Graham Kavanagh on Meppen-Walter
United manager Graham Kavanagh spoke today about what happens next now that former-Manchester City defender Courtney Meppen-Walter has put pen-to-paper on his short term contract offer.
“The idea is to bring him closer into the group and we now want to get him some reserve type games under his belt,” he said. “We’ve got a behind-closed-doors game against Blackburn coming up and we will get another fixture arranged for the following week. It’s important that he gets up to speed as quickly as possible and that he continues to improve on the good work he has already done this last two or three weeks.”
“It is strange how things go, sometimes, because we could find that this is more important football-wise than any of us thought it would be even just a few days ago,” he explained. “We’re still looking at trying to do something more with Max [Ehmer] but there’s a distinct possibility that his deal won’t be extended.
“We hope we will be able to resolve that early next week but, if we can’t, that would leave us without a player who has been a really key performer for us. It could then be the case that we throw Courtney in at the deep end to see how he handles it. Or we might decide that’s too early to do and we shuffle the squad about. We just can’t be sure which way it will go at this moment in time.
“First of all we have to see where we are with Max once we’ve spoken to QPR next week and then we have to see if Courtney is ready to step in. We’re starting to get a real youthful energy about the group and in many ways it’s now over to Courtney to show us that he can be part of that.”
On the deadline day activity overall, he said: “When you put these signings in with the likes of Sean O’Hanlon, Lee Miller, Paul Thirlwell and our other senior players you start to think that the blend you wanted and needed is starting to appear. It’s very exciting and particularly if it all comes together.
“Hopefully the fans will see just how much the board have done and how much of a commitment they have made. It’s now up to my group to repay that with points on the board and with trying to bring the type of football we all want to see. We want to do that with a younger group which is full of energy and intelligence.
“It won’t always work out for us, but we think we’ve got a squad which can be exciting and which will get us results. I genuinely hope the fans will feel they can come along and support us with what we are all trying to achieve.”