive campaigns he earned his big move to the Canaries, where he was a regular in Norwich top flight sides.

He did move out on loan on a couple of occasions towards the end of his Norwich career, once briefly to former club Brighton and then to Bristol City in 2015, where he played under a certain Steve Cotterill.

In January 2016 he joined Blackburn in the Championship. Rovers were relegated before Bennett played a key role in helping them win promotion immediately back from League One – just edging Paul Hurst's Shrewsbury to automatic promotion in doing so – in 2018.

Bennett became club captain and a key, versatile and experienced presence at Ewood Park. A valuable figure on the pitch and in the dressing room, and enjoyed a real affinity with the fans. He clocked up 192 appearances for Rovers.

"That would've been a lot easier, let me tell you that!" Bennett quipped when joked about whether he could've stayed in Shropshire to play on his doorstep throughout his career.

"I've done a lot of miles on the motorway. But this is perfect for me really, starting off in Shropshire, moving around a little bit and been lucky enough to play for some great clubs at a level I never thought I'd reach.

"I'd always dreamt of reaching them but managed to reach some crazy levels really, in my opinion, for what I thought I could achieve.

"And now I'm fully focused on giving everything to Shrewsbury Town while I'm here and who knows what the future holds."