Paul Hurst open to all Shrewsbury scenarios

Salop are facing a huge rebuild in the coming months after they released eight first-team players at the weekend following their 3-1 defeat at home against Leyton Orient.

And the future of other senior members of the squad is also in doubt. Skipper Chey Dunkley and goalkeeper Marko Marosi have been offered new deals but may not sign, while Dan Udoh is also out of contract.

Hurst was hugely successful in his previous stint at the club, and he has a big summer coming up as he prepares his team for League One football again next season.

“I am certainly not ruling that out,” he said, when asked if they will look for bargains from further down the football pyramid.

“But what I would say is that almost seems to get more difficult because of the league we are in and the quality that is in there. We have got to be careful that we don’t leave ourselves too short.

“There are no guarantees with signings working out.

“I am certainly more open-minded, and more open-minded than a lot of clubs are in terms of giving younger players opportunities or first loans, if it has to be, or people trying to move up the league.”

Town’s brilliant season in Hurst’s previous spell in charge, which saw them get to the League One play-off final, was based on good recruitment.

But one of the things Hurst regrets about his time at Ipswich was not recruiting players who were ready to play at the level.

And he says that Town will need to be careful with that to make sure they do not end up with an inexperienced squad.

“So while it has worked (signing players from the lower leagues) I would say, and let’s be honest, a failure at Ipswich – that was part of it – there were quite a few other things as well,” he continued.

“But we maybe did not have enough players that were ready for Championship football.

“Whereas when we came here and we put that squad together we did not know 100 per cent, but the lads responded fantastically well and proved they were ready for League One football and could step up.

“So we have got to be careful on that the best we can.”