Ashford United boss Tommy Warrilow has set out to unlock the full potential of latest signing Hassan Ibrahiym.

The 25-year-old, who played at Hastings United last season, had been subject to interest from multiple clubs before joining the Nuts & Bolts.

He has also previously spent time at Kingstonian, Whyteleafe and Barnet, with Warrilow hoping the midfielder can now settle down at Homelands.

Warrilow said: “I spoke to Hassan a while back and let him go off to have a chat with other people like we have done all pre-season.

“The boy has got so much ability, I said to him I just think he needs to stand still for a season to get some consistency into his game, like I’ve said to a lot of the boys, rather than keep moving around.

“The ability the boy has got is obviously second to none but we need to get that out of him, that’s why I said it’s not going to be so nice all the time.

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“I’m just trying to get him to fulfil his potential and hopefully we can do that.

“You can play him anywhere across the middle three.

“He wants to go and get the ball, sometimes he goes too deep to retrieve it to try and start play but he’s got such quick feet.

“I don’t think you can tie him up in one position, if you put him wide of a three he’ll cut in and get shots off and down the middle he’ll drive at people so that’s a nice thing to have.

“Wherever you put him you know he’s going to fill the void and hopefully, if he fulfils his potential, he’ll cause havoc this year.”

Warrilow remains keen on strengthening his defensive ranks ahead of the new season and is hoping to add to his squad again this week.

He added: “We need to bring a centre-half in, we spoke to one on Sunday.

“I said this last week, we had a centre-half and a forward coming down against Canterbury and on the day of the game we then had three lads say they wouldn’t be coming down.

“To be honest we’ve had a few lads in on trial that I’m going to have a chat with and that have done okay. Then I think we’re there with the squad.

“There’s still three weeks to go (until the start of the season) so who knows what happens in three weeks? That works both ways.

“That’s why you’ve got to be on your toes and keep your options open because it’s not just the football clubs, it’s the players sometimes that have offers come in when you think you’ve got a deal and that’s obviously happened to me quite a bit this pre-season so we’re taking nothing for granted.”

Ashford were beaten 2-0 by Canvey Island on Saturday as they continued their pre-season without a number of key players due to injury.

On Saturday they take on Folkestone at Homelands for the George Sargeant Memorial Shield.

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