It has been a hectic few days at Edgeley Park, with three new signings announced, another one agreed – and more to follow in the coming weeks.
Regardless of any external interest in the football club, the current Board of Directors, the staff and the management team have taken a pragmatic ‘business as usual’ approach, and continue to plan for the new season. The manager is building a formidable squad for 2018/19 and we welcome all three new players to the club.
Jim Gannon told County’s official website: “We have retained a good nucleus of players from last season. Those players helped the club achieve its highest position at this level and many have shown a real growth and development over the last six months. The form we showed since the turn of the year shows that we can be both competitive and confident going into the new season. Part of that improvement is the players investing more time in their football training.”
He added: “A lot will be made of part time, hybrid and full time structures and players. During last season I started to introduce a third training session on a Monday morning and expanded our strength and conditioning programme for all players and I feel it has paid dividends. We expect to retain that structure and look to add further training sessions to develop players over the course of this season. However, any full transition to full time football has to be considered carefully.
“This season we wanted to retain the ability to keep our best part time players, whilst also providing a growing structure for those that want, and can make, the transition to full time over the course of this season. At every transfer window we expect the squad profile to change. We expect to move towards more full time players and come to a point when we are all full time. But I feel that in the short term we have to be respectful to the contracts of our current players and what their expectations of the training schedule will be this season. A number of clubs have changed their structures without due consideration to the terms in which players joined their club. Throughout the changes that we made over the course of last season we consulted with the players and maintained professional respect for all our players, and we will continue to do that.”
It has been a busy week for the manager, as he welcomed three new signings on Thursday and Friday, just ahead of a well-deserved family holiday. The new arrivals include Boston’s Players’ Player of the Year Jordan Keane, Irish Under-21 star Connor Dimaio and former Guiseley striker Frank Mulhern.
Jim says he’s delighted to have added Jordan, Connor and Frank to the first team, as their additions have put the squad in a much stronger position.
Jim told County’s official website: “After assessing the squad I felt that we needed at least six new signings. Our top priorities were a commanding central defender, a further strong versatile defensive player, a bright creative midfielder and a very good all round central attacker. We’ve already agreed terms with an experienced central defender, and this week we confirmed the signings of Jordan Keane, Connor Dimaio and Frank Mulhern. So our main targets were secured and I’m really pleased with that. Our central defence, central midfield and central attack have all been strengthened and any losses or potential losses have been covered with very good players.”
Jim’s ability to recruit highly-rated young players has been underlined with the arrivals of Dimaio and Mulhern. He said: “In particular, the signings of Connor and Frank on two year contracts show, whenever it’s possible, our intention is to attract very good young full time players to the club.”
But the manager hasn’t finished his business just yet and there will be more new arrivals during the close season. He said: “Our squad is not complete yet. We are conscious that we retain enough funds and room within the squad for another attacker and a versatile attacking midfielder. We’re in negotiations with a number of players and I expect those talks to progress further once I return from holiday. By the start of pre-season on Monday 25th June I expect our initial starting group of first team players will be made up of 16-18 players supported by the three or four young professionals we will have under contract for next season.”
