Paul Simpson today raided Manchester United to complete his second loan signing as Shrewsbury Town manager.
Simpson beat tonight’s transfer deadline to bring Michael Barnes, who is predominantly a winger but can play anywhere across the attacking line, to Oteley Road.
Former Wolves defender Martin Riley - who has spent the last month on trial at Shrewsbury and scored in the 5-2 reserve team defeat of West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday - has also signed non-contract terms for the remainder of the season.
Barnes, 19, joined United’s Youth Academy in November 2005 and has since made the breakthrough to play regular reserve team football.
He had a brief temporary spell at Chesterfield in January and - after a trial with Inverness Caledonian Thistle - has now joined Town on loan for the final month of the campaign.
“Michael is a young lad who looks like he is going to be available in the summer,” said Simpson.”He’s an attacking player who can play on either wing and they bring them up the right way there (at United).
“I’ve seen him play a few times and he has got something, so this gives us a chance to take a longer look.”
“We may have a look at Michael down the middle, but I see him more as a wide player.”
On Riley, Simpson added: “I’ve not really had long enough to have a good look at him yet so we will be able to do that by keeping him here until the end of the season.
“He looks a decent centre-half and if I think he is better than what we have got, we can look to do something for longer.”
Simpson insisted he is still keen to add extra experience to his squad for next season.
“I had looked at the possibility of bringing in more experience but I really want to have a look at the lads who we have here under contract for next season and make a proper assessment,” he added.
“I still think we need more experience with a view to next season .”
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13 Comments
some experienced loan signings he said, wonder what luke jones/james merredith and chris humphries/steve leslie think of all this.
No gritty midfielder to sit in front of the back four, or an experienced striker to put the ball in the net just more of what we’ve already got
I agree Spencer, does contradict what he originally said about experience. Maybe Simmo knows something we don’t.
These two latest signings are youngsters. Isn’t that what Peters was doing all the time! Where’s the experience we need especialy as we are sliding down the table!
now now we must not undermine the new manager otherwise we could get told off. i know i have done precisely that and got the T shirt to prove it, i dare not say anything else apart from to say there must be an air of gloom and despondency in the squad. well there should not be, come out fighting and show your manager what you can do, chins up floreat salopia and pull your fingers out
If you look at their backrounds these are very good signings.
Oh for pitys sake give Paul Simpson a break and get off his back. Clubs can only sign who is available and who wants to come to the club. He has not even had time to settle in and the knockers have started. I do wonder if some so called fans really want a league club in the Town. If you cannot back the club and manager at this difficult time then go off and moan about some other team.
i remember steve hogg came from an excellent background also.
er quite right denis, come on you shrows
Well said Dennis you are very correct.
I am sure Paul Simpson wants to sign “experienced” proven goal scorers, midfielders, centre backs etc. But lets for a moment come back to the real world. Its Thursday the last day of loans, the previous couple of weeks have drawn a blank, so you either take whats on offer and hope to get lucky or stick with what you have got. not to difficult a decision to make now is it.
The moaners should realise that Paul Simpson does not have a secret stash of players to sign from, he has to choose from the same pool Gary Peters had. (same problem different day).
The only thing that we as supporters can hope for is that Paul is a better man manager than Gary and can turn a very average bunch of players into a slick disciplined footballing side that believes they are better than they are. (Brian Clough was a brilliant man manager) If you saw the film The Dirty Dozen you will know what I mean.
Spencer. you bore me with your negativity. Maybe, just maybe if you give these people a chance they might be quite good.
I remmember the lad we had from Utd when we were in the conference.The name elludes me but he was a great signing.He was a defender but looked more like scoring goals than our strikers at the time.He was also the only defender I have seen at Town that actually played the ball out of defence rather than hoof it.
I certainly hope this young lad from Utd is as good a signing and also the lad from down the road at Wolves.
Im sure Simmo will get it right.Three points on Saturday but it wont be an easy game.
His name was Lee Lawerence.
Paul Simpson will do a great job at Shrewsbury like he did for us at Carlisle.