Keith Curle on loan signings Jeffrey Monakana and David Atkinson
Manager Keith Curle spoke about new arrivals Jeffrey Monakana and David Atkinson shortly after this season’s emergency transfer window had closed.
“Jeffrey is a player who has pace and who can be direct if he needs to be,” he said. “He has an ability to create goals for others and he can be a threat himself.
“He can stretch a game and he can put fear into defenders when he goes at them. He’s a dynamic and explosive player who has an air of unpredictability in the final third. If he’s on his game and motoring on all cylinders he’s unstoppable.”
“Our head of recruitment [Lee Dykes] has had him on his radar for a while and he’s a player I’ve seen when he’s been out on loan previously,” he continued. “He’ll bring us the natural width we want and the dynamics in his game are something we’ve been looking for. If we can get the ball to him something will happen.
“David [Atkinson] is another player who has been brought in to bolster our options. The important thing at this stage of the season is that you can’t afford to be caught short.
“He’s a player who is comfortable anywhere across the back four and he has some very good attributes. He can handle a football and he has pace and aggression in his approach. We’re looking forward to working with him.”
“Squad wise I know I now have a bit of flexibility and some players who can play a number of roles,” he commented. “In terms of availability we’re looking not too bad, and we have options with width which means we’ll be able to be a bit more expansive whenever the time is right.
“We don’t want to become one dimensional and we want a squad which can do a number of jobs to get us the points. It’s taken a lot of work to get us there and a lot of people won’t be able to relate to that.
“It isn’t just a case of finding a player and then agreeing on his signature. There are a host of things we need to look at. We always do a character check with contacts we have in the game and we study the qualities the players have closely to see what we think they can offer us.
“All of that work is done and that’s when we take it to the board to see if they can get it over the line for us. John [Nixon] has to take a lot of the credit for that. The negotiations and other work done behind the scenes, between the clubs, are down to him.
“I tend to get a foothold in the door with the managers and coaches at the clubs we’re dealing with and I’m able to give our club an idea of where I value the player. It’s then over to John to do the rest and get it over the line.
“We’re very happy with what we’ve done and the players we’ve brought in over the last few weeks. Hopefully the lift it’s given everyone will continue to bring us the positive results and performances we’ve been seeing recently.”
