Brian Caldwell Update

Latest update with CEO Brian Caldwell on the transfer window

Shrewsbury Town’s transfer window has come to an end, after brining 15 players in through the doors.

CEO Brian Caldwell and Town boss John Askey have both worked tirelessly to prepare the Shrews ready for the 2018/19 season.

The Town CEO reflected on a busy week for himself and the manager, he spoke to ShrewsWeb to give his thoughts. He said: “It has been a hectic 10 weeks since the play-off final.

“We have signed 15 players and the manager has changed in that time, it’s certainly been a busy one that’s for sure.

“I think we have done well, we have signed 15 players and the closed season has been quite mental to be honest, but we have done it, we have got there and we have a reasonable squad with plenty of competition for places.

“It’s a very strong squad and I’m sure John and the guys will do their best with it.”

Brian also felt that despite the club being in a healthy financial situation, it was hard to stop players who want to play at a higher level leaving the club.

“We have lost players we didn’t want to lose,” Brian said. “Take the Toto and Jon situation, we didn’t want to sell them but they wanted the opportunity and we didn’t want to stop that opportunity for players to play at a higher level.

“The agent that represents both of them told me that they felt their futures were at Ipswich, we have to move on now, we had to move on after the Paul situation.

“We’re just glad Ipswich reached our valuation. John is in now and I am sick of talking about Ipswich if I’m honest. Let’s just move on. We have a squad together, so lets just take the positives.

“With the Stefan situation, he wanted to be closer south if possible. His family hadn’t settled well in the area, so when we started getting offers in from Bristol Rovers I made him aware.

“It was something Stef was keen to explore because of the location, which again is unfortunate. We have brought Lee Angol in as a replacement for him.”

With 15 new faces in the building Brian has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure the deals were done to bring the players in.

He has confirmed to ShrewsWeb that the club expenditure has risen to near the £600,000 mark.

The Town CEO has worked closely with Town boss John Askey in order to bring in his targets ahead of the new season. Brian gave his thoughts to ShrewsWeb.

“We have spent a lot of money during this transfer window,” the CEO said. “The amount of money we have spent is near £600,000, with transfer fees etc.

“It’s been an expensive one and we have re-invested some of the money that we got back from player sales.

“We will now look at the finances and see what we are going to do with it.

“We always try to back the manager. It was important for us to get the right people here, its not just about throwing money at it.

“We have to get the right ones, the right types who want to work and play here.”

Brian also provided clarity on why transfers are usually conducted and completed with undisclosed fees. He said: “The reason that it comes out as undisclosed is because there is a standard clause in every financial agreement with the two clubs, whereby neither party can discuss with another party what the fee is.

“It is a confidential agreement between the two football clubs. Someone asked if we could release the details of the Toto and Jon sales, but we cant do that because we would be breaching the agreement, it could delay payment, we could potentially get done legally for that and the EFL and FA could get involved if we started breaching agreements.

“I think clubs are very wary about putting out the actual details, in case they are breaching that clause.”

Brian has also confirmed to ShrewsWeb that the club has broken its transfer record during this transfer window. He said: “The transfer record has been broken as I understand it.

“I can’t go into figures with that, because of the clause and the transfer agreement but I can confirm we have broken out transfer record.”