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Martin Foyle finally got his man, when Hector Sam put and end to days of 'will he, won't he' by signing a twelve month contract at Vale Park late on Wednesday afternoon.


The player was at the club on Friday for a look around the place, liked what he saw and the club had hoped to announce his capture at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

The press conference was cencelled late on, when the player understandably asked for a little more time to chew things over, before making his final decision and he put pen to paper this afternoon.

Sam joined Wrexham from Port of Spain side, San Juan Jabloteh, for a reported £125,000 fee in the summer of 2000 and went on to make 93 starts for the Welsh outfit.

Dean Glover said: "We are excited about it. Obviously we are disappointed to have lost Dave Hibbert, but that is out of our hands.

"We have accepted that he has gone, but we couldn't have got a better replacement than Hector. He is an experienced lad with an old head and he has got an eye for goal.

"He has pace and is quick off the mark, he has a good footballing brain and he is very tricky around the penalty box, which is what we need.

"We need that little bit of pace and danger, where sometimes even Hector Sam doesn't know what he's going to do, but he's got a great eye for goal and his record speaks for itself.

"He has had offers from other clubs and myself and Martin have had to try to sell the club the best we can. At the end of the day, we can just be honest with him.

"We told him the situation with the squad. With him signing, we've got four very good strikers on the books now and at the end of the day, whoever performs the best will get the chance.

"We've got four good lads, we've got big Billy (Paynter), Nathan Lowndes, Lee Matthews and obviously Hector.

"Hector can play as a wide man, which is another notch on his belt really, because again, it gives us another dimension.

"With the way Chris Birchall has been used over the summer holidays with Trinadad and Tobago, we are hoping Chris will come back and give us he's got, but now he has got competition for his place in that wide right position.

"He's been having an excellent summer with his country and we are hoping he doesn't come back too tired.

"But that is what we have looked at over the last couple of seasons now, because when you haven't got a massive budget, you have got to look at players who can play in numerous positions.

"We have looked at that with Hector and thankfully he can do that and he has got that eye for goal, which is more important for us because when you look at our record for last season, we didn't score a lot of goals.

"We are quietly confident though, because I don't think we can go through what we went through last year - I don't think we deserve that as a club. I just hope we don't get the injuries that we got last year.

"We have got a strong squad now and in a sense it is an experienced one. We have young boys such as Chris Birchall and Billy Paynter, but now we have a squad where you have got to say, all nineteen signed so far can play in that first team.

"Without a doubt there will be more signings, we are desperate for a left back, so hopefully we can get that position filled by the end of the week.

"We are fairly confident, but you never know what can happen, but I think that come the end of the week, we'll have the squad that we wanted.

"The players are back in training later this week and we are looking forward to that. They have had a decent break and they kick in on Thursday, so hopefully they are looking forward to it, as we are.

"That's what this game is all about, the footballing side of things. That's what we all look forward to, getting back with the players on the training ground and that all kicks in again on Thursday."

Sam certainly started his Wrexham career on a high note, scoring in a friendly against Sheffield Wednesday in his first outing in a red shirt and then following that with six goals in his first seven competitive games.

Before long he was called up into the Trinadad & Tobago national side for their World Cup games against Mexico and Panama. A loss of form followed, but he was soon back to his best and signed a new contract in 2003.

Back in November he came of the bench to score a crucial goal to send the national team through to the qualifying stages of the World Cup in Germany next year.

Ironically, Sam will not be joining new team-mate Chris Birchall in the 'Soca Warriors' squad for their Gold Cup games to be played in July after Leo Beenhakker decided against calling him up for the 23-man squad.