Shrewsbury Town boss makes heartfelt admission over transfer-listed defender

Tom Anderson’s transfer-listed status at Shrewsbury Town has been described as an “unfortunate situation” by boss Gavin Cowan.

The Town boss admitted he would like to keep the experienced defender, praising the 32-year-old for the way he has responded after being made available for a move this summer.

Of Shrewsbury’s four transfer-listed players, all of whom are yet to secure moves elsewhere, Anderson is the only one to have featured in pre-season, including in last weekend’s final friendly victory over Aston Villa’s youngsters.

After that win, Cowan said: “It’s a difficult situation. He’s a very good player, an extremely good player.

“Only 14 months ago he was winning League Two. We have to remember that.

“I’ve come into the football club under certain levels of recruitment and I have to manage that.

“Unfortunately for Ando, we have another couple of players who are really similar to him and we have to get variability.

“When I came into the building, the squad was a bit imbalanced and bloated. The imbalance, from my perspective, no disregard to the previous regime, they would have had it worked out their own way.

“But for how we want to move forward, we can’t have three players who are really similar and Ando just falls foul of that, is the truth.”

Anderson joined Shrewsbury last summer after helping Doncaster Rovers win the League Two title. He went on to make 28 league appearances for Salop during the 2025/26 campaign.

The centre-half featured against Villa just days after welcoming a baby daughter.

“It’s a hard situation because financially we need to make things work, we need to balance the squad,” Cowan continued.

“You’ve got an excellent centre-half who’s capable of being really successful at this level that unfortunately to try and balance the squad, we need to put on a transfer list.

“I’ve had really good conversations with Ando. He’s an absolute class act. He’s an ultimate professional.

“He will be an unbelievable asset. He’s someone that I would love to keep at the football club.

“It's about balancing the squad, and he understands all of that.

“Big congratulations go out to him for the birth of his daughter this week as well.

“It’s just an unfortunate situation where I’ve had to come in and inherit a squad that I feel needs to be adjusted in a certain way. And he understands all of that because he's a class act.”