You may have heard that I’ve just signed a two-year deal with Lewes, which will take me up to the end of the 2008/09 season. It wasn’t a difficult decision on my part - I wanted to finish the job I started here; get Lewes into the Conference National, ideally by the end of next season. The new team we built last season has bonded now - 14 key players have re-signed, and none have left. We’re now looking for four high-quality new players to bolster the squad - a full back, a winger, a forward and a midfielder. And I mean high quality.
I’ve got a new assistant manager, Paul Hartford, who is an A-licensed coach - that’s the highest qualification you can have - with plenty of experience as player and coach at pro and non-league level. It’s good to have an experienced right-hand man to bounce ideas off, who can put his own input into what’s going on. And now the ground has caught up with the team - it’s good enough for the next level.
There are two top pre-season friendlies to look forward to in July, against Southampton on the 25th and West Ham on the 28th, so you’ll be able to see a handful of players down the Pan who you last saw on Match of the Day (though I can’t promise Carlos Tevez will be there). We’ve got a couple of warmers-up at Dover and Dartford, and we’re going on a little trip to Eindhoven to play a couple of games against pro Dutch and Belgian teams. The players are back on the 2nd of July. We’ve been made third favourites by the bookies, which is a good thing, because there’ll be less pressure on us than last season, when we were pre-season favourites, and the team to beat. I can’t wait to get cracking.