June 1st, 2010 - Celts Look To The Future
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Stalybridge Celtic are delighted to announce that Jim Harvey has signed a new 2 year deal that will see Jim stay with us as manager until at least April 2012. Jim will be joined on the management team by Tim Ryan who will combine his playing role with that of assistant manager. It can also be confirmed that Celtic intend to become a full time club in July, although it is important to put this in context. Sadly, we will never be able to financially compete with the big spenders in our league and we need to look to a different way of trying to achieve promotion. As a result of the current environment, and despite the fact that we are going full-time, Jim's budget will actually be slightly lower than the one Steve Burr started last season with so if we cannot buy our way out of this league we need to be more creative in how we face the challenges ahead. Consequently we have made the decision to go forward with a focus much more based on youth, a policy that is sure to find favour with the club’s supporters. Chairman Rob Gorski said "I am truly excited about the future. Coaching and bringing kids through is Jim's forte and he was extremely successful with this strategy at Morecambe. Of course there is an inherent risk when focusing more on youth, but the squad will have a backbone of quality and experience coupled with talented young professionals who will all have the hunger to become a real force in the Blue Square Bet North and beyond." Celtic are keen to develop a strong Academy structure that will hopefully give youngsters the opportunity to move into the first team squad and there will be a separate announcement regarding this later this week. A further development is that Syd White will become Chief Executive of Stalybridge Celtic with immediate effect. Syd was already Vice-Chairman, but with increased activity and additional work on another commercial project - that we hope to announce very shortly - Syd will have further powers to drive the club forward. Author: Keith Trudgeon | |