Archived News from July 2005
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JON HJELDE JOINS ON TRIAL
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Hjelde and Pressman join Mansfield
CHAD website, 21 July 2005 MANSFIELD Town have made another superb summer signing with the capture of Norwegian central defender Jon Olav Hjelde. And former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeping legend Kevin Pressman has also agreed to join the Carlton Palmer revolution. The 32-year-old Hjelde was shown the door by Gary Megson at Nottingham Forest at the end of last season - his second spell with the Reds. He has since had a trial in Denmark and offers to join Doncaster Rovers and clubs back home in Norway - all for more money than Stags were offering. But once agin the persuasive powers of player-manager Palmer have paid dividends and Hjelde has agreed to sign for the season. "Jon has taken a massive pay cut to come here," said Palmer. "But he has trained with us and seen what we are doing and wants to be a part of it. He still lives in Nottingham so it's only 35 minutes to drive here for him." Hjelde now needs to build up his fitness and will be given some action in the reserve friendly at Teversal on Saturday (3pm) rather than tomorrow (Friday) night's home clash with Huddersfield Town (7pm). Pressman has also agreed to sign for a year and will play against Huddersfield. His arrival will allow Palmer to get Jason White out on loan to a Conference club to gain valuable experience, but with a 24 recall if needed. "We are very pleased Kevin is signing and he will be our first choice keeper and double up as goalkeeping coach. "He will work with Jason and bring him on so he can take over the mantle when Kevin packs in. "Both Peter Shirtliff and myself have played with Kevin and we know his ability and what he is like as a lad. "Kevin played quite a few Championship matches at Leicester last season when Peter was there. "We couldn't compete financially with the other clubs who wanted Kevin. But we offered him the chance to come here and be involved in what we believe will be something special this season. "Also it is an opportunity for him to take the next step as a coach. "I wasn't totally convinced in going with Jason as my number one this season. But I gave Jamie Spencer his debut for Stockport when he was only 16 and now he is off to Sunderland. "There is not much between him and Jason at this stage of their careers and getting Jason out on loan will give him the valuable experience he needs." However, former England star Des Walker faces an agonising six to eight week lay-off after tearing a hamstring in Tuesday night's 3-1 reserve friendly win at Retford. "Des is really down in the dumps at the moment," said Palmer. "He had been working really hard. But these things can happen pre-season. Des is a quick healer and, although he clearly won't be ready for the start of the season, we will just have to see how it pans out." Heron, Bunning and Arnold were on target for Stags at Retford. New striker Matthew Tipton has been suffering from sunstroke and feeling very unwell. Palmer said he would probably only play half of the Huddersfield game. Stags' teenage skipper Alex John-Baptiste has been put on standby for the England U20s squad for the trip to Moscow to face Russia in a friendly on 16th August. ------- Jon-Olav Hjelde Height 6.02 Weight 13.03 Date of birth 30-07-1972 Place of birth Levanger, Norway Position Defender Nationality Norway All time playing career Club From To Fee League FA Cup League cup Other Nottm Forest 11-08-2004 09-05-2005 Free 13 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 Pusan I.cons 01-07-2004 11-08-2004 No appearance data available Nottm Forest 04-08-1997 01-07-2004 £ 600000 136 (21) 4 5 (0) 0 12 (0) 2 0 (1) 0 Rosenborg 01-08-1996 04-08-1997 18 (9) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 Totals £ 600000 167 (31) 5 5 (0) 0 13 (0) 2 0 (1) 0 goals / game 0.02 0 0.15 0 ------ mansfieldtown.net : Des Walker Injured Stags fans got the opportunity to catch a glimpse of Centre back Des Walker in a Stags kit when made a brief appearance against Retford during the week but unfortunately the veteran player had to leave the Field of play after falling to a Hamstring injury which has scuppered his plans of making a football comeback for at least six weeks. "it is a real shame and I feel for Des he fell during the friendly game against Retford the other night and tore his hamstring and he is looking like been out for about six to eight weeks so he naturally down in the dumps. "he has worked really hard and it is a shame to see this happen but his is a tricky part of the pre-season with the boys working really hard and these type of injuries are the sort of thing that we are trying to avoid. Des has only been back in training for three weeks where the rest of the lads have been back longer so hopefully we can avoid this kind of injury. "Des is a quick healer so we can only hope that he is fit enough to return sooner rather than later so I have done a deal with another centre back which I was going to bring into the football club in any case. All that remains on this deal is the Chairman to Okay it." The player, former Nottingham Forest defender, Jon Hjelde will be joining the Stags today after turning down an offer from League one club Doncaster but will not be playing in the game against Huddersfield town on Friday evening as he needs to get some fitness work in but he will most certainly be joining us. I spoke to the Chairman before he went on Holiday so he knows all about it so it should be a done deal" Palmer told the official website this morning. |
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