Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury Town focusing on loan moves

Manager Steve Cotterill says it’s likely any player Shrewsbury signing before the transfer window closes will be arriving on loan.

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The boss believes Town have boxed clever in the transfer market this summer with Tom Bayliss (pictured inset), Aiden O’Brien and Chey Dunkley all arriving on free transfers while Jordan Shipley arrived from Coventry for a minimal fee.

On top of that, Cotterill has bolstered his ranks with the loan additions of Julien Dacosta and Taylor Moore.

Town, though, still want more additions before the transfer window closes. But with the majority of free agents having now been snapped up, he feels future signings will likely have to be loan deals.

And that could mean people have to be patient, with clubs in the Premier League and Championship often waiting to late in the window before granting temporary moves for their younger players.

“There’s hardly any free transfers left now,” Cotterill said. “We’ve got to a stage where we’re probably thinking about loans, which is why you never quite know and are always waiting. There’s two things left now, you either buy or you loan.

“A lot of the free transfers have now been gobbled up. We’ve done great with ours. Look at our team, Marko Marosi was free transfer, Matt Pennington was a free transfer, free transfer Dunkley, free transfer (Tom) Flanagan, free transfer George Nurse, Dacosta on loan, free transfer Luke Leahy, on loan Taylor Moore.

“Ships (Shipley) we had to pay a small fee for, Bowman we paid a small fee for. We’ve put together a team, for an outlay. It’s been hard work but I don’t think we’ve done too badly with what we’ve put together.”

Meanwhile, Town have announced an extra 200 tickets have gone on sale for tomorrow’s season opener at Morecambe.

The tickets have gone on sale after Shrewsbury sold out their initial allocation of 600 earlier this week.