Our first summer signing is 6'4” twenty six year old goalkeeper Will Mannion who will join at the end of June when his contract at Cambridge United comes to an end.
He began his career at AFC Wimbledon, where he made a strong impression in their Under-18 team that beat Premier League academy sides Watford and Newcastle in the FA Youth Cup. His performances persuaded Premier League Hull City to pay £100,000 for him (settled by a tribunal) as an eighteen year old.
He made no league appearances during his four year spell at Hull. His only appearance for the first team was in an EFL Cup defeat at Doncaster. However, while a Hull player, he was selected to play for England Under-19s on two occasions.
He had loan spells at Aldershot (2018/19) and Kidderminster Harriers (2019/20) and, when his contract with Hull ended in 2020, he joined Cypriot First Division side Pafos. Again, he made no appearances for the first team and he returned to England and signed for Cambridge United in August 2021.
Within a few months he was on loan at National League South Havant and Waterlooville - making his debut in their 0-4 FA Cup defeat at The Valley in November. In April 2022 he finally made his EFL debut and again it was against Charlton. He was beaten twice as we prevailed through deflected goals from Corey Blackett-Taylor and Conor Washington.
In the two seasons since, he has played a further 27 league games for Cambridge, establishing himself as their first choice for the final eight games last season as they narrowly avoided relegation. He only conceded seven goals in those games - including the one from Conor Wickham which secured our 1-1 draw at The Abbey Stadium in April.
Although Nathan Jones describes him as "an experienced goalkeeper" his career league appearances (29) are fewer than those of Ashley Maynard-Brewer and Harry Isted. However, Jones' remarks about Mannion do not suggest that he has a great deal of confidence in either of our current keepers:
“He’ll provide real good competition to those who we bring into that department and obviously he brings a real talent to it. We want to improve the department. We’re looking to bring in two goalkeepers to have a real competitive edge to them and two we believe can play at not just this level, but also can play at the level above.”
If Will's name seems familiar to older readers we hasten to confirm that our new goalkeeper is in no way related to Wilf Mannion - the supremely gifted inside forward who played for pre- and post-war Middlesbrough and of whom there is a statue outside the Riverside Ground. Wilf’s full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/obituaries/713283.stm