Offseason Thoughts
Last season could not have gone much better for me and the club. Sure, I'd prefer us to have won a triple rather than a double, but lifting the Midland League Cup and winning the league felt very satisfying.
I also really like the team I assembled. That's both a good and a bad thing, because I learned last year that as soon as the season ends, clubs that can offer my players money will do so, and some of those players will, understandably, take it. The day the season ended, 11 Loughborough players were already being courted by other teams, and a day later, four of them received contract offers.
You might notice I didn't mention our youth intake at all. That's because none of them were good enough to play for us right now. Many of them seem to have the potential to be that good, but another of the things I learned last year was that the most promising players from our youth class will be lured away by bigger clubs. That, honestly, takes a lot of the fun out of Youth Intake Day, which I usually consider one of the best days of the football year.
By December or so, I'd pretty much made up my mind that if we won the league, I'd resign and look for a job with a club that might give me the chance to hold on to our promising players. Winning the double made me feel like the time was even better to say "so long" to Loughborough Uni.
So, on 24 May, I resigned.
A week later, I was contacted by the chairman of
Bristol Rovers.
In 2015/16, Rovers were relegated from League Two, dropping down to the National League. They finished a strong third last season, but failed to advance from the Semi Final of the Promotion Playoff, losing the two-legged playoff to Gateshead on penalties. That cost manager Chris Moyses his job. Now, director Robert Gemmell wanted to talk to me about the job.
The interview went well. I wanted to bring some of my staff with me, so I insisted the club agree to that condition. They were happy to do so, and set aside almost £40,000 that could be used to compensate staff members whose contracts were terminated.
On 7 July, I received a job offer. I'm now the manager of
Bristol Rovers FC.
I was able to bring coaches
David Bentley and
Ross Preston, head physio
Claire Houston, and physio
Charlotte Avent with me.
Oh, and there also happen to be a few Loughborough Uni players who might be able to develop into National League footballers, given the right opportunities...
