Shrewsbury Town

Midfielder looking forward to new challenge at Town

Shrewsbury Town are delighted to announce the signing of midfielder Jim O’Brien on a two-year contract.
The 28-year-old arrives at Greenhous Meadow after leaving Coventry City at the end of last season.
He becomes manager Micky Mellon’s seventh signing of the summer.
And the winger said the manager’s ambition helped him decide to come to the club.
“Everything here is lovely – it is really new and it is not a club that is living beyond its means in terms of building big stadiums that they can’t fill which can be the case in league one,” he told ShrewsWeb.
“Everything is fresh and I quite like the colours actually!
“He has signed a couple of warriors so hopefully they can do my tackling for me and look after me in there!
“I am looking forward to it and it is a statement of intent with the players the club have brought in. They have all been good business.
“He wants to take this club up the right end of the table. Once you get up there anything can happen. That is the goal and I like the ambition.
“Like I say it is a nice club, the stadium looks really fresh and new and it looks like a good place to come to work.”
O’Brien finished last season injured and on loan at Scunthorpe United. He has worked hard on recovering from his groin injury and is looking forward to getting stuck in.
“I had an operation on my groin because I tore it off the bone so that was interesting. That was six weeks before the season finished so I am good and raring to go,” he said.
“I have worked the whole summer so when you are seeing pictures of the lads on the beach it is hard to take when you are in the gym every day but you push yourself and motivate yourself.
“I wasn’t going on holiday this summer because of my injury. I have been working really hard to get back and I am feeling good now. I will get a week away with my family now to relax. The day after I come back it is straight into it.
“Coventry is a very good club and it probably never worked out as it should have there but that was personal matters more than football and just being away from my family so I will learn from that and I will get a place in Shrewsbury because I don’t want to be commuting from Yorkshire.
“I will find that balance a lot better now. I thought I could handle it with the travelling but then I was out the team for a bit and it was tough to take when you are sitting in a hotel for half the week. I have learnt from that and I will be getting myself a base here so I am looking forward to the next chapter.”
O’Brien knows of Micky Mellon from his time at Barnsley and he says the pair have kept in touch.
“ When he got the job here I sent him a text and when they played Chelsea I sent him a text. I know lads that have been here as well,” O’Brien said.
“The first day at Barnsley with the Scottish thing he was straight over asking where I was from how I was doing so right from the get go it was a decent relationship. I kept in contact once he left because I liked working with him.
“You know where the line is. He is quite relaxed but you know if you overstep the line he can get quite aggressive as Scots tend to come across anyway but I react well to that anyway. I’d rather that than a quiet word or an arm round you.
“Hopefully it is the start of something special.”