JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink is happy with the business he has done in the transfer window and is now looking for his nine new signings to gel as quickly as possible.
He said: “I’m pleased with the people we have brought in, it was very hard work, not easy but we got some significant deals over the line, some good loans and also some really good, exciting young players for the future on permanents.
“We wanted two more just to make the squad stronger in depth, but it didn’t materialise and I’m very happy with what we have done.
“We needed to do this. This club has always given younger players an opportunity and a platform to show what they can do. Then from there hopefully they go to bigger places, that’s just the club we are.
“We needed to bring the age down and have that mix of a few older players with a few younger ones and we have done that.
“Bringing in so many players is a big risk – but one we had to take. Normally in January you bring in two or three maximum but we needed to make the team more balanced and more competitive, with more energy.”
The first test for the new-look Brewers is against top-of-the table Hull tomorrow at the Pirelli Stadium with the manager grateful for a week on the training ground to bed his new signings into the squad.
He said: “We have had some long training sessions as we needed to cover a lot. The players were great. There was a lot of talking and hopefully we can show the benefits tomorrow.”
Fans should not expect to see all the new faces in tomorrow’s starting line-up though.
Hasselbaink said: “We won’t play all of them. Some of the players who were already here did well in the last two matches and they deserve to play. The others will have to come in and work hard to get their place.”
The focus now for the manager is putting points on the board.
He said: “It’s an important match tomorrow. Hull are a good team who like to play football from the back
“At the end of the day, we have to have the mentality that it’s about us and what we can do to hurt the opposition.
“We need to make the Pirelli Stadium a fortress again for us and that means we need to find a way to go at Hull and that’s what we are going to try and do.”
The good news is that Kieran Wallace has shaken off his injury and will be available for selection but John-Joe O’Toole is still struggling with an injury that forced him off against Ipswich.
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