Daryl McMahon jetted back to the UK in between two well-earned breaks to seal one signing and is hopeful of more in the coming weeks.
McMahon pipped his former club Leyton Orient to the signature of ex-Dartford and Norwich City midfielder Ebou Adams and the Fleet boss believes his new acquisition has huge potential.
“He’s box-to-box, powerful, good on the ball,” McMahon told FleetOnline. “He reminds me of someone like a young Paul Ince. He’s young, he’s hungry, he can do both sides of the game. He can play, he can run and I think he’s got huge, huge potential as well. I’ve come up against him in my earlier days at Ebbsfleet, I noticed him then and then he played against us in the game at Dartford up against Stuart Lewis and Dean Rance. That was his debut, up against them two, and he gave a very good performance in that.
“I’ve kept an eye on him since then,” McMahon continued, “and he’s gone on to Norwich and Leyton Orient where he had a fantastic end to the season there. We’re excited to have him and he’ll be a big player for us.”
Adams was a wanted man following his release by Norwich City, and having played 16 games on loan for the O’s, they were also keen to add him to their squad for 2018/19.
“He likes what he’s seen,” said McMahon. “He thinks we’re progressive as a club. He’s coming to us because he’s looked at our squad and how we performed last season. When you’re looking at that age group, we’ve got Magri, Coulson, Powell, McQueen, and now Ebou, all at that 22/23/24 age bracket. They’re good ages, they’re hungry to get on but they’re not raw or inexperienced either.
“That was a big thing when I took over three years ago and right through to now, I’ve always felt that we needed to have the bulk of our squad around that age. They’re starting out their careers but they’re not beginners or they’re maybe looking to kick-start their careers if they’ve had to come out of the Football League and looking to go again. Ebou falls into that category and we’ve got a nice little blend at really good ages in this squad, really competitive players that want to kick on. Even though they’re young players, they have plenty of games behind them and then you align that enthusiasm with the really quality experience of the likes of Drury, Winfield and Kedwell and that’s a well-shaped squad.”
Having managed to squeeze in one swift week’s break, the manager will now turn his attention to other targets in various positions before he can finally take a longer break prior to the beginning of pre-season training.
“We’ll be trying to get a couple signed as soon as we can. We’ve had the conversations and now it’s about closing the deals and then finally I can relax properly!” he said.
