Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury targeting two more deals
Shrewsbury Town boss Steve Cotterill has said he would like two more additions before the transfer window closes next month.
Salop have already completed six transfers this summer, with Aiden O’Brien, Tom Bayliss, Jordan Shipley and Chey Dunkley joining the club permanently and Julien Dacosta and Taylor Moore signing season-long loan deals.
In Salop’s first game of the League One season last weekend, the boss handed all six of the summer recruits debuts.
Five of those were starts, with O’Brien only fit enough to make a brief cameo from the bench.
And Cotterill, who prefers to have a smaller squad, says he would like to get two more players through the door before September 1.
“I think we could probably do with another couple if we can get them in,” the Town boss said when asked about possible incomings.
“But there might have to be business done to get those couple.
“The squad has changed hugely since I walked through the door, we had something like 29 pros which was too many.
“The average age will have been higher, but we have a smaller squad now.”
Last week Cotterill confirmed any business from this point is likely to be in the loan market.
And he believes he is in a good position with the players at his disposal – but he warned the team’s results will be the true indicator.
The boss said: “We won’t know if it will be great business, the proof will be in the pudding.
“I think we are shaping up okay, it is a bit similar to last year where we are gelling together as a team.
“They seem to be gelling well together. They are happy in each others company.
“We haven’t just planned from this summer, we were looking at it 12 months ago.
“Me and Keith (Burt) were looking at Jordan Shipley and Julian Dacosta a year ago, and sometimes things take a year.
“It might be that contracts are running down, and we need to entice them to come, or the club isn’t happy to sell or loan them.
“There are lots of moving parts to a transfer, it isn’t just, we need someone, so we will go and get them.
“It happens up and down the country, you have to get what you can afford and that’s the bottom line with it.”
