Town announced their two new signings on Wednesday
Fleetwood Town manager Graham Alexander has hailed his two latest recruits, Bobby Grant and Lyle Della-Verde, who both signed for the Cod Army on Wednesday.Both Grant and Della-Verde have penned two-year deals with Fleetwood, having previously been on trial over the course of pre-season.
Alexander stated his delight at the acquisition of the pair, in an interview with the Club website.
He said: “There was a couple of spaces we needed to fill in the squad, we’re a little bit light and I think bringing Bobby and Lyle in gives us a great balance in the squad.
“They are both players who have got good personalities on the pitch, they want to prove how good they are and want to show what they can do on the ball.
“We know we’ve got quality in that area, and we need to have competition and balance, we need to have players comfortable on the left hand side, and both of those lads are, they both come into the profile of what we’re trying to do.
Liverpool-born Grant, who spent the 2014/15 season at Shrewsbury Town – helping Salop gain promotion to the third-tier – returns to Fleetwood on a permanent basis having spent a brief spell on loan at Highbury in February 2014.
Following the signing of the 25-year-old, Alexander said: “We had Bobby on loan and we’ve played against him over the last couple of years, so we know of his quality and we’re really pleased to get him on board.
“Bobby is more established, he’s been around for a few years now and his quality is undoubted. We want to add goals to the squad and Bobby will definitely bring that.
“He was unfortunate when we brought him on loan, he hadn’t fully recovered from the previous injury that he had and broke down really quickly. He played a lot of games in League Two last year, and we believe that he has
overcome the problem he had before.
“He’s obviously had a thorough medical and trained with us already in pre-season, prior to the Germany trip and impressed.
Alexander also praised the signing of 20-year-old midfielder Lyle Della-Verde, who had been training with the Cod Army following his release from Championship side Fulham.
“Lyle has been with us since day one of pre-season on trial, and has shown a fantastic attitude. He brings us something a little bit different in midfield, and is a young player with loads of potential.
“He’s hungry for the chance of first-team football, so we think they’re two good additions to a group which we’re already pleased with.
“Lyle is very comfortable on the ball, he’s got loads of personality and wants to get on the ball and be a good player.
“He’s scored a few goals over pre-season training, so I think he’ll a player who’ll definitely emerge into the first-team, if not start in it, that’s what he has come here for.
Town moved onto the Elite pitches at their new Poolfoot Farm training base on Wednesday, and Alexander was pleased to get going at the new multi-million pound facility in Thornton.
“It is something that we have been itching to get to for a couple of years. We’ve been away to Germany, but we knew when we came back that we’d be on these pitches, and it is such an improvement for how we want to work and
how the players want to work.
“We want to work closely with them and really identify where we need to improve them. It is a fantastic facility for us, for us as coaches, we need the pitches first and foremost and now we’ve got them we think we can go from
strength to strength.
A trip north of the border awaits Fleetwood on Saturday afternoon as they make the journey to face Scottish Premier League side Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
The trip to Killie will pose another test for Fleetwood in preparation for the upcoming season, and the Fleetwood manager is expecting a tough game against Gary Locke’s men.
“It will be a difficult game, they always are against the Scottish clubs, and they’re always ahead of us in their pre-season planning, as in starting earlier because their season does, and there always a bit on the games as in competitiveness.
“We’re looking forward to going up there and getting the lads in tune with the tactical side of it, we’ve concentrated on the physical side in the previous three games just to get the most amount of work into the lads and fine-tune before the big kick-off on 8th August.”