City have unveiled the signing of Cameron Stewart, a winger released by Ipswich last summer.
Stewart has been with Port Vale and we’ve been waiting for confirmation from the FA that his appearance in a reserve game for them against Walsall did not constitutes having a club before the window closed. It does not and he becomes the latest member of Danny’s threadbare squad.
Stewart has had a few clubs and is one of those players looking for somewhere he can thrive. He began his career with Manchester United, representing England at under-17, under-19 and under-20 level. He had loan spells with Yeovil Town and Hull City in the first half of the 2010–11 season, before he joined Hull permanently for an undisclosed fee.
He fell out of favour at Hull and ended up spending short terms on loan at various clubs including Leeds United. He was due to join Leeds permanently at the end of his Hull contract in July 2014, but the transfer was cancelled and he instead joined Ipswich Town. He never settled at Portman Road, but he did have a successful loan spell with Doncaster which was his last meaningful football. He can score a goal or two, he grabbed a last-minute winner for Doncaster against Crewe during his loan spell there, scoring four times in total.
I know some will be running their eye over this signing saying ‘not another winger’, but it is worth noting that Danny feels we haven’t had the right penetration from the wings as we did last season. I still maintain Matt Green will score goals and honestly, I can’t wait when he does to quieten a few people down. The key to him scoring is good service, something we’ve struggled with. The 4-2-3-1 that Danny favours relies heavily on wide players getting at a full back and providing bullets, so I suspect Danny’s thinking is he needs to strengthen where he can.
Look, centre forwards are not in plentiful supply, almost all are contracted to clubs. We do not necessarily need a ‘proven’ goal scorer, we have one in Matt Green. What we need is to find the formula that gives Matt the sort of service he can thrive on, and Cameron Stewart might be able to do just that.
He brings experience, he brings potential and he’s another player with something to prove after a stuttering career. At 26-years old he still has an awful lot to offer and I firmly believe if Danny didn’t think he had the ability to turn his career around, he wouldn’t have signed him. At this stage of the season, with no players allowed in contracted to clubs currently, Cameron Stewart is a very good find.
He’s been training with the club for a while so it is odd that the news hasn’t broken sooner. I do know we hoped to have it tied up ahead of today’s game but the finer details were being checked with the FA. He is now available for tonight’s match and I’d wager he gets a run out from the bench, if not a starting role.