Shrewsbury: End of last season ‘massive’ for coaching staff to figure out what’s needed
The chance to assess where Shrewsbury Town were at in the final games of last season could be ‘massive’ going forward, says Richard O’Donnell.
Head coach Michael Appleton and O’Donnell, who is the former West Brom midfielder’s assistant, were appointed after Gareth Ainsworth walked out on the club in March.
The pair were put in charge of the team for the final nine games of the campaign before they signed permanent contracts shortly before the curtain came down on Salop’s League One campaign earlier this month.
The final six weeks of the season gave the duo the time to assess everything at the football club.
“Massive,” he said when asked how important the final nine games of the season were. “The supporters will be able to see there is a contrast in styles.
“It was a good opportunity to look at what was already in the building. What different contract situations people were under, and what we would need moving forward.
“So it was a real opportunity to assess and be quite measured in our decision making.”
Town ended up letting eight senior players leave at the back end of last season, which O’Donnell accepted is a tough thing to do.
“It is never nice, and it is never easy,” he continued. “Unfortunately, it is part of the game. It is what we have to do, we have had to do it as long as we have been in the game.
“So we have to make sure we made the right decisions for us, and Shrewsbury Town football club moving forward.
“We have to control the controllables. We have those players already at the football club, they are already contracted, and we have already had discussions about how that fits in with what we want to do and how we want to move forward. We have got our eyes on targets to come into the football club to make us better.”
