‘Upgraded’ - Michael Appleton on Shrewsbury Town’s summer so far

Salop have been hard at work over the course of the last few months adding players to their squad ahead of the League Two campaign, which gets under way on August 2 against Bromley. 

The club needed to do some serious repair work to their playing staff after eight senior players were released at the end of last season. 

And Town’s work in the transfer market has been impressive, especially with the additions of Tom Sang, Will Boyle and Sam Stubbs in the last week. 

The players Shrews have brought to the Croud Meadow have experienced an EFL promotion and all are ready-made operators. 

Without wanting to be rude or disrespectful to those who departed earlier in the summer the Town head coach thinks they have made some good strides forward ahead of the new campaign. 

He said: “The only thing I would say is, and I'm pretty confident in saying this, and it's certainly not from a disrespectful point of view, I think the players that have walked through the door are an upgrade on the ones that have walked out of the door. 

“I think it's important that we try and continue that method.”

There has been a real shift in Shrewsbury’s approach to their recruitment and the boss gave his overall assessment on those who have arrived. 

“One, they're all men,” he continued. “That's important. I think you look at someone like Sam (Clucas) who hasn't spent a lot of time at this level of football, but that's a plus point. He's spent a lot of time as a Championship and Premier League player.

“Bags of quality, lots of experience, brings a calmness to us in the middle of the park. He can play as a six, he can play as an eight, he can play at times in full-back positions, although we're not looking for him to do that. Lots and lots of quality, great lad, great personality, good in the dressing room.

“From Stubbsy and Tom's (Tom Anderson)point of view, again, just men at this level. Tom's on the back of a promotion, which is important. We want as many players in the group who know how to get out of this league and perform at this level.

“Stubbsy was in the team of the year last year, so he's on the back of a good season as well. I think we're just bringing in, at this moment in time, the right mix and blend of what we want and what we need. 

“Once we've done the majority of the permanents, we can start looking at the loan market and maybe bringing one or two younger players in with a little bit more athleticism and pace to help what we've got.”

Town still have some work to do ahead of the new season, and the players who returned to training for pre-season testing on Thursday might not all be at the club when the campaign gets under way. 

Appleton says players moving on is just what happens in football and some could depart. 

He said: “No, I mean, it's one of them where at the minute, I think from a numbers point of view, we're not where we want to be in terms of the full quota.

We've got a couple of young players in that group in terms of Ricardo (Dinanga) and Callum (Stewart) even the likes of Isaac (England), who will be with us for the majority of pre-season.

“I'm sure there's going to be two or three players that are in the group now that have come back the first day of pre-season, potentially looking forward to having a good season, who, for whatever reason, are not with us on the 1st of September. That's just natural.

“That happens up and down the country.”