United’s last bit of summer signing activity was the capture of Huddersfield Town striker Micah Obiero on a half-season deal, and manager Chris Beech explained the reasoning behind the signing this weekend.
“It’s difficult really because Ethan’s had his injury and he’s had his operation this morning [Saturday] at 9am,” he said. “I told him to try to stay awake for our game, if he could, expecting him to be sleepy for a while.
“He rang me at half eleven on the way home and he was talking like normal. He’s had his big tear in his shoulder so it’s important for us to go into games with a little bit more in reserve.
“That’s why we went for Micah. He has pace and he’s a little bit like the lad you’ve seen playing for Colchester. He can manipulate the ball and he can bring excitement.
“He’s young and hungry and I want young, hungry players.”
“We haven’t had him up here with us yet,” he continued. “It was last minute, after 12 on Friday, so he’s trained with Huddersfield.
“We’ll see him on Tuesday in Oldham, and from that point I’m sure he’ll be getting involved towards next weekend. I don’t want to disrespect our current players to bring somebody in and say there you go, shove somebody else out.
“It’s wrong with the way the players are doing that. I’ve told Micah he has to earn his stripes here, he knows that, he’s got a short window until January, so we’ll see what he can do.
“As I’ve said with every player I’ve recruited, their attitudes, characteristics and traits are vital. Personalities are important because we don’t want to destroy what we’re building. The players coming in have to have the right qualities.”
Having secured Micah, we wondered if he’d got close to any other arrivals on deadline day.
“Very close,” he admitted. “It’s unfair to speak about others, but yeah. It’s funny how things change. I did meet players back in the summer, they wanted financially different things, basically too expensive for us.
“As time goes on that changes, but we’ve recruited in that time. The obvious answer you want to try and give everybody becomes almost, you can’t do it.
“I spoke to two on the Thursday, one was done, he rang me to say I’m coming, loved the chat, can’t wait to get there, and then we get an email from Sarah to David to say the club have just said no, but they’d allowed me to speak to the player.
“It’s probably because they’ve tried to sign players and something hasn’t dropped at their end. It’s like the housing market. If it clicks in, you’re in.
“We clicked out, and then managed to do really well getting Micah, because he’s an exciting young player who’s here until January, he covers us for Ethan and gives us competition for places.”
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