The Italian Job - Russell Slade's Pre-Season Signings - Part One

There's been a lot of criticism of Russell Slade's Pre-Season signings. Let's delve into what happened, why it happened and how it happened.

The takeover from Hearn to Becchetti is complete. If rumour is to be believed, Russell was asked to name five players for each position in the squad, funds not a problem, anyone you like. Mauro Milanese (of whom we'll discuss later) and Becchetti would do the rest.

Naturally Russell went shopping in the Championship as any sane fella would do.

Adam Legzdins - Signed a two-year contract on the 13.06.2014.
According to both Slade and Legzdins we'd been in for him the previous season when he was at Derby and we needed a keeper. Derby were reluctant to let him go, fortunately for us we got Jakupovic.

Slade obviously liked the sound of Legzdins and at 6' 4'' he certainly sounded like the dominant type of keeper that Jones wasn't.

Bradley Pritchard - Signed a two-year contract on the 10.07.2014.
On the face of it, nobody really knew what this signing was about. We'd lost Moses to Brentford, but Pritchard certainly didn't spring to mind as a direct replacement on the wing. Personally i put this signing down to adding a bit of depth in midfield, providing cover and competition for Vincelot and James.

Regardless of what Slade had in mind, we'd been picking from the Championship again so no complaints on that front, plus the few Charlton fans that piped up said that we had a livewire-workaholic type of player. That definitely fits the Slade mould.

Gary Woods - Signed a two-year contract on the 17.07.2014.
Wow.. We can afford two Championship quality keepers of our own! No loans for a change! Similar to Legzdins in that we as fans had no real idea of what we were getting.

We knew that he played a load of games for Doncaster when they were promoted from the Division Three though. Gotta be a good keeper.

Shane Lowry - Signed a two-year contract on the 21.07.2014.
A player that we've heard of! I think Russell brought Lowry to Brisbane Road to shore up the left-back position and add some more quality depth to one of the best defences in the league.

25 years old, over 100 games at Championship level, this was a top-notch signing.


The Lowry signing had me (and no doubt others) starting to realise that Slade's shopping list wasn't a fabrication at all. We had a new owner, we meant business, and the four signings so far had definitely improved on what we had the previous season.