Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said he sees the development of his squad as “a two-year project“, but insists he wants to go and attack the National League Premier Division this season.
The Glovers kick off their campaign with a long trip to face a Scunthorpe United side which made the division’s play-offs last season with 15 new recruits in the squad.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah on Thursday ahead of the game, Rowley spoke about the importance of tying many of the new faces down on to two or three year contracts as he looks to build a side capable of challenging at the top of the division.
He said: “I think it is important that the players feel that stability as well and they feel the buy-in from us as a management team and ownership. There is nothing worse than trying to play a certain style and coach a group of players that changes every six months or every year, because it is really difficult. We saw it with Rochdale last year, it took them maybe 18 months or two years to really click and they managed to keep most of their squad and we saw what that did for them last season. There is a lot of excitement around the team and the club at the moment, I am sitting here and thinking this is a two-year project, of course, we want to finish as high as we can this year and win every game, but it might be six months or nine months until you really see this team hit top gear. If that happens, it happens, if it happens sooner, that is great.”
The boss added: “I did a podcast last night with the Gloverscast guys and we spoke about this at length.” That might be worth a listen…..
Winger Charlie Lennon, whose arrival on loan from Barnsley until January was announced on Wednesday, became the latest new recruit with the Glovers expected to hand out a number of club league debuts at Scunthorpe on Saturday.
The incomings followed the exit of a number of first team regulars from last season, including defenders Kyle Ferguson, Alex Whittle and Finn Cousin-Dawson, midfielder Josh Sims and striker Aaron Jarvis, departing back in May. Since then, club captain Jake Wannell has also been allowed to join National League South side Torquay United.
But Rowley said he felt it was a change that was required, he said: “I felt like it was needed. I have got a lot of time for the boys that played here last season and gave their all, it is very difficult to play for four managers in one season with a lot of mixed messages and probably a bit of disillusionment in the group and I felt there needed to be a bit of surgery on the team. From above (in the Huish Park boardroom) that was echoed and I feel we have done a really good job over the summer, I think there is still a lot of us to do in terms of becoming a cohesive unit and learning about each other, but that is part of the process. We think we have been doing some good work (during the pre-season) in recent weeks.
“Every management or recruitment team will build a team for a certain style or shape, so we want to play a more ball dominant game, we want more energy on the pitch and to be able to get after the ball a bit more and probably lower the average age a bit. We have worked really hard to select the profile of characters who fit that style and we feel like we have done that with the lads we have got in over the summer. We missed out on a couple of targets, but most of the boys we spoke to about what we are trying to do here, they fully bought in and it was nice that most of the targets wanted to come and play here.”
The fixture computer has handed Yeovil a tough start with the opening day trip to Scunthorpe, who finished fifth last season, followed by the visit of a Carlisle United side which finished third to Huish Park seven days later.
Unsurprisingly, Rowley is expecting a tough opening day. He said: “Andy (Butler, the Scunthorpe manager) has done a great job with them last year and I know exactly what they are about, they are a really difficult team to play against. They will be aggressive, great at winning second balls, getting first contact, so we are going to have to go there and roll our sleeves up and run hard first. From what I can see, their pitch is looking decent, it will be a decent game of football on the opening day of the season. We are going there to try and put our imprint on the game and try and get three points. I have had enough of pre-season now, it has served its purpose in getting the boys fit but we want to go and play for points now.”
The Glovers are being tipped for a play-off push by many of the non-League experts (insert speech marks, if you think they are required) on social media, but whilst the manager understands the excitement, he confesses his own prediction is somewhat less interesting.
He said: “It is just about the day-to-day processes of how we get there, what that looks like for us starts here on a Monday morning, eating properly, sleeping properly, training properly, putting together a good game plan on a Thursday and Friday and then delivering on a Saturday. If you do that enough times and the processes are good, you are probably going to be alright come the end of the season. Do I think we are going to be up there? I don’t know. Have we got some good players this year? Yes. We will take it game by game and see how we do.”
Top words Billy, we’re right behind you from the very start of this season. Go and makes us around!