Plenty of fresh faces but more big hitters, too, as new campaign loomed
ALBION BOSS BUSY RECRUITING LAST SUMMER BEFORE PRE-SEASON PROBLEMS AS HEMMINGS AND MOULT INJURED
We begin our review of Burton Albion’s 2021-22 season in the summer, with expectations high. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, having pulled off the Brewers’ great escape from relegation, sets about rebuilding his squad.
JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink wasted no time moving in the summer transfer market.
He had already recruited heavily in the January when players like Jonny Smith, Tom Hamer and Terry Taylor had been added. But he had also shifted players out.
“We had 12 players leaving and we wanted to go into pre-season with the majority of our squad ready,” said Hasselbaink at the time.
“I wanted the majority together from day one because there’s a lot to work on. The plan is that we have gone younger. We have gone with players who can grow with the club, with us.
“We wanted a core here with a very good foundation through the spine (of the team) and that’s why we’ve done what we’ve done. We have given a few two-year contracts with options.
“I wanted to balance the squad, with two players in every position and then another two who can play in four or five positions, if we were to have two players in the same position injured. There is good back-up and we have tried to get the level as high as possible between them, so that there is good competition for the shirt.
“There is a risk because, at the end of the window, there might be someone available that we really want but we have already filled the place
“We made the decision that the players we identified who we wanted to bring in – like Connor Shaughnessy, Bryn Morris, Deji Oshilaja, Louis Moult – were opportunities we could not wait for.
“We didn’t want someone else to want them and be going into an auction.
“I wanted to identify what we needed and act on it.
“But we are not finished yet. We still need a few in a few areas and I think there will also be a few who are going so, there’s still a bit of business to be done but we’ve done the majority.
“We didn’t want to wait until the last week of August and still have to do five or six signings in a day. But we are still working hard in the background. The squad is not large enough yet!”
It was to become an ominous comment because, later, Hasselbaink would admit the squad had become too large.
By pre-season, Frazer Blake-tracy,
Cameron Borthwick-jackson, Morris, Moult, Oshilaja, Shaughnessy, Omari Patrick, Tom O’connor and Deji Oshilaja had all been signed, along with Jacob Maddox on loan.
But pre-season brought its problems. In the pre-season friendly against Newcastle United, Kane Hemmings went off clutching his hamstring.
In the friendly against Leicester City, Moult fell awkwardly and damaged his ankle, an injury that was to keep him out until the New Year.
Suddenly, the two main strikers, around whom plans were being formulated, were out of the equation. Free agent Aaron Amadi-holloway only looked like a stop-gap as a quick replacement up front.
Hasselbaink also added Burtonborn
Ryan Leak, who he had seen on trial for Portsmouth in a behindclosed-doors friendly against Burton and, on the last day of the window, Charlie Lakin released by Birmingham City.
In on loan came goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe, from Brentford, midfielder Harry Chapman from Blackburn Rovers, centre-half Sam Hughes, although he was still in rehab from an ACL injury, from Leicester City, and, finally, the one everyone had been waiting for, teenage striker Daniel Jebbison, from Sheffield United, a young man it seemed half the division wanted and, it was said, Everton had considered paying money to buy.
It made for an exciting time for supporters.
Hasselbaink’s stock was already high from the great escape and given what he had achieved in his previous short time as manager five years before.
Now he had brought in 16 players in a summer window in which it had often seemed there was a new announcement every day.
Pre-season, generally, had looked good.
Wins against Nuneaton Borough and Bognor Regis Town were as irrelevant as defeats to Scunthorpe United and Alfreton Town and a draw with Belper Town but the Brewers had given as good as they got in the two friendlies that really mattered, a goalless draw with Leicester (which they won on penalties to lift the Bass Charity Vase) and
a 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle.
Expectations were high but there was a note of reality – there were more big clubs than ever in League One.
Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic, both with new owners, had been the most obvious early big spenders.
Ipswich had tempted former Brewer Scott Fraser from MK Dons after only one season at Stadium MK and Wigan out-bid others for the signature of the previous season’s top scorer, Charlie Wyke, from Sunderland.
With Bolton Wanderers also back in the division with new owners, Sheffield Wednesday coming down from the Championship and Portsmouth and Sunderland again looking to challenge after previous campaigns had fallen short last season, the division looked loaded with clubs whose supporters – and probably their owners – expected a serious promotion challenge.
“It’s going to be tough but we can’t be concentrating on the others. We can’t control the others,” said Hasselbaink.
“They are going to splash whatever they can splash.
“But it’s not about us being jealous, about ‘oh, look at them.’ It’s about ‘how can we be the strongest that we can be and the most competitive that we can be?’
“Yes, there are big hitters but they are still in the same league as us and they are in it for a reason.”
Now was the time to find out how competitive Burton could be.