Three new additions provide Lyttle with competition for squad places
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle cut a relieved figure last week as he finally added the last three players to his squad for the 2018 season.
Patrick McClean, brother of Republic of Ireland international James, signed a two-year deal at The Showgrounds to strengthen Gerard Lyttle’s squad.
Chelsea goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney joins the club on loan until June 30th.
On deadline day, the Bit o’Red announced the loan signing of left-back Calum Waters from Kilmarnock until 10 June, subject to international clearance.
Twenty-one-year-old McClean began his career at hometown club Derry City before going on to star for Waterford as they were promoted to the top flight.
McClean is keen to make his mark, and is determined to fight for his place, no matter what the cost is.
Kyle Callan-McFadden and Seamus Sharkey have built up a strong partnership at the back for Rovers, but McClean will do what it takes to get in there.
“As the old saying goes ‘there’s no friends in football’ so hopefully I can push them for a place in the team.”
Having helped Waterford to promotion last season, he felt it was time to move on.
“I left Derry and I wasn’t really doing anything, I was over in England training with Walsall for a few weeks and then Waterford gave me the call to say that they were building a project and looking to get back in the premier so I was really excited to join that. It speaks for itself that they went and won the league but I think it was my time to move on and progress as a player and this is a great place to do it.”
The fact that Sligo is geographically closer to home than Waterford made his decision much easier. “Yeah that was a no-brainer. Waterford was great and all but it was 4.5 hours away and it’s great to be closer to home.
“Sligo’s always been a massive club, when I was at Derry I hated playing Sligo because they’re a great team. When they were winning things, as a Derry fan, it wasn’t nice to see!” he quipped.
Chelsea loanee, Beeney, who has already had loan spells at Newport County and Crawley Town, is a member of the Blues’ Under-23 squad.
The 22-year-old has won the Under-21s Premier League and the FA Youth Cup with Chelsea and has been a part of the first-team squads for Premier League and European fixtures.
Beeney has played Under-20 and Under-19 level for England.
Beeney was over with Ger Lyttle’s squad during pre-season, and played 45 minutes in the final game of pre-season against Cabinteely. His previous visit to Sligo helped shape his decision.
“I didn’t know much (about the league) but once we started talking I watched a few clips on YouTube, things like that from previous games and that gave me an idea of what to expect.
“I came over for the last pre-season game and played 45 minutes and got to know the lads. It was probably the best thing I could have done, coming over early and getting to know everyone and going into the weekend’s game.”
For Beeney, a few months at Rovers offers him the chance to get some badly needed game time under his belt.
“I just want the experience of playing football because I haven’t played a lot in the last two seasons and I’m coming over here to help the team as much as I can.
“I’ve been at Chelsea since I was 12 years old, I played with the youth team and went on loan to Newport County and Crawley Town in League Two and then back to Chelsea where I haven’t played for the last season or so.”
He is eager to use this opportunity as a launchpad for his career.
“I’ve got to use this as a chance to get myself back in the shop window, and help the team progress as much as I can.”
Calum Waters began his career at Celtic and had spells at Dumbarton and Alloa Athletic, with a breakthrough season with the latter leading to a move to Killie last summer.
The 22-year-old has been a regular in the first-team squad at the Scottish Premiership club and switches to Rovers for four months with a view to more game time.
The move came about quickly on Tuesday, with Waters hopping on a plane on Wednesday afternoon.
“He (Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke) just phoned me yesterday (Tuesday) and it came up and asked what I thought about it. At first I was kind of like ‘yeah I’d like to go for it’.He thought it would be a good opportunity for me as well. Everybody said I should go for it and I really wanted to go for it as soon as I heard. It happened really quickly. Yesterday and last night we got the paperwork sent over to Sligo and I was shoving stuff in my suitcase last night trying to get ready for my flight.”
With three fellow Scottish countrymen in the Sligo Rovers squad, Waters was encouraged about the standard of football here in Ireland.
“I thought that if they’re coming here it must be a good club and I saw them playing over in Scotland so I thought it would be a good standard. I came up against them on a couple of occasions.
“I want to play as much football as I can and gain as much experience as I can because I’ve been desperate to play all season so coming over here gives me the best platform.” ROVERS boss Lyttle was like the cat that got the cream as he introduced his new signings las week. The new signings provide badly needed cover in areas where there was none at the start of pre-season.
“WE’VE been trying to get Patrick for a couple of weeks now, it was ongoing. We thought we had lost out on getting him but we’re delighted obviously when we got the call to say it was agreed and we’re over the line. He’ll be a great addition to our squad, he has great leadership skills, he was captain of Waterford last year, and that says a lot about the lad because he’s still only 21 and to be a captain of a team at that age says a lot about him.
He’s good on the ball, great left foot, can defend, is aggressive and something that we need and we’ve been looking for. We look forward to working with him.
“With Mitchell, it’s been a two/ three week scenario where we thought we were going to lose out on him. Eventually the hard work paid off and we were able to get him over the line. He comes with great experience, playing with a massive club, and he comes with experience of playing in League One and League Two when he was out on loan for a couple of seasons so again a real positive addition to the squad. We look forward to getting the two boys in and hopefully having a successful season with them.”
Waters and Lyttle had actually crossed paths previously, although Lyttle wasn’t aware of this until Calum informed him.
“We’re really excited with Calum coming here. He’s an attacking left-back and he’s great defensively as well. He started his career with Celtic and he’s just informed me that when I was at Cliftonville we played Celtic in the European qualifying game and he was on the bench for Celtic. It’s a small world, a couple of years later we’re together as a partnership. He’s an exciting young left-back and he has a huge future ahead of him. His manager rates him very highly at Kilmarnock, he just feels he needs some game time. He’s coming over here to play, he has adds tremendous competition for us in terms of places. We’re looking forward to having everyone together.
“I’ve a lot of contacts in Scotland and I’m always on the look out for players who fit into my philosophy and how I want to play, and Calum’s name came up a couple of times. We didn’t think we’d get him. I called my contact, an gent, and I asked him to inquire to the manager and pull a favour or two. And the young lad, what really impresses me, was eager to come. I’ve spoken to players from pre-season who are playing at decent clubs and get a bit nervous when you ask them to come over here and the young lad didn’t and it shows me he has great fight, great spirit and great determination and ambition to get back playing at a higher level.”
The three new additions to the squad mean that there is now also competition for places defensively.
“We said during the summer and when the season was over that we wanted players in that’s going to challenge each other and there’s a great competition everywhere now. I think probably the only sort of positions we didn’t have cover for was defensively and goalkeeping.
“We feel Ed McGinty is going to have a bright future at this club, he’s a top kid and a top goalkeeper but we just don’t think he’s ready to jump in to challenging Schlingermann just yet. He will, eventually. Mitch coming in, and Schlingermann are both top keepers and we need that competition and obviously Patrick is a left-sided centre-back and he gives us great balance that we didn’t have but he can also play left-back and it gives us great balance.
“Regan has done unbelievably well since I’ve come in and he’s still a young lad as well. It’’s not ideal losing your left-back or your full-back or any player who’s going to feature on the first day of the season. We’re signing a young player here who is young but has a wealth of experience. Training went up a level or two, it gives everyone a lift.”