Gaffer pleased to bring in Luke Hendrie from Burnley
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst was delighted to bring in his second signing of the January transfer window in the form of Luke Hendrie.
The versatile defender joins on a permanent deal, for an undisclosed fee, from Burnley after he spent the first-half of the season on-loan at League One rivals Bradford City.
“He’s a versatile defender that I had my eye on in the summer”, admitted Hurst.
“We couldn’t quite come to an arrangement with the parent club at the time and he moved onto Bradford City, so he knows what it’s like to be at the top of League One.
“He played a lot of games in Scotland before that, caught the eye and started to build a very good reputation, so for me he is ideal for us.
“He’s another one that is at a younger age and should still have lots of development in him. He’s a good character as well, which is important to us, and I think he adds some flexibility to the backline and adds to our options back there.”
Hendrie has played in a number of positions in his career and Hurst believes his versatility will come in handy.
“I think first and foremost his position is right-back, but I always think when you’ve got a squad that isn’t overly large that you need players that can fill-in in different positions”, Paul said.
“He’s played quite a lot of times at left-back, he’s said that he’s more than happy to do a job as a holding midfield player as well, so if it comes to it and we need to use him there we can, but more so both full-back areas.
“I dare say he could fill-in at centre-back as well, not for the long term, but during a game certainly, so he gives us lots of options and I think that’s what we need, but he’s also gained some good experience at a relatively young age.”
Town beat Bradford to Hendrie’s signature and Paul believes his signing could be seen as a bit of a coup.
“It’s not the case that we’ve got someone who has been cast aside”, said Hurst.
“I think Stuart McCall has mentioned that he was disappointed not to keep Luke, but as soon as I spoke to Luke he liked the fact that we have kept an eye on him and he seems very keen to get started.”