Bernard McNally: Paul Hurst’s Shrewsbury Town squad will take time to build

In a way I’m being Paul’s mouthpiece here but, next season they’ll hope to get a mid-table finish, that’ll be a step up.

If they can have a season where relegation hasn’t loomed. Being middle of the pack will be a major step forward.

It’ll take time to build. I know fans don’t want to hear that, but the manager will think that. You can’t build something in weeks or months.

If we can get to the middle of the pack, it’ll be a good season and then hopefully we can move on. We’d all like to buy the right players and go to the top, but football doesn’t work like that.

Paul’s the right man to build. He’s shown his potential as a young manager.

I’ve heard Paul talk about not wanting to just survive with Town and raising expectations. That’s what you want to hear. Fans want to see and hear progression. Paul’s naturally like that, he’s upbeat and positive, a glass half full person.

The boss announced that Ethan Jones, Kaiman Anderson and Callum Grogan were among the four players released on Tuesday and, the thing is with youngsters, they can always bounce back.

If I was back in charge at non-league football I’d be very interested in both Ethan and Kaiman!

Now what they need to do is to get two or three years where they play at a lower level, score goals, get their confidence and I’m sure either both or one of them will come back into League football.

It’ll be interesting to watch them and, from a personal level, having coached them myself in my time with the club.

I was pleased to see Shaun Whalley offered a new deal. He’s an exciting player and now for Shaun, as the manager has alluded to, he needs that bit more consistency.

For Town to have explosive players staying put will be good news for fans.

Mat Sadler delighted me by sweeping the end of season awards last weekend. Sometimes, as a defender, you may not recognised as much as more attacking players.

It’ll be a big confidence boost for him personally. He’s had a massive improvement in the second half of the season.

It’s strange with different managers. It’s all about opinions, obviously Paul’s come in and he saw something that both Micky and Mike Jackson didn’t see.

He’s seen Sads’ qualities and thought ‘that’s my kind of defender’. And the point has been proved being named player of the year. It’ll be a tremendous boost for him. He’ll now see his future being here with Shrewsbury.

Bryn Morris made a big move from his boyhood club in January and with his background, and his England connections, he can be a young player brought in at the right time.

He can only improve. I think it’ll be a massive positive if he decides to stay. Town can be a great club for him. He’s taken a step down but sometimes you step down to go back up. He could flourish.