Neal Ardley captures midfield target
Manager Neal Ardley today completed his third signing of the summer with the addition of former Stevenage midfielder Dean Parrett.
“He was in demand,” said a delighted Neal, who beat off competition for Parrett’s signature in strengthening his options in the middle. “It was a last minute snatch from the jaws of a different club and a big club at that, so that was nice as it’s happened to us a few times!”
The 24 year-old established himself in league football with Stevenage after loan spells at a number of clubs, but made his senior debut at Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup in 2009. He has represented England from under-16 through to under-20 level.
“I’ve liked Dean ever since he was at Spurs,” added Neal, “He used to play against my academy and I rated him highly then. He went on loan to Yeovil and went off the radar for a little while, but having seen him for a couple of years at Stevenage I thought that last season he was the player I saw before and rated so highly.”
“He’s very dynamic, carries the ball, very quick and technically excellent. I think he has goals in him and he’s a footballer in the mould of Jake Reeves. He’s stocky, he’ll compliment what we’ve got and I think at his age now we are going to get the best out of him.”
Parrett is pleased to be linking up with former Stevenage team-mates Darius Charles and Chris Whelpdale again, who also committed to the Dons this summer, and said this was a key factor in his decision to join the club.
“I spoke to both Darius and Chris before I signed and they only had good things to say about the club and both they and the manager were the reason why I wanted to be here,” said Parrett. “Chris and I used to drive in to Stevenage together, so it’s quite nice that we’ve both signed here and we can continue that!”
“I’m really happy. I’d been speaking to the manager for about a week or so and I’m happy it’s done now. There was a little bit of interest from a couple of clubs, but I had a couple of conversations with the manager here and the final decision was based on how he spoke about the club and how the players here are a tight-knit team and obviously watching the play-offs and how they went up – I wanted to be a part of it.”
“The manager knows a bit about me from when I was at Tottenham and he said he watched me when I was youngster and obviously being at Stevenage I played against AFC Wimbledon a couple of times. He wants me to be a powerful midfielder, who joins in and gets forward and creates things and works hard for the team with or without the ball.”
The full five minute interview with new signing Dean Parrett is now available to Dons Player subscribers, along with the thoughts of manager Neal Ardley on his latest capture.