Kevin Blackwell has made his sixth signing of the pre-season period as he looks to turn around the club's fortunes. He has brought in 36-year old striker Paul Peschisolido to try and help him do this. Blackwell worked with Pesch at Sheffield United, which is one of the many clubs that the Canadian striker has played for in his career. Peschisolido has made over 400 league appearances for various different English clubs. He started his career at Canadian club Toronto Blizzards. He first made his bow in English football with a move to Birmingham City in 1992, where he scored 16 league goals in 43 appearances. He then earned a £400,000 switch to Stoke City in 1994, where he was less successful with 19 goals in 66 appearances in the league. Birmingham then bought him back for the same price that they had sold him for before selling him on shortly afterwards to local rivals West Bromwich Albion for £600,000. 15 goals in 42 appearances followed before a £1.1million move to Fulham in 1997, where he would stay until 2001. Pesch scored 24 goals in almost 100 league appearances for Fulham, and his time at Fulham also saw him loaned out to QPR, Sheffield United and Norwich, where he had varying levels of success. Sheffield United ended up signing him for £150,000 in 2001, and Pesch chipped in with 16 goals in his three year stay. He signed for Derby County in 2004, scoring 20 goals in three years, with Peschisolido mainly coming off the bench for the Rams in that period. Last season wasn't a very good season for Peschisolido, as despite playing his part in Derby's promotion, he actually made very few appearances, scoring just four times. He has also played 48 times for Canada, scoring 9 goals in the process. However, Paul is probably best known for being married to Birmingham's Karren Brady.
The signing of Peschisolido should mean that Blackwell won't be signing any more strikers in the close season period - with Talbot, Parkin, Furlong, Andrew and Peschisolido arguably enough. However, with Boyd on the way out, there may be enough money to sign one more, because if Parkin doesn't stay fit and score goals throughout the season, then we could be lacking a strong goalscorer next season. However, Blackwell may instead wish to sign players in other areas, such as in goal, where the need seems to be much greater.