THOMAS Baillie is confident his new-look Bromsgrove Sporting possess the versatility within the squad to cover most options.
Baillie, a third Rousler boss in 10 months, takes charge for the first time on Saturday when Sporting kick off the Southern League Premier Central season against St Ives Town at the Victoria Ground.
It’s been a busy summer for Baillie, who took over from Gavin Hurren, in the summer, with the likes of George Forsyth (Stourbridge) James Fry (Tamworth) and Dan Sweeney (Redditch), Andre Brown (Hednesford), Ryan Edmunds (Redditch), Kieron Dawes (Redditch) and Lewis Wright among the new faces.
The manager admitted it had been a learning process during pre-season and he had had to put round pegs in square holes for games through injury and unavailabiliites. But that has shown the variety in the squad and last week’s 1-0 win at home to Bedworth meant Sporting ended the warm-up games with three wins, two defeats and one draw.
Baillie still has his eye on strengthening the squad especially with injury concerns over winger Miro Pais after he was hurt against Hemel.
But it is likely some players will also have to move on.
“We’ve been quite patient in bringing in the players we want but then you have a lot of players available with ten days to go because they have tried clubs above and haven’t got fixed up,”
“I’ve also had League clubs and players higher up the pyramid offering me players on loan.
“I’ve got to be careful who we bring in because I think we’ve got enough to start the season.
“The players have gelled. We’ve done a lot of work so they can play together. You have got to be careful who you bring into to the fold because you don’t want to upset the changing room.
“There’s a couple possibles, a couple of potentials we might bring across, someone we’ve been talking to. It depends on Miro’s situation,
“Other than that I think we’re quite settled. We’ve got plenty of cover in all positions, we’ve got players who can play in multiple positions.”