Sam Ricketts hoping to unearth a gem for Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town staff are scouring lower leagues and under-23s football in a bid to capture emerging stars this summer.
Sam Ricketts feels he has a base – a significant number of his squad under contract for next season – and will only be shopping to fill roles that need adding to and require more strength.
He is using time in lockdown without football to swot-up on targets ready for summer business, whenever the transfer window is decided to open this year.
And the Montgomery Waters Meadow boss, who estimates six or seven new players to complement the usual turnaround in loan deals, namechecked 'lower levels' and '(under-)23s football' as target markets.
Ricketts has had some success in those departments so far at the helm with Shrewsbury, with Daniel Udoh and Ro-Shaun Williams headline purchases.
"I said six or seven (new) signings because straight away there's five loan players leaving, that always means there's a decent turnover," Ricketts explained.
"If you only have a couple of loans then the numbers of ins and outs goes down dramatically.
"We'll have five going back which will need replacing for next season. We're just looking at those positions and seeing who is out there.
"Who's done well, who's emerging from lower levels or who's done really well in 23s football – just seeing who is out there."
Since Town's last game, a 3-2 defeat to Oxford on March 7, Ricketts has spoke of a desire to create a more attack-minded side capable of scoring more goals.
Shrewsbury were looking a more potent outfit, with more forwards involved, before Covid-19 brought football to a halt.
"We're looking to add to the team and squad, to improve to a really good base from this season," the manager continued.
"We've proved we're a really hard team to beat and break down and that had to be the fundamentals of our team – it proved successful in beating top of the league Coventry, Peterborough, Sunderland and Bristol City (in the Cup).
"We've proved we're a match for the best sides in our league but we have to improve. We want to score more goals.
"We've got a real good base to the side we need to add pieces to take it to the next levels."
