This week’s double deal for Ian Sharps and Luke George has delighted Steve Burr – and the Chester FC manager expects to make it a hat-trick this afternoon.
A talented winger with Football League experience will become the club’s sixth signing of the summer before the squad report for the start of pre-season on Monday.
Burr has had to be patient in his approach and has missed out on some targets to rival clubs with greater spending power, but overall the 55-year-old is very pleased with his business.
Ex-Burton Albion skipper Sharps and former Southport midfielder George join left-back Johnny Hunt, the versatile Tom Shaw and striker Ross Hannah in moving to the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium.
George will bring a lot to the team
It is the capture of 22-year-old George in particular that is viewed as a coup and Burr is ecstatic to have him on board.
"I spoke to Luke at the end of the season and at that time he had offers from Southport and a good one from Barrow," said Burr.
"I got a feeling from him he was interested in coming to Chester but I said we were going to hang fire and look at what we had so I’m very pleased we’ve been able to get him.
"He’s a different type of midfielder to what we have got, he can cover centre-half if we need him to and he’ll bring a lot to us.
"He puts his foot in, he’ll put his head in and he’s very competitive. He’s a good age and hopefully we can work with him and develop him to become even better."
Sharps has the right kind of experience
Sharps’ signing might not have generated quite the same buzz as that of George or Hannah, but the manager reckons it could prove to be just as important.
"I saw him play for Burton at the start of the season and he was in the team there until he got injured and he couldn’t get back in," said Burr.
"He ended up going out to Telford and that coincided with their results improving and if he’d have gone there a bit sooner Telford would probably have stayed up.
"I read he’d signed for them but I rang him up and asked and he told me he hadn’t so I let him know I’d be interested in talking to him.
"He’s exactly the type of experienced player that we were looking for. We need someone like him and we’ve got three centre-halves vying for two spots and those will be determined by how they perform."
