Michael Jolley has told us he is delighted with the business he has been able to do during the January transfer window after concluding deals for Mikael Ndjoli and Mace Goodridge.
The Bluebirds boss was keen to add a couple of new faces following the departures of Dior Angus and Harrison Biggins on Monday and his perseverance was rewarded late on Deadline Day.
Work went on late in to the night but the paperwork was all submitted in time and Ndjoli’s permanent switch from Bournemouth and Goodridge’s loan from Burnley both went through, subject to the usual approvals from the football authorities.
Ndjoli arrives from The Cherries having previously spent time out on loan at Kilmarnock, Gillingham and Motherwell, and Jolley thinks those experiences can help him hit the ground running in Barrow.
“He’s an exciting young striker,” Jolley told us.
“It’s good that it’s not his first loan; he’s been out and has experience in EFL football and SPL football before now as well as a good pedigree in coming from Bournemouth.
“He’s got good attributes of pace and physicality which I think will help the squad and he also brings more competition for places.
“We have tried to add some speed where we can. We already have players with good pace but in Mikael I think we have someone who can run in behind and work on the shoulder.
“He’s a different kind of striker to the ones we already have and we know there is still some development and growth to come from him so playing games in the EFL will help with that.
“Hopefully we can be the beneficiaries of that once he gets back playing football regularly.”
Meanwhile, the Bluebirds chief is just as excited about being able to bring Goodridge to The Progression Solicitors Stadium and feels that he could really take the eye during his loan spell.
“I think it’s a good move for us,” he explained.
“We were disappointed to lose Harrison Biggins so, once that happened, we were keen to find someone who could bring a lot of energy to the squad and I think we’ve found that in Mace.
“He’s got a great deal of energy and athleticism and he’s a box-to-box midfielder with a good pedigree, having been at more than one Premier League club.
“You don’t get as far as the bench in the Premier League unless you’ve got plenty about you and he’s a lad who is very enthusiastic to be here and wants to kickstart his career in the Football League.
“I know that he’s very highly thought of at Burnley and I trust the guys there so we’re happy that they trust us with their players.
“We’re really happy to give him the platform to come in, compete for a place and then show everyone what he can do.”
Although Jolley was happy with the deals struck on Deadline Day, he was even more pleased that the Club had acted decisively to get the majority of their business done earlier in the month.
Now he’s looking forward to being able to throw his entire focus in to work on the training ground as he looks to put preparations in place for a hectic upcoming schedule.
“There were lots of possible outcomes for us on Monday,” he admitted.
“Overall, we wanted to get the bulk of our business done before the end of the window and I think we managed to do that, so we weren’t sitting there panicking on the last day.
“We just had a couple of little bits we wanted to finish off and I think with Mace and Mikael we’ve done a decent job in the window, so now we can breathe out a little bit and really start to work with the squad.”