Evans hints at more Stags signings

Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans has hinted there could yet be more signings over the coming weeks, as he looks to build a squad equipped to challenge at the top of League Two.
Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans.Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans.
Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans.

Stags have set their stall out early with several additions this week and Evans was quick to defend the club’s strategy as he looks to add to the nine promotions already on his CV.

He said: “If they’re right there will be a few more. But they have to be right, of course. We’ve seen people far and wide criticise our strategy. When they win nine promotions they’ll realise what a strategy is. The strategy always is, when it’s right you sign the player.

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“It has to be the right player. It can’t be the wrong player. We’ve had a list of targets, we’ve missed out on one or two, not through being a fault of the financials from the owner, it’s because the player has chosen someone else. We have to respect and honour that.

“We’ve an ambition here to challenge for promotion. It’s going to be tough for us but our wonderful owners, I say it whether they’re here (sat next to me) or not, a management team that is experienced, players that win us promotions and there is no football club - as the chairman and the chief executive keep saying to me - without the lifeblood of the supporters.”

Evans was speaking after the club made a double swoop of Hayden White and Lee Angol from Peterborough United on Thursday, in a busy week for the club.

White had been on loan at the One Call Stadium since January, making 18 starts in Evans’ defence during that time.

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“I think we’re working on a plan to have different options in different formations,” said Evans. “A plan has been thought out for six months. It’s not a plan we’ve put together in six days. The problem that some of the owners and managers will have is that they’re still changing their list of targets every day.

“Our targets have never changed. We had Hayden White as a target for right back and wanted to bring him to the football club. We brought him in.

“We targetted a striker weeks ago, in Lee Angol, but we didn’t think it was going to be possible. When you’ve got clubs at the top of League One targetting the boy, when you have two League One clubs come to the same agreement that Mansfield Town have with him, the credit lies at the Radford family’s door.

“The credit that they can still make this deal happen and they’ve been able to make it happen for me, the manager, but for all of the dressing room. The join a good dressing room. We’re only building a squad at the minute. We’re not finished.”

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Evans added: “It’s been outstanding business so far. We’re really pleased, in fairness to the owners they’ve supported us, but we’re not getting carried away. At the back end of every signing we know to a penny where we’ve heading. We’re very comfortable with where we are as are the board.

“No-one’s got carried away with packages, dressing room salaries or anything like that. There’s an equalisation in there. We’re all very focused in what we’d like to achieve.

“We don’t want to talk up our players we don’t want to talk up ourselves, the owners can speak freely as they always do, we just want to work hard between now and the start of the season to make sure the squad is fit and available to train on that opening day.”