With both Xander McBurnie and Ahkeem Rose joining Wimborne Town FC on loan for the next month, first team manager Brian Stock sat down with us to explain the deals and what the players are hoping to gain from going on loan.
“Xander has been unfortunate with his Achilles which he injured in pre-season and has given him a fair bit of grief and has needed some very careful monitoring. But he is back training regularly but is short of match sharpness, it’s no secret that he has missed a lot of game time. It’s very important that we focus on match fitness and he has the chance to get five lots of 90 minutes under his belt and return to us match fit.”
When asked if McBurnie was happy to go out on loan.
“Xander is a really good lad and he is relishing the chance to go on loan and play some competitive football. He has been excellent when we have asked him to play for the Under 23s, but we feel that, although the Under 23 side is serving its purpose and is a very good standard, we feel that it falls just short when trying to get players up to match fitness.”
We then asked about Ahkeem Rose joining Xander McBurnie at Wimborne.
“It’s a similar story. Ahkeem has had problems with his hamstrings which has meant that his season has been very stop-start. It has been particularly frustrating for him because he came here to really kick start his career again and really push on, but although it’s been a rocky start, we are still relatively early into the season and with the forward players showing decent form, Ahkeem has struggled for minutes and we collectively thought that a loan would get those much needed minutes he needs and hopefully he will return ahead of the busy Christmas period match sharp.”
We asked why Wimborne was the destination.
“That was purely my decision. I made it because I feel that it is the best option for both players. Both players will wear GPS vests for us to monitor, they will be playing locally, we will be able to watch them play and they will be training with us for large periods of the week around their games for Wimborne.
I think that Wimborne are a great club and a very well run club. I have close contact with their manager and I can’t wait to see what the two lads can do there. They are at the wrong end of the table at the moment, but hopefully these deals can go some way towards helping them climb the table.”
We then asked if we can expect any more transfer dealings in the near future.
“We are always assessing the squad, but we will conduct all of our transfer business in a private manner. What I will say though, as I feel it’s important, is that we don’t want to see the two players sitting in the stands and not playing football. We feel that is how players can become stale. We would much rather them gaining and maintaining match fitness. They are both excellent lads with superb attitudes and have always done anything that we’ve asked. We feel that this is a really good chance for two really good players.”
