In the last week Shrewsbury Town have said goodbye to three of the most influencial players in our recent promotion from League Two.

The transfer of Shane Sheriff and Nicky Wroe to Preston took place last week and then yesterday Ian Sharps announced he will not be signing a new contract with the club.

Just how big are these losses a lot of fans will ask?  The day before Nicky Wroe’s departure was confirmed Shrewsbury announced the signing of Asa Hall, which was done seemingly as a replacement for Wroe and one which I personally am very happy with.

Hall can score goals from Midfield as he has proven with Oxford last season and Luton before that. He is a solid addition to the squad, though I do feel we still need to strengthen in that area if we are to compete in League one next season. Dave McCalister anyone?

Shane Sheriff for me is the biggest loss of the three, he has been the clubs longest serving player and for me was certainly a player of the year candidate this season. He has been instrumental in our promotion push and will be very difficult to replace. He has the ability to play centre back, left back and central midfield, making him a very useful player to have in the squad. We need to find a very solid replacement for this man.

And finally Captain fantastic Ian Sharps. In all fairness I don’t think Sharpsy is too great a loss. I’m aware that most Shrewsbury fans would disagree with me on this one but personally I wouldn’t have played him in league one anyway. He is getting older and he was regularly beating on pace this last campaign, he’s not the player he was two years ago and I think it was best for him to move on. He has been a fantastic servant to the club and will now move on somewhere else.

So Graham Turner now has a very busy few weeks on his hands. James Collins is yet to sign his new contract and with other clubs sniffing about this has to be our number one priority at the moment. We also need to bring in two solid centre backs, with Reuben Hazzell fit again for the start of the season we should have a pretty solid back line. We will also have to choose our next captain, Hazzell and Richards appear to be the front-runners among the fans. Then we need to continue to build the rest of the squad. This is going to be one long summer.

You can follow me on Twitter @LiamHoofe

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