Manager wants to add quality additions to his side
Fleetwood Town manager Graham Alexander has given an update on the Cod Army’s pre-season progress so far, with the Club in full preparation for the new campaign ahead.Town’s players began their pre-season schedule at Poolfoot Farm on Wednesday, with the League One season kicking-off in just over a month’s time, when Fleetwood host Southend United on the 8th August.
The Fleetwood boss stated his delight to be back up and running after a two-month break in an interview with the Club Website.
He said: “I’ve been itching for this day for a couple of weeks now. To get the boys in and to get Jamma (Matt) back into the squad as well has been good.
“We’ve spoken to a couple of the lads, and they have been working hard over the summer which is encouraging for us as these boys are looking after themselves when they are away.
“It was a long summer for them but they’ve deserved it because they’ve been at it for two-years really, and I think the break came at a good time for them.
Having finished tenth in their inaugural season in the third-tier, the 43-year-old Coventry native is keen to add to his current crop of playing staff.
The likes of Jimmy Ryan, Declan McManus, Amari’I Bell and Vamara Sanogo have all linked up with Town over the summer – and Alexander doesn’t want recruitment to stop there.
“It is a smaller first-team squad than it has been in previous years, so I think that will actually help the integration of numbers.
“They are good players first and foremost, but they are good lads as well and I think they’ll have no problem settling in.
“We spoke to the players this morning (Wednesday), and said that there will be additions in pre-season to help improve the squad.
“We don’t do our business publically and link ourselves with this player and that, we just try to get them over the line and announce it in a proper manner.
“We’ve got a base of a good squad at the moment but there are a couple of additions we need to make to improve the competition.”
Fleetwood head out to Germany later this month to play two friendly fixtures against Borussia Dortmund B and Alemannia Aachen, a trip that Alexander is looking forward to.
He continued: “That week away, as I’ve said in previous years, is 24/7 around each other, the staff and the players.
“There is a lot of social time together, and it is important to get that bond especially with the new players, so ideally we’d love to get some players in before we go away.
“It’s just to get that group really bedded down and working well together so that when we come back we’re in proper fashion.
“We have a smaller squad but there is still competition. I told the players that we would be making additions to the squad.
“I’ve said to them that they’ve got a head start, they’re in from day one and first impressions do last so we want to see who is ready to go.
“I think we’ve got a good core of the group that has done so well over the last two-years. We just want to improve on that in any way we can.
“We have to have our experience though, especially in the central areas, and we’ve got that with Stevie Jordan, Pondy and Jimmy Ryan.”