It has now been 2 months since I joined this great club and it has been a real (pleasurable) whirlwind.
The greatest thing about this club is the togetherness we have between the Fans, Board, Volunteers, Players and Coaching Staff.
Our Chairman, Clive Maynard, our Board and Volunteers work so hard for the Club and have done such a great job to get us to where we are now.
I would really like to thank all of them for the support and warm welcome I have received since I joined.
I have to mention our great fans. Your support and commitment is incredible. I want you to know how much the players and coaching staff are lifted by your great support. You really do make a difference to us. In my opinion we have the greatest fans not just in this League but in all of Non League Football.
The first 2 months in charge have been hectic as you can imagine. Building the great First Team management staff we now have, rebuilding the squad, liaison with the Board, press interviews, scouting, talking with players, coaching, games and endless phone calls have made it a busy period. However, I can tell you I have never enjoyed my time as much in football as a player and now 10 years coaching and managing as I have already in my time at Tunbridge Wells FC.
One of the many things that attracted me to being the manager of this great club was to be part of a long term project. Clive and the Board's vision is exciting and I am committed to help them achieve that.
In the future I am looking forward to us developing home grown talent from within the club and the local community. We already have examples of local young talent being in the squad. We have also started to develop a closer relationship between the First Team and the Youth Section. At the end of Pre Season the First Team and U16's combined to provide a Tunbridge representative side in a local charity game. We have also had some of the youth players attend First Team training and you may have noticed at the Ashford game I asked the Youth section if they would like to provide Ball Boys as another way to bring the relationship closer together.
In the future I would like us to have an U21/ Reserves side and perhaps one day even our own Academy set up.
Turning back to the present day, I am very pleased with the squad we have managed to build in a short space of time. We have developed a good blend of age and experiences. Even the most senior members of the squad still have more than just this season to offer us whilst the vast majority of the squad give us the ability to have continuity in the playing squad for many years to come.
We have developed 3 primary Systems of Play that we will use dependent on personnel available, opposition we are facing and where we are in the game.
I have been really impressed with the players ability to deal with that and especially how they have dealt with changes we have made during the game itself at times.
We are already showing good game management control which is very pleasing at this early stage. One of the other things we are trying to do is to introduce flexibility within the squad where players can play in more than one position. The more we can cover shortages within the squad the less we have to go out for short term loans, which I am not a fan of.
Finally, I want to say how pleased I am to have Jason Bourne by my side as our Assistant Manager. We are bouncing off each other brilliantly and its great to have someone who thinks about things the same way and that I can trust. I am also delighted that we have Mark Stapley as our new First Team Coach as well as from last years management set up Michal Czannar still as our Goal Keeping Coach and Stuart Lucas as our Kit Manager. We have all gelled together straight away as a new management team. I respect their opinions and advise enormously.
Obviously this is a year of transition, and consolidating our position but I am looking forward greatly to the long term with you.
All the best,
Keith Bird
First Team Manager
Tunbridge Wells FC