Marcus Braddock takes a look at what's been happening at the club
It's been another interesting week for Shrewsbury Town fans with players coming and going. I was sad to learn that Junior Brown was moving to Coventry City, he's been a firm favourite for his tenacious performances amongst the supporters, we all love a trier. He was somewhat more than just a trier of course and although it always hurts a little when a valued member of the team moves on, I wish him good luck apart from against us of course.
We've also appointed a new assistant manager in John Filan who has a wealth of experience, including time in the top flight with Wigan, Blackburn and Coventry. He's also got a little international experience having appeared between the sticks for Australia a couple of times.
There was no player movement for the rest of the week so to keep themselves busy, fans on social media went into meltdown. The reason for some seemed to be that we were haemorrhaging players at an alarming rate, weren't signing people quickly enough and that we were as good as relegated already! The only accurate part of that was that we hadn't signed anyone new that week apart from John Filan. One of the more level headed Facebook users pointed out that several Premiership teams had yet to sign anyone either but that didn't gain as much traction to the more alarmist posts!
By Sunday, things had calmed down a little and then John Askey's first signings were announced at lunchtime.
Mr Askey's first signing came from Dagenham and Redbridge, a forward called Fejiri Okenabirhie who was pursued by a few Football League clubs. We paid an undisclosed fee for him and having had a look at the Daggers social media, most of them thought he'd leave as they have a few financial issues currently. Hopefully the fee paid has helped because I've always had a soft spot for them, they were the team we signed Abu Ogogo from. If he has half the impact that Abu has had he'll be doing very well.
An hour later we were treated to news of Mr Askey's second signing, one that had been rumoured since he took our managerial reins. Macclesfield Town's Kieran Kennedy, a defender that can play a bit too according to a couple of Macc fans I know. He's got experience of the National League last season and also spent time with Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership so League One shouldn't be a massive step up.
The coming week may or may not be busy with player movements, we have players deliberating over their contract offers but they have until the end of the month to decide, it's a big decision in such a short career so not one to make in too much of a hurry. John Askey is actively looking for players with goalkeepers high on the list of priorities. However, he's experienced enough not to be rushed into quick decisions for the sake of getting a body in. It seems like he's canny enough to add to the existing players rather than ripping it all up and starting again. You see so many managers do that, get rid of the previous managers players for seemingly no reason. I wonder if they do it so that if they're successful, there will be no credit to the previous manager. Maybe it's footballing differences but it seems a rather costly way to go about things.
This coming Wednesday is the date for the Lionel Richie concert at Montgomery Waters Meadow. Richie brings a very special guest in the form of Anastacia, the American singer who competed with Ed Balls, Lesley Joseph and Judge Rinder in Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.
Mr Richie needs no introduction of course, his career has spanned the generations from the 1960's with The Commodores to his solo career in the 1980's and beyond. Personally I preferred the earlier stuff when he was with the Commodores with Brick House being a personal favourite but there is no questioning the musical quality of someone like Lionel Richie. He's worked with legends Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson amongst many others, he's that big of an artist. He brings a touch of genuine class to the Meadow and hopefully he'll leave Shrewsbury as a Town fan!
The world cup kicks off on Thursday and the club is inviting supporters to the Meadow to take in some of the games in the Sovereign Lounge. I watched the Charlton away play-off there and it's an excellent venue with a massive screen, plenty of room and a large bar. The first game they're showing is Brazil v Switzerland on Sunday 17th at 7pm and the most popular game is likely to be the England v Belgium match on 28th.
The following games will be shown –
Sunday 17th Brazil v Switzerland – 7pm kick-off
Wednesday 20th June – Spain V Iran – 7pm kick-off
Thursday 21st– Croatia v Argentina – 7pm kick-off
Monday 25th– Spain v Morocco – 7pm kick-off
Tuesday 26th– Nigeria v Argentina – 7pm kick-off
Wednesday 27th– Serbia v Brazil – 7pm kick-off
Thursday 28th– England v Belgium – 7pm kick-off
COYB!!!
Marcus