ATK have just announced the triple signing of goalkeeper Soram Poirei, experienced winger David Cotterill, and experienced striker Martin Paterson. Both Paterson and Cotterill bring a wealth of experience from the English game and are very impressive captures for ATK, especially with both on free transfers.
Here are the profiles of each of the new signings for ATK:
Soram Poirei:
Soram Poirei is a twenty-five-year-old Indian goalkeeper who has played in both the I-League and the ISL. He started his professional career at Shillong Lajong in 2011, after they had just been promoted to the I-League. Shortly after he moved on to Pailan Arrows, before their disbanding in 2013, he swiftly moved on to Bengaluru FC and then left, after only appearing for four games, a year later to join newly promoted Aizawl for a short period of time before moving on to Delhi Dynamos.After making 5 appearances in his first season with Delhi he was loaned out to DSK Shivajians. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the impact he wanted.
This brings us to the now and him signing with ATK will give him a chance to really get his career started and hopefully, he can really make an impact at ATK. He isn’t the tallest of goalkeepers, standing at five feet eleven inches. However, this allows him to be quite an agile keeper who is also quite quick and possesses impressive reactions. He is still only twenty-five years old so he still has a lot of time to improve and become a very good goalkeeper. Hopefully, ATK are prepared to give Soram a good amount of game time, allowing him to properly show off his skill set and also get some experience to help his growth as a player.
Martin Paterson:
Martin Paterson is a thirty-year-old striker who has played in all four of England’s top leagues and the top two leagues in America. He came through the ranks at Stoke City and after impressing at all youth levels he secured his first professional contract in 2005. After not really making an impact on the first team and after only fifteen appearances over three seasons, he was loaned out to League Two side Grimsby Town. After scoring six goals in fifteen appearances, Stoke was prepared to let Paterson go and eventually sold him to then Championship side Scunthorpe United. He spent one season at Scunthorpe, scoring fourteen goals in forty-two appearances but they weren’t enough to keep Scunthorpe from being relegated.
Paterson moved to Burnley in 2008 and this is where he started to get a bit of recognition within the game. Paterson spent six years at Burnley, accumulating a total of over one hundred appearances and scoring only twenty-nine goals. After falling out of favor at Burnley, Paterson went on to sign for Huddersfield Town in 2013. In the three years he spent at Huddersfield he scored a total of five goals over twenty-five appearances. The majority of his time at Huddersfield was spent out on loan to other teams, he joined both Bristol City and Fleetwood Town on loan deals. He then moved over to the MLS with Orlando City, however, he only managed a total of fifty-three minutes over four appearances. He then went on to have spells at Blackpool, Port Vale, and Tampa Bay Rowdies before joining ATK just a couple of days ago. Over the years Paterson represented Northern Ireland twenty-three times.
From looking at his goalscoring record, you can clearly see Paterson isn’t the type of striker who will go out and smash in thirty goals a season, however, what he will bring to the table is a lot of hard work and effort. He is the type of player who will run at defences and cause chaos for them, hoping that he can cause an error and give himself, or a teammate, a good chance at goal.
You would typically play Paterson alongside a clinical finisher, however, in this league, he may finally get that thirty-goal season under his belt. In my opinion, this signing really shows the intent of ATK, to get a very well experienced striker, who is only thirty years old, shows that they mean business. I am looking forward to watching Paterson in the league and what his partnership will be like with the next new signing, David Cotterill.
David Cotterill:
David Cotterill is a thirty-year-old Welsh winger who had played in the top three leagues in England. He started his career at Bristol City in 2004, after three seasons with the club he was sold to Wigan Athletic in August 2006, however, he struggled in the two seasons he was there and was loan listed. In 2007, Sheffield United took Cotterill on loan, where he made sixteen appearances, before making the move permanently in July 2008. He spent two seasons at Sheffield United without really making a stand for a first team place and so he was sent out on loan to Swansea City.
He made the switch to Swansea permanently in January 2010, he then went on to make thirty-one appearances for the club, scoring four goals in that time. He fell out of the first team and failed to register a single appearance in the 2011-12 season and so in the January of 2012 he joined Barnsley on a free transfer. After only making eleven appearances, Cotterill’s short deal expired and he was free to leave. In June 2012, Cotterill signed for Doncaster Rovers, this is where he really got into his rhythm and he had two fantastic seasons, making a total of ninety-two appearances and scoring fifteen goals. He really impressed with his set-piece taking and after refusing a contract extension, he signed with the club I support Birmingham City.
Now, I’m going to spare you the stats of his time at Birmingham as I feel it would be better for me to give you my personal opinion on Cotterill after watching him for four and a half seasons. Cotterill can be a dangerous winger especially with his set-piece taking and his tendency to score long-range goals every so often. However, the main problem with Cotterill is that he never consistently performs, he always has a couple of impressive outings and then is pretty lackluster for the next five games.
Another issue Birmingham fans had with Cotterill’s performances was that he never came back to help out his defenders. Whether these issues appear in his outings for ATK is something we will have to find out, but I am looking forward to watching Cotterill play in this league as he can be a very tricky winger to deal with.
Finishing off…
ATK have made a massive statement of intent to the league with this triple signing, especially the signings of Paterson and Cotterill. If the both of them can perform to their best and create a partnership then ATK will fire up the league and score a fair few goals on their way up. Poirei is an interesting signing as he doesn’t have a lot of game time under his belt, however, he is still young and has a lot of room to improve. Either way, the future looks bright for both ATK and the league with this triple signing.
