Gaffer happy to add experienced defender to his new look squad
Micky Mellon is pleased to have been able to add the experienced defender Matt Tootle to his squad as he builds for next season’s League 1 campaign.The Town manager has been tracking and speaking to Tootle for a while and the deal has finally gone through this morning after Matt completed his medical at the club.
It adds a player with well over 200 appearances under this belt, who has worn the captain’s armband at Gresty Road but who is still only 24 years of age.
“I’m really pleased to finally get this over the line and Matt is a player that we have been very aware of”, said Micky.
“He’s the type of player we wanted to bring to the club with that age and experience of over 200 league games under his belt.
“With that ability he is the type of player we feel we need to improve us as we go into a very season.”
Tootle comes in to strengthen the Town defence and over his career has played both at right-back and at left back. With Mat Sadler also coming in over the summer it gives Micky more options to work with at the back:”He can player right-back or left-back, he’s played a lot of games for Crewe at left-back during his time there.
“He is a very technically gifted player who always wants to get on the ball all the time and he has that important experience.
“He’s also another captain to add to the other leaders that we have brought into the team and that can only be better for the mentality of the whole group.”
Last season Town fans will have seen that Micky likes his teams to play football and with Matt coming through the ranks at Crewe is a player who is comfortable on the ball:”He’s very technically gifted like a lot of Crewe players are and they always rack up a lot of games from an early age as Crewe always play them as soon as they come out of the youth team if they think they are good enough.
“It’s fantastic that we can get in a lad of that experience and with the leadership abilities and qualities.
“He’s a lad who has always impressed us when we have spoken to him and he always asks the right questions.
“He cares about where his career goes from now on and wants to make sure the people who he works with care about that and help him to get better.”
The new faces coming into the Town squad mostly have experience of playing in League 1 and these are the type of players Micky and his staff identified to give Town a good chance next season:”That is another box that was ticked and people see what we have tried to do is recruit players that we know can operate in league 1 or who are going to get good enough and give an good account of themselves very quickly.
“If people look at Sadler, Woods, Agogo, Whalley and now Tootle then they will be able to see what we are trying to do.
“There are bits and bats of the squad we want to try and do and to try and improve.
“We’ve worked alongside the Chairman and Matt, who have been great to us, to shape a squad that we believe will be good enough to give a good account of ourselves in a tough division.”
Micky has also looked to bring in players that will allow him to adapt his style and formation next season. He felt last season he lacked that flexibility and it was something he wanted to address before the Sky Bet League 1 campaign:”That is something that i was keen to do and bring to the squad for next season.
“I want an adaptable group that if we tactically think there is a better shape with different personal to try and give us a better opportunity to win the game then i want to have those players on the pitch and bench to do that.
“We’ve learned from last season and have felt we needed to have certain things in our armoury if certain situation and scenarios come up then we have the players to be able to play in that situation.“
With Matt onboard it gives the number of players in the Town squad to 24 but Micky is still planning a few more tweaks. He is looking to strengthen in a couple of areas and that might mean players moving out before he brings new ones in:”We will probably try and shape the squad a little as we go on as there are areas we feel we need to improve in.
“There also certain members of that squad it would be unfair to say they are able to go in and player League 1 football now as there is development that needs to be done before they can be considered.
“We have always said we want to put a team behind the first team with potential that we could.
“There is still some work that we want to do shape the squad, whether that be ins or outs, but that always happens in football and we are on with that at the moment.
“We’ve been working hard over the summer on that and we are getting near to where we want to be and things are starting to work like a domino effect and we can now move onto a different priority to shape the squad for what will be an exciting season.”