Shrewsbury Town in talks to re-sign duo
Shrewsbury Town boss Micky Mellon has identified a presence to replace Tyrone Barnett – with talks ongoing to re-sign Mark Halstead and James Wesolowski.
Town go into their League One curtain-raiser against Milton Keynes Dons still short of firepower.
It comes after the exit of Barnett – who has joined AFC Wimbledon – last season's top scorer Sullay Kaikai, James Collins and Jean Louis Akpa-Akpro.
But Mellon is confident that he can bring in the attacking prowess to threaten third tier defences.
He said: "To try and not over-complicate it, we're trying to bring in players who will make an impact.
"Someone who will go out there and you will know that they're playing, the qualities that they will bring to the group.
"That's whether that be 6ft 4in and good in the air, quick, great around the 18-yard box.
"We want to bring players who are going to bring that to our group consistently in League One games.
"So we're not specifically going out for any type of front man.
"It's easy to do that if you have millions in the bank to go and cherry-pick a 6ft 2in, fast striker. Go and get Didier Drogba, because he'll do that.
"We'll look for impact and we're pretty much on with a couple of ideas that we want to pursue and we'll know very quickly whether we'll get them over the line or not."
Town are left with just AJ Leitch-Smith and Andy Mangan as senior strikers, with academy graduate Ethan Jones as back-up.
Mellon added: "Players that we're going after are good players, they're not out of work, we're trying to get them out of other clubs.
"They're not unemployed at the minute – so that makes it a wee bit more difficult."
On the out-of-contract Wesolowski and Halstead, Mellon added: "We're aware that things need to get done and I'm constantly talking to the players about that.
"As soon as we get to the stage that we need to sort that, then we will. Things are moving all of the time."
