With the new season just two weeks away, disastrous news came out of the club: Star player Grant Holt is leaving to join Norwich, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.
After already witnessing a mass exodus of players, including creative players like Davies and Humphrey, the one man we were desperate to keep hold of was Holt. I was already concerned with our lack of strike power upfront and the departure of last season’s top scorer is devastating to the club.
You can’t blame Holt for going and it is understandable he blamed the promotion failure for wanting to leave, but I am sure it was only a month ago when he said he had unfinished business at the club and wanted to stay.
However, in his short time with Town he has been terrific and I am sure the majority of fans would wish him well for the future.
Don’t panic Shrewsbury Town fans – it’s not all doom and gloom. Reports suggest we have sold him for £500,000, which is a big profit on what we bought him for from Nottingham Forest 12 months ago.
Simpson will need to move quickly to replace him as well as bring in several other players to strengthen a squad which is clearly short of quality following the pre-season friendly defeats to Telford, West Brom and Leicester.
I only hope that all the money we got from Holt is available to buy on other players. Pre-season transfer activity so far suggests we haven’t got much.
The two names that we have been linked with so far to replace Holt are Paul Benson from Dagenham & Redbridge and Karl Hawley from Preston.
We have been linked with Benson in the past and there is no doubt that he will be a great acquisition to the side, having a proven goalscoring record in League Two.
And surely it can’t be a coincidence that as soon as we sold Holt it was reported that Dagenham have received a bid from an unnamed League Two side.
Hawley would also be a great signing as he helped get Carlisle promoted from League Two a few season ago and has worked with Simpson before – although there have to be question marks over whether he would want to drop two divisions.
At League Two level £500,000 is a lot of money. Simpson can buy about four decent players with that, although it is not just the striking department that we are in need of strengthening at the moment. We are short of quality in midfield and in defence and injuries to players like Coughlan and Jackson aren’t helping.
The friendlies against West Brom and Leicester showed us that Simpson has got a lot of work to do in the two weeks before the start of the season to get the team ready. We are also desperately short of creativity and fire power.
The new players have shown glimpses of their ability, but the performances of the team have certainly not filled fans with any confidence that we are in for a successful season. But they are only friendlies and it’s far too early to get down about our promotion prospects.
Rob Bickerton, the managing director was another figure to leave the club last week by mutual consent. During his time at the club he has been a bit of a controversial figure and there were reports that he wasn’t well-liked within the club. Whether his departure was another cost-cutting measure or whether he didn’t like where the club was headed will remain a mystery.
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