By Chris Slavin
AFC Wimbledon have today completed a seventh summer signing with the arrival of Terell Thomas from Wigan Athletic.
The 22-year-old defender has signed for an undisclosed fee from the Championship club.
Terell, who started his career at Arsenal, switched to Charlton Athletic at a young age and progressed through their academy to the first-team squad. Though he did not make a first-team appearance for the Addicks, his impressive performances on loan at Woking earned him a move to Wigan in 2017. Terell spent a large part of last season on loan at Sutton United, earning rave reviews for his performances and almost helping them to promotion into the English Football League.
Speaking to iFollow shortly after his signing was completed, Dons first-team coach Simon Bassey said that Terell is a player the management staff have monitored for several years.
"I first watched Terell when he was in the Charlton set-up at the age of 17," recalled Simon. "He was really fit then and he's done a lot of growing since. We have been aware of him for a long time and his progression has been good. He has developed his physical size and he has a great attitude. We've spoken to a lot of people about him: he is a really good kid, humble and hard-working. He's got really good qualities that we like to attract to the place. As a player, he has come on in leaps and bounds, so we are delighted to bring him here.
"Terell spent a lot of last season on loan at Sutton United. We watched him there a bit, he did really well, and the people at Sutton loved him. Terell thought his game-time at Wigan this season would probably not be as great as he would have liked. He's had a taste of playing first-team through his loan spells at Woking and Sutton. He has a real thirst to play games and we hope to give him that stage.
"He will certainly add competition. Terell makes it three centre-backs and there will be a real fight on to get the shirt. He has got qualities that both Deji and Will have got, so it will be interesting to see the way it pans out this season. Terell brings real strength to the group. He is a good age at 22, very athletic with good spring, so he has loads of qualities that we are looking for in the back four. He ticks a lot of the boxes and we are really pleased to get this one done."
Look out soon on iFollow for an extensive interview with Terell, plus more from Simon Bassey on the signing.