Rotherham United have signed former Exeter City defender Zak Jules, after the defender turned down a new contract at Exeter City, as confirmed via the club’s X Page.
The 27-year-old is comfortable playing at either centre-back or left-back and becomes the Millers’ eighth summer signing as Steve Evans looks to rebuild the squad already adding the likes of Joe Rafferty, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sean Raggett.
Who is Zak Jules?
Zak has struggled for a permanent home not spending longer than two seasons at a club across his career. He came through the academy at Reading, before having a couple of loan spells with Hemel Hempstead and Braintree Town respectively, he then spent the second half of 2017 with SPL side Motherwell.
He then moved permanently to Shrewsbury Town after his contract expired with Reading and headed out on loan for the 17/18 season with Chesterfield for the first half of the season playing six times, before going to Port Vale for the second half of the season playing twice.
He then returned to Shrewsbury and had two loan spells during the 18/19 season, again over two halves, the first with Barnet in the National League where he played four times, before moving to Macclesfield for the second half of the season where he played 14 times in the league.
The defender then moved to League Two side Walsall, on a two-year contract where he played a total of 34 games in the league over his one-and-half years with the club. Before moving to MK Dons in January 2020 for an undisclosed fee, where he made 20 appearances in the second half of the season.
The 21/22 season, didn’t start brilliantly for him, only making seven appearances he then headed out on loan again to fellow League One side Fleetwood Town where he played 20 times in the second half of the season.
Upon returning to MK Dons, he played 32 games, in a season where they were ultimately relegated from League One. The defender was then on the move again, where he joined Exeter City and played 40 games for The Grecians in the league as they finished comfortably mid-table.
What would he bring to Rotherham United?
The defender firstly brings pace to the Rotherham back line, with Steve Evans usually favouring a 4-3-1-2 approach, he likes his teams to physically be strong and very difficult to beat.
Zak standing at 6ft 2in would most likely feature at left centre back for Rotherham and is an ideal replacement for the outgoing Tyler Blackett, who was also comfortable playing as a left centre back as well as left back.
He would most likely feature next to fellow signings Sean Raggett and Joe Rafferty as three of the four names in the backline.
While struggling compared to other centre-backs in League One last season winning only 55% of his aerial duels which ranked him in the 25% percentile, the defender is comfortable on the ball, often carrying the ball out of defence.