The Bearded Wonder!

Dean Saunders' squad is starting to take shape, and the pedigree of the players he's signing is sending out a clear message of his intentions.

Last Summer we saw him bring in young lads like Curtis Obeng, Nathan Fairhurst and Adrian Cieslewicz. Now he's focussed on players who are established at our level or higher. It seems like a wise move to me.

Chris Blackburn, like Dean Keates, has enjoyed recent success in the Football League, and assuming they're fit they appear to be very astute signings. Of course, the one question when bringing players in from the higher levels of the game is their motivation. I'm not suggesting any doubt about either of the two we've snagged; I've never met either of them and have only heard good things about their atitude. There is a danger that players arrive dissaffected from the higher levels though, and perhaps feeling they've nothing to prove as their achievements are behind them. It's the one factor Saunders needs to watch out for as he looks to augment the squad with some experience and quality.