Not sure why we'd single out and specifically name one triallist but not any of the others. All this has done is alerted other clubs of one of the players we're looking at. Unless its a done deal and Shields is closer to signing than any of the others?
Timms named him on Twitter.
If that's the case then maybe the manager ought to have a word with the squad about what they tweet. At this time of year we need to play our cards close to our chest. Whilst it's always good for fans to know what's happening at the club, the bigger issue here is that we don't want to be alerting other clubs to the players we're looking at. The risk is that another club somewhere will then come forward and offer more money. A couple of years ago we had Michael O'Leary on trial. His name then got banded about in the press and next thing we knew he was a Gain$borough £rinity player.
Incidentally Dartford released centre-back Mark Arber, to allow him to get a club nearer to his home in Peterborough. When that story first broke I did wonder if he'd be on our radar - 650 league appearances, experienced centre half (New Alan White etc.), right geographical area and all of those factors. But then a story appeared on the Corby website that he'd signed for them. That's the way to do transfer business at this time of year - don't reveal the names of the players until they've signed the paperwork and then surprise everyone when the story breaks. I think the manager is generally doing things the right way - how many of us had any inkling about Peter Bore, for example? But we don't want the players' tweets to undermine what the manager is trying to do.
