The manager on trial players
United manager Greg Abbott explained today that he will continue with his policy of inviting trial players into the club both during pre-season and throughout the course of the next campaign.
“It’s something we are more than happy to do,” he said. “The hope, as we’ve said before, is that we will find a player who will fit into what we’re doing and that’s the reason why there is no harm at all in bringing lads into the club.
“We have five with us at the moment and they have all had a good few days. It’s about the physical and fitness side of things right now but we’ll carry on looking at them.
“It’s difficult to tell what level they’re at with their football because we haven’t done too much of that type of work, but the important thing for us is that we’ve seen an excellent attitude from all of them.”
“Lewis Guy joined us on Thursday from St Mirren and he has had a smile on his face from the minute he got here,” he told us. “He's a local lad and he's desperate to come here and show everybody what he can do.
“I spoke to Danny Lennon [manager of St Mirren] about him yesterday and he told me that he's looking at a few different options. That’s left Lewis in a position where he feels like he needs to do something different. Danny was very complimentary about him but he said it just hasn't worked out for him up there.
“He's got a yard of pace and he's a creative sort of player but we need to see that he's better than what we've got before we think about doing anything.
“I've spoken to Lewis a couple of times over the last couple of years but it hasn't quite come off for one reason or another. We've been able to get him down this week so we can have a look at him and we'll see where it goes from there.”
“There is no pressure for any of these lads at all,” he insisted. “We've got an option with all of them to keep them here all the way through pre-season. If we think that's something which would benefit us then it's what we'll do.”
“Squad wise we are still looking to add a few more to cover injuries and things like that,” he explained. “I think we've got a decent looking starting eleven now but we look a bit thin beyond that.
“I think the main positions we need to cover are left back and goalkeeper - either on loan from a Premier League club - because we need a number two to push Mark [Gillespie] and we want to be as strong defensively as we can be.”
United Player subscribers can see three video interviews with Greg Abbott now. Click HERE to go to the Player platform. Follow the same link for more information on United Player, and to subscribe.
