Shrewsbury Town manager signs contract extension
Gavin Cowan will stay at the Club till Summer 2008
Shrewsbury Town has announced manager, Gavin Cowan, has signed a contract extension at the Croud Meadow.
The new deal will keep Gavin at the club until the Summer of 2028, extending his stay by a further 12 months.
The club also confirms assistant managers, Jamie Haynes and Dave Edwards, have also committed their futures by signing new contracts.
On signing his new deal, Gavin said: "I'm ecstatic. I wanted to get everything sorted nice and early.
"We came in at the back end of last season and made some real headway with the group, so we want to get those players back, recruit new players, and hit the ground running.
"All the staff are sorted now as well, so we’re ready to go.
"It’s great to get the extension, because it helps secure some roots into what we want to do.
"You don’t want to be living on a knife edge all the time. Similar to getting my contract sorted, we’ve also got the staff sorted, the retained list out there for the players we want to keep, and the ones we’ll be letting go.
"It just brings a lot of clarity around the day-to-day operations of being the first-team manager.
"From my perspective, it means I can really focus on recruitment.
"Having that extra year gives us a solid foundation to work from.
"Of course, we’re going to have testing times, like any football team or football club does, but for the most part we want to build properly and have short, medium and long-term plans for what we want to achieve."
On the importance of getting the Gavin's Jamie's and Dave's contracts sorted early: "It’s hugely important.
"I’m very honoured to be the first-team manager of Shrewsbury Town. It’s a huge honour for me, Jay, Dave, and all the staff who’ve chosen to stay.
"For the players we’ll be retaining next year as well, it’s a privilege to be part of this football club.
"But ultimately, we want to get on with things. We are doers. We want to get on and do the work.
"Now that the operational side is close to where we want it, we can focus on the smaller details - from managing staff and keeping them on board, to improving things in the changing room and making sure everything is right for the players at the training ground and around the stadium.
"A lot of that work had already started before the season finished, which is great.
"What this deal allows me to do now is put all of that to bed and fully focus on recruitment alongside my head of recruitment, Tom (Ware)."