Mansfield Town made their first serious moves of the summer yesterday, bringing in a proven League One striker in the form of Walsall’s Andy Cook.
Cook bagged 13 goals for the Saddlers last season as they slipped out of the third-tier, but he’s been deemed as surplus to requirements by new manager Darrell Clarke.
That’s prompted Mansfield to spend an ‘undisclosed’ sum on the former Tranmere man.
The Stags only missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season, then suffered play-off heartbreak in the semi-final as they lost to Newport County on penalties, a side who only just sneaked into the top seven on the final day.
In a quirk of the fixture list the two sides will open their 2019/20 campaign against each other, a repeat of an opening day fixture that crops up regularly.
Mansfield will do so with Cook, a powerful figure in the air as well as a clinical finisher. It’s certainly a statement of intent from John Dempster and allays fears that owner John Radford was tightening the purse strings at Field Mill.
Supporters are delighted to see this calibre of player arrive too, as you’ll see from their Twitter reaction, although a few have misgivings about an alleged ‘attitude problem’. A couple of fans from his former club’s have also chipped in with their opinion.
https://twitter.com/CONKS__/status/1142150535476404226
https://twitter.com/MnRainer/status/1142111587748196352
https://twitter.com/gilbertdaz1971/status/1142111448027541510
https://twitter.com/scottpowell4321/status/1142115274709262343
https://twitter.com/Braddersg008/status/1142102117076938752
https://twitter.com/MartyMc08985211/status/1142152759417942016
https://twitter.com/redfletch83/status/1142102953454690304
https://twitter.com/FrisbyAlan/status/1142119134450331655
https://twitter.com/JohnT400RPY/status/1142110169003958272
https://twitter.com/jamiehorney89/status/1142113592248082432
