Another keeper in expected and JFH must also bolster attack
THERE’S PLENTY FOR BREWERS BOSS TO PONDER WHILE TRYING TO TAKE A BREAK
IT’S the time of year football fans hate, if their team is not involved in the play-offs.
The season is done and dusted, you are slowly getting over the disappointment of not being involved in the battle at the right end of the table or the relief of steering clear of the wrong end.
The juices are starting to flow again and you want news!
Who’s coming in? What is the manager doing to make things better for next season?
And you know what? The lazy soand-so has gone and taken a holiday. How dare he? Last season was disappointing, he ought to be working 24/7.
Of course the manager and his staff are entitled to that holiday. The season itself is a non-stop thing with very little down time.
And yes, I know Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink chooses to be busier still by appearing on TV a lot, which annoys some Burton Albion fans.
It used to annoy some right back when Brian Clough did it too. But, just as with Clough, the ones complaining about it were not doing so when things were going well for Hasselbaink. Then, they did not seem to notice – but he was still on TV just as much.
Anyway, the chances are that, even if he is taking something of a break, Hasselbaink will be living and breathing football with one eye and ear at least. Generally, they can’t stop themselves.
I remember Gary Rowett joking about taking his work mobile on holiday and trying to keep the fact from his wife as he wheeled and dealed for players from his sun lounger.
There will be things going off in the background, deals will be lined up. As usual, it will also be the case that many will not be announced while players’ contracts have not ended, although Burton broke with that tradition last season, announcing that several players would be joining, once their old contracts were done.
Where, then, will Hasselbaink be looking to strengthen after a campaign in which rather more than he would have hoped of his signings did not really come off?
While I have learnt that secondguessing the Dutchman is fraught with danger, here are one or two thoughts.
It’s safe to say there will be another goalkeeper.
The presence of Callum Hawkins did not stop a more experienced second keeper being brought in to keep Ben Garratt on his toes last season and while the club clearly think a great deal of teenager Dan Moore, he is not ready yet.
Fans would love to see Matej
Kovar back again, maybe on a season-long loan, after how well he performed at the end of last season but maybe he did well enough to interest a Championship club.
Maybe, like Brad Collins a few seasons ago, he will be ready to leave his big club (Chelsea in Collins’ case) and sign a deal with a bigger club than Burton.
Defence, despite that long spell without a clean sheet, is an area in which Burton still look well served but whether or not they need reinforcements may depend on whether captain John Brayford accepts the new deal he is being offered or not.
The defence was, largely, settled at the end of the season, with Deji Oshilaja looking more comfortable and Sam Hughes starting to get stronger and more assured.
For years, there was the debate about the Brewers not having a reliable left-back and they theoretically signed two, Frazer Blake-tracy and Cameron Borthwick-jackson, last year. Blake-tracy could not hold a place and Borthwick-jackson ended up in midfield – but the need for an out-and-out left-back seemed negated by playing a back three and when Burton did go to four at the back, Tom Hamer moved over from the right to fill in again.
Nor are Albion short of midfielders, it is just, as we have discussed before in detail, that none bar Joe Powell significantly advanced their claims to a regular place last season.
If Hasselbaink remains convinced that Conor Shaughnessy and Borthwick-jackson
can play regularly in midfield, then he is still not short of numbers but what Burton do not have is a player like Barry Bannan with Sheffield Wednesday, Wes Hoolahan, with Cambridge United, or, a couple of years ago, Stephen Quinn with the Brewers who can buzz around and control things in the middle of the park.
If the manager does not think any of his current crop can do that, he may be in the market for one that can.
It would also not be a surprise to see another more orthodox winger arrive, given that Jonny Smith is really the only one in the squad at the moment and that the one brought in last summer, Omari Patrick, did not work out.
We’ve been here before but the area that will be occupying Hasselbaink’s mind the most is up front.
The Brewers’ goals for record was much more alarming than the 20 games without a clean sheet, given that Brayford finished the season as the leading scorer of those still with the club.
The top scorer, Daniel Jebbison, only had nine, albeit in half a season, and with only Gassan Ahadme and Louis Moult as senior strikers on the books at the moment, we have to think that at least two will come in.
There was much promise from Christian Saydee, on loan from Bournemouth, and although he did not score, I would not be surprised to see another loan involving him. The Cherries’ promotion to the Premier
League will have reduced the chances of him being involved in their first team as yet.
Saydee, or a young striker like him, would only be half an answer, though.
The position is crying out for more experience – the problem being that experienced strikers who score a decent number of goals not only do not come cheap but are in demand, with many clubs at this level and in the two levels below capable of outbidding the Brewers.
All of this will be occupying Hasselbaink’s mind, whether he is on a sun lounger somewhere or not. Last year, his first signing, Borthwickjackson, was announced on June 7.
We may have a bit longer to wait yet.