Gaffer happy to add Rhys Sharpe from Derby County
Shrewsbury Town manager Micky Mellon has revealed his pleasure to have been able to add young defender Rhys Sharpe to his squad.Rhys joins from Championship side Derby County on an initial month’s loan and goes straight into the side that travels to take on Wycombe Wanderers.
It gives the Gaffer another left footed option in his defence with Mickey Demetriou being the only natural left footer after the long term injury to Nathaniel Knight-Percival.
Micky Mellon spoke to ShrewsWeb this morning to talk about the addition of Rhys to his squad:”I think it’s been plain to see for everyone that we needed to get some left footed players into the group, at present we only have Mickey Demetriou.
“Going into the last eleven games of the season it was important that, within the budget of the club, that we tried to bring in someone who could come in and help us if any eventualities went against us.
“We are delighted that we have got Rhys in and he is a player we know very well and we have watched a lot of him.
“He comes from a really good U21 team at Derby who we have watched over the season a lot.
“Rhys is only a young player but already has a lot of the attributes that we would want at this football club.”
With Rhys being able to play in the left sided centre-back position and left-back it gives the manager options and cover for the important run in to the end of the season:”There are eleven games to go and you have to cover all your bases and hope that you can cover any problems that might happen during such an important time of the season.
“The left side is an area we had to try and make sure we covered in left sided centre half and left back and now we have that.
“It comes as a relief to me and the other coaching staff and we can concentrate on the football.”
Having watched Rhys in action with the Derby U21s a lot the gaffer has a good idea of what type of player he is bringing into the group:”He actually is very similar to Knight-Percival and it’s uncanny, he’s probably a little bit more stocky in build but he is the same type of no nonsense player.
“He has a fantastic left foot, great pace, is a really competitor and is a good size.
“The people at Derby think very highly of him and we are pleased to have a player like him here.
“Yes he’s only young and making his way in the game but he has a great appetite to be a really good footballer and it’s important to have that type of player at your club.”
The Derby U21 side has a history of producing good players for the first team and they set their standards very high. When Rhys got word that Town were interested in taking him on loan he had no hesitation in making the move:”That is how they operate as an under 21 team and they always plan to use that team to develop players.
“The pleasing thing is that without a minute’s hesitation Rhys was excited and confident about coming to join us.
“It was also pleasing that Derby were pleased that we could take one of the young players that they hold in high esteem and that we could continue to push forward his development.
“As a club we need to be able to try and find these types of players and continue to bring them forward and help us move forward.”
The current transfer loan window runs to the 26th of March but the Town manager isn’t expecting much more movement on that front:”I think we are happy with what we have, we lost a lot of bodies and we were down to operating with every available body for every game for the last few months.
“We’ve only had eighteen fit players at times but we’ve got on with that and done well.
“Every team has to run with budgets and we are no different, but with Mangy getting close and Lawrence getting close it will give us some quality players and big personalities back into the group.
“We will need all that character for the last eleven games, and that challenge is what it is all about now.”