ALAN REYNOLDS insisted that Bohemians new boy Lys Mousset will be a sensation at Dalymount Park if given time.
French striker Mousset, 28, has joined the Gypsies for this campaign after a brief trial with the club.
But his arrival was well-flagged with Bohs fans excited by his CV that saw him once move to then Premier League side Sheffield United for £10 million.
And Reynolds acknowledged that the talent that made him a big name is there, but he needs time to get back to that after 18 months out of the game.
‘Rennie’ told SunSport: “He’s a lot of work to do to get up to speed. He hasn’t played in a year and a half, he’s had an Achilles injury so he’s going to be a slow burner in that sense.
“But when he’s playing games, you see the quality. But you can see he’s trying things that he used to be able to do…things that he could get on the end of if he was sharper.
“He took a bold move to come in on trial as nobody has really given him a chance. But his first day, it was like he’d never kicked a ball.
“And here was us telling the others that he was a Premier League player…he’d been training before then but I’m not sure at what level.
“But the improvement from that day until now is massive and he could be a really big player for us this season.”
Mousset is the seventh new arrival at the club this winter, with three of the new faces being attackers with Connor Parsons and Colm Whelan also added during the winter.
And ‘Rennie’ reckons that will add greatly to Bohemians last season who scored just 39 goals in 36 games last season.
He said: “We were good between the boxes last year…I think that’s what I’ve said quite a few times.
“So hopefully we can be better with Connor, Collie, and Lys now as well as Rhys Brennan coming up from the Under-20s to go with what we already have.
“We were back in training on December 1 for a three-week bloc before Christmas, and then in the New Year. It’s been long but I think we needed it.
“We had new players but also the ones we signed in the summer, Dawson (Devoy), Rossi (Tierney) and Leigh Kavanagh hadn’t a pre-season.”
‘YOU NEED TIME’
Having taken over in April last season, he also insisted that having his first pre-season with the club has helped a lot as he put his stamp on things.
He said: “You need time. When I came in in April, my first game was away to Rovers on a Friday and I’d only taken over on the Thursday.
“There were 41 in the dressing room in Tallaght between players, young players and staff…I didn’t know if some were players or staff. It was like an American Football dressing room.
“So ‘re a lot tighter and cleaner now. We’ve made a few signings in the last few days but got a few done early.
“As well as that, we’ve also got Keith Buckley, Rob Cornwall and James McManus back who didn’t play, or didn’t play much, last year.
“People might say we didn’t do too much business but having those three back have really added to training as well.”
