‘We need five or six’ new faces says BBM
BRIAN Barry-Murphy is targeting ‘five or six’ signings as he strengthens the squad for the forthcoming League One campaign.
Alex Newby is the only new arrival so far – but BBM said more will follow.
“We were clear from March onwards that we were going to need significant replacements and the club were aware of that,” said Barry-Murphy. “We’ve made our requirements clear and I know the club are doing everything they can to support that. It has already been well documented about the budget restrictions and what we have to work within, but that doesn’t concern us from a footballing staff point of view, because we are highly motivated to find solutions that excite everybody.
“At the moment, we need five or six players, but that has always been the plan anyway. Who they are may vary in the coming weeks in terms of the actual personnel, but we have profiles and options that we have identified and we’re very much hopeful that we can get the main ones that we want on board. If we can’t, then we work back and add the players we want.
“It’s imperative that the players we have here are added to and supported by quality rather than quantity. That has always been the overriding theme of our recruitment since we started this job.”
He continued: “In terms of the areas of the pitch – goalkeeper and defensive unit, all of our supporters will know that we need to strengthen in these areas. I feel that we’re very strong centrally in midfield, and everybody will know that since Ian [Henderson], Callum [Camps], Aaron [Wilbraham] and Calvin [Andrew] left, that we have become severely weakened in the forward areas.
“The areas in defence, we’ve been quite creative in what we’ve found there in terms of a solution that we believe works for the Club. In the forward area, it’s just a little bit different because the players in that position are at a premium and are protected by their parent clubs or if they are free agents then they are holding out for as long as they can to find solutions for themselves, so that might take longer.”