Town’s bosses have taken their time over appointing a new manager, but was Graham Turner the right choice? asks Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

In the end I don’t think anyone was surprised that Town legend Turner was appointed as the new manager in what will be his second spell at the club.

After he was initially linked with the job, when Simpson left, I said I didn’t think any manager should return to their previous club. But as things progressed he grew on me and in the end think it could turn out to be a brilliant coup by Town’s officials.

So do fans think it was the right choice?

Reasons for:

• Fans love him after having successful first spell with the club
• He knows the club and fans very well
• He did a brilliant job of getting a team like Hereford with little money, a poor stadium and no fans promoted into League One which is what we are trying to achieve
• He has had success in the transfer market with Hereford
• He likes teams to play decent football

Reasons against:

• He’s not getting any younger and should we have looked to a younger manager for the future?
• He risks losing his legendary status with fans if things go wrong
• He likes loan signings which is fine in the short term, but isn’t the long term answer to achieving success
• He’s managed us before, so should we have looked for someone completely new?

One if the most interesting things about his appointment was that his contract includes an option for a further year as director of football. I think that means he will have a big say on who eventually replaces him, but do fans also think that might mean he is a long-term replacement for chairman Roland Wycherley?

There were numerous names linked with the hot seat at the Greenhous Meadow and just 24 hours before Turner’s appointment I heard a rumour that former Hull boss Phil Brown was going to be given the job.

After seeing how his reign at Hull ended I am glad we didn’t go for him despite his initial success with the club.

Some of the applicants linked with the job were big names and although we are unlikely to ever find out who exactly applied for the post, the fact that we had over 40 applicants, says a lot about how the club is respected by others.

So what next for Mr Turner? Sorry, no time to mess about. He has got a squad to build and needs to get into the transfer market asap. We will allow him a couple of loan signings, but unlike at Hereford, he should have plenty of money to buy decent players.

In terms of expectations for next season – we need to be challenging for promotion, but with any new manager, he needs at least two years to build his own team and be given a chance to deliver success to the club.