AFC Telford boss Carden will not pack his squad with loan deals

Carden inherited a squad packed full of young loan players when he took over in the hotseat at the New Bucks Head in late November.

The boss is now undergoing his first summer of squad-building and has already recruited two new permanent deals. He has not written off loan players, but they will only arrive as a ‘top up’.

“I’m all for loans, I obviously will use them as and when,” Carden said.

“We hope we don’t need to use them as much as we did last season.

“I’m hoping to have our squad built and loans to top us up, rather than loans to make up the team.

“It wasn’t ideal that we had that many loans, but at the same time it was the situation where we had to.

“We need to make sure that we’re not using the loan system because the squad’s so light.

“We need to be using the loan system to top us up in case of emergency really.”

It remains to be seen whether Telford will take advantage of possible loans from neighbours and new partnership club Shrewsbury Town.

Carden, meanwhile, has recruited midfielder Prince Ekpolo and right-back Josh Dugmore.

He said of Dugmore, Tuesday’s arrival from step three Bromsgrove Sporting: “Josh is an exciting prospect who had a great season at Bromsgrove – playing every game!

“After being in Everton’s academy before moving to Birmingham as a scholar, he coped unbelievably with the transition to men’s football and his level of performance was highlighted to us some time ago.

“He brings energy and tenacity as well as quality to the right-back position and is someone who I’m sure the fans will really take too.

“Once we had a chat he made it clear he wanted to come to Telford and chose us over a number of other clubs. He is hungry to succeed and to perform at higher levels and that hunger is essential to any squad.”