Gaffer gives his thoughts on the signing of Stephen Humphrys from Fulham
Shrewsbury Town manager Paul Hurst is delighted to have made his sixth signing of the window by bringing in Stephen Humphrys.Humphrys joins on loan from Fulham, for whom he has impressed at Under-23 level this season.
Stephen is a striker and Paul was pleased to have added him to the group.
“He’s a goalscorer”, Paul told ShrewsWeb.
“I’ve seen him play wide, but he’s predominantly down the middle. He’s scored quite a few goals for Fulham’s Under-23s. He’s just signed a new contract, which is something that had to be sorted out before anyone could take him on loan, so congratulations to him.
“They obviously think a lot of him, but in the short term they’ve allowed him to come out on loan to us. He’s got a bit of physicality about him, good pace, a good work ethic and we want all of those things added to our team when he pulls on that shirt.”
Stephen is the third striker Paul has brought in on loan in the last few weeks and he believes that that area is now well stocked.
“I think we are probably done in that area now”, said Hurst.
“We’ve got three loan players there and Louis and AJ, so I think there we’ve got some options available to us.
“Stephen’s another young player that is yet to prove himself at first team level, but someone that I know is desperate to come out and contribute, so from that point of view he fits the profile.
“With the best will in the world it’s going to be difficult to get a League One striker that’s scored lots and lots of goals in the January Window, so I feel like this is a good option for us.
“He’s someone that I saw probably the week after I came in, he impressed in a game, scored a couple of goals and ever since we’ve kept an eye on it, spoken to Fulham about the possibility of getting him in and he’s obviously not at the stage where he’s joined us.”
Stephen has been in training with the squad since Tuesday and Paul has been impressed with what he has seen so far.
“He’s a lad that can handle the football”, said Paul.
“These players that we’ve got in can control a ball, they can pass a ball well and if it’s fired into them they can look after it.
“It seems like he’s mixed in really well and is looking forward to getting started. He was keen to get it done last week for the Oldham game because that’s where he’s from, but it wasn’t to be, so he’s had to wait a little while.
“But, he’ll be in the squad and whether it’s starting or whether it’s on the bench, I’m confident that he’ll get some minutes this weekend.”