Gaffer’s thoughts on the new signing in defence
Micky Mellon has added experienced defender Adam El-Abd to his Town squad as he continues building towards the start of the new Sky Bet League 1 season.The addition of El-Abd gives the Town defence a solid look with all the new faces playing a lot of games at League 1 level and higher.
The gaffer has been keeping tracks on Adam for a while now and is happy to finally be able to bring him to Shrewsbury.
“Adam is a player I’ve known for a long time and when we were at Barnsley we tried to get him in from Brighton”, said Micky.
“Like a lot of the other lads he is someone I’ve watched and kept tabs on because he is a good player.
“He is a player I have always admired and he has all the qualities I want to bring to the group.
“We now have a very experienced spine in the team and I’m real pleased to bring in a play of that quality to the club.”
Having played well over 300 games El-Abd adds a player with experienced in the Championship and League 1. The gaffer is also looking for good characters to add to the dressing room and he feels Adam fits that bill.
“He’s also represented Egypt at international level so that shows what type of player he is”, added Micky.
“On top of what people will see on the pitch I know what he is like off the pitch and he is a great character to have in your dressing room.
“He fits the profile of the other players I’ve brought in where they drive the standards of those around them because he gets upset if he doesn’t win and it then spoils his weekend.
“He’s not come all the way up here other than to win games of football and to keep his career moving forward and be successful.”
Recruitment wise the gaffer is happy with the options in defence and with the squad he’s built. It maybe a case of a few tweaks over the coming weeks but that would might reply on players moving on before any new faces come in.
“I would have to say we are just about done with the defence, we have got three experienced lads who I would consider as centre-backs as well as Dom to back them up.”
“We have young Joe at right-back, two lads at left-back with Sadler and Junior Brown and I would consider McGivern as a centre-back because of the qualities he has there but if we needed he could cover elsewhere.
“We are pretty much covered in the defence and throughout the other areas.
“At present we have four strikers and we can’t just recruit numbers and it might be the case now to wait for someone to leave and is very much a case of one out and then one in policy.
“I’m pleased with the group we have but i have never been someone who won’t look to improve things if i can.”
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