Director of Recruiting Steve Gallen details the loan capture of left wing-back Juan Castillo from Chelsea, while also providing an update on potential further business this month.
On the loan signing of Castillo…
“Juan is a player that I’ve been keeping tabs on for a couple of years now. I saw Juan play for Chelsea U23s maybe more than two years ago - the first game I saw him play was at Stamford Bridge against Derby’s U23s and the first thing I thought when I saw him was, 'Wow what a great athlete'. He’s quick, he’s direct, he’s athletic, he’s strong, he wants to take players on.
“We’ve just thought that we’re quite strong at the right-wing back position; Jonathan Leko has been playing in that position, DJ [Diallang Jaiyesimi] has been playing in that position. We just thought we wanted someone a bit more attacking on the left-hand side just to give a little bit of balance and a bit of competition to the other players who play that position. So, it’s something that’s been talked about for a few weeks and the Juan deal as it happens was actually done a few days ago, but we’ve only actually been able to get him in just now, so we have to give him a bit of time to get up to fitness, but I think he’ll come in and do well for us.”
The link with previous Chelsea loanees…
“I think this is something I talked to Juan about when I was on the phone to him over a week ago. I said to him, it started for me anyway, with Jay Dasilva coming in and then Conor Gallagher didn't do too bad as well and then Ian Maatsen came in and did pretty well. So, I said to him you’re the fourth one that I’ve brought in from Chelsea, you know he’s aware of all those players, and then when I told him that he was like, ‘Oh wow, all of these guys have come here, done well, and moved on and done better.'”
On the attributes Castillo brings to the squad…
“Well, his pace is the first thing and it’s the first thing I noticed about him when I first saw him, and his willingness to take people on and his left-foot. You see a lot of right wingers and you see a lot of right-sided players playing on the left coming inside on their right foot and stuff like that, so we wanted a bit of balance really there and we needed someone who’s going to be attacking.
“The main thing I want to do is give the manager some options, so we’ve got defensive players for the wing-back position if he wants to do that, and we’ve got attacking players for that and we’ve got that on both sides. So, I think it’s the coaching staff now who needs to do a little bit of work, get Juan up to speed, get him fit, get him ready, training in the team and then it’s up to the manager whether he picks him or goes with someone else - I’ll leave that to Johnnie [Jackson].”
The potential for more business…
“I mentioned this last time we spoke that we still want at least one more - at least - so there could be potential for two but what I can tell everybody is that we’re working on it all the time. It’s non-stop and there’s opportunities that come up and then there’s things that you think, ‘Should we go for, shouldn’t we go for?’ so there’s lots of discussion going on.
“The squad is big there’s no doubt about that, we have a lot of players now which is good. It should help us towards the end of the season, but I also feel that we need to look at a few that go out maybe on loan or potentially on permanents. But certainly out on loan, so there’s going to be one, maybe two coming in and potentially a few going out as well.”
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Article by Gregg Baxter