New Chelmsford City Manager Dean Holdsworth has revealed that his local family connections will prove an added source of inspiration as he attempts to lead the Clarets to success, and he’s looking forward to finding out more about his new adopted home.
Holdsworth wasted no time in speaking to the existing squad about the future after he signed a two-year contract last week as successor to Glenn Pennyfather. He’s already brought in his first signing in left-back Nicky Nicolau and the former Wimbledon and Bolton Wanderers striker is keen to move the club forward steadily.
“I’m proud to have been selected,” confirmed the ex-Aldershot and Newport County boss after Chairman Mansell Wallace and the directors scrutinised 36 names who applied for the position. “To have so many applications shows just what people think about the potential of the football club. Having been here as a Newport manager I knew the structure, with Mansell, Paul Hopkins and various other people here.”
“Now the opportunity has arisen to come here, and I’m very proud. I’ve got family in Chelmsford so I know it quite a bit, and I’m sure I’ll find out a lot more! I want to be the man who can get us out of this division. It’s a similar situation to when I joined Newport. The board have asked me to be realistic with my ambition because we possibly won’t be able to compete with the big boys in the division financially this year.”
During his time as a player in the Premier and Football Leagues he netted 163 goals in high profile matches, also winning a cap for England B. Since learning the management trade Dean has gained experience of working within a budget and he’s confident he can do the same at City. He said: “Some of the players you might like to come and join you will probably be offered more money to go somewhere else.”
“But that’s fine – I can handle that. The long term thing is that we can recognise there is potential here. Last year there were a few problems with a lack of games, and sometimes that can leave a bit of a cloud. At Newport the first year was about me finding out about the club, how it worked and seeing what we could do to improve the finances.”
“I think the change in manager, and the change in philosophy at the club is going to be important so we recognise that we’re competing against some rather large teams who can probably pay league wages to players. We’re not in that position, but it’s still an exciting challenge. The players have to fit within our budget.”
The club are in the process of arranging a full pre-season friendly schedule, and Dean will use the games to finalise his squad for the new campaign. He added: “If what I’m offering people is enough then great, but they’ve got to come here and want to be a professional footballer in a non-professional league because I’ll create standards here. It’s going to be an important time during the next three or four weeks.”
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Posted: Thursday , May 30, 2013