Busy Micky Mellon not finished with Shrewsbury signings yet

Antoni Sarkevic became Town's fourth arrival since the end of the season when he signed a two-year deal to follow Olly Lancashire, Gary Deegan and Louis Dodds.

Mellon has lost 14 players this summer after releasing eight and making a ninth – Richie Wellens – available, while six loans have returned to their parent clubs.

Mellon also wants to bring Jack Grimmer back to the Meadow and is planning on several more arrivals before the transfer window shuts.

"We're pleased so far and there will be more to try to make us a very good force next season," said the Town boss. "It's always a gamble, but we believe the homework that's been done on these players is right."

Mellon revealed the players being signed now have been planned since before he revamped the squad in January.

"The recruitment we're doing now has been in the offing a while now," he added.

"Even when we sat down at Christmas time this was in the offing.

"We've continually checked on all these players throughout the season to make sure we get as close as we can to getting very good signings as possible.

"It's not something where we've woken up one morning and panicked and taken whoever is available.

"We had an idea of who we wanted to bring in, so all these players we're bringing in, we've watched and wanted for some time now."

Two players – James Collins and Tyrone Barnett – are due to return but their futures are up in the air after falling out of favour.

Southend want to keep Barnett, but only he if he is allowed to leave on a free transfer.

Jayson Leutwiler, Nat Knight-Percival, Junior Brown, James Wesolowski, Mark Halstead and Callum Burton are still to commit their futures after being offered new deals.