Former Yeovil Town manager Darren Sarll has been speaking exclusively to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins following his departure from Huish Park.
The full interview went out on the BBC Somerset Breakfast show (07:48am for anyone wanting to listen back), in it, he told Sheridan that the opportunity at Woking excites him, but that he’ll always have a connection to YTFC.
“We certainly had some hurdles to jump, Terry Skiverton always asked me about whether I’m going to write a book on the three years at Yeovil.
“It would be very interesting, from the play-offs, the COVID situation – players staying at the ground for weeks on end before the play off game, and then obviously the worst of the lot, losing Lee Collins and dealing with that personally, but also kind of leading the club out of that situation, I don’t want to have to do that again.
“This year, being reenergised by a brilliant, young group, with a wonderful spirit with a big future ahead of them.”
“Every year was different in terms of coach, every year was different in terms of management of it, every year was different in terms of the challenges we had to face and overcome, but it’s all maths isn’t it? You just have to work out the problem and try and come to the solution.”
“You add resilience to your coaching style and to you keep moving.”
Pic: Mike Kunz.
Sheridan pointed out that the reaction to Sarll’s departure was one of disappointment and the former gaffer admitted it wasn’t easy to make the move.
“I’ll always have a connection with the football club, more so because of Lee and those events, I had a wonderful time there, year one was fantastic in terms of the winning, some of the performances and the results, the people I’ve met over the three years have been absolutely great and I’ll keep in touch with them for life.
“It came to point where decisions had to be made and I was really excited by this option, this was an option of a journey, really trying to help a club maximise it’s professionalism on the pitch and off the pitch”
“My trade is football management, I’m not arrogant enough to think that management jobs are just going to come to me and fall in my lap wherever I am in the country”
“When I was made Yeovil manager, I moved to the South-West, took my children out of another school, put them in another school, and we will move back to our family home now and that process will happen again”
Looking ahead, Darren Sarll said he had full faith that interim manager Charlie Lee could help the Glovers get through to the end of the season in a positive vein of form.
“I recommended to Scott (Preistnall) that Charlie do it, the players absolutely love him, they’ve a huge amount of respect for him, he was a brilliant player, he’s a very, very good coach, and that’s something I am well qualified to say, he’s got a good eight or nine games and the team is in a bit of another winning run… he can’t lose, can he?”
Charlie’s first game in charge will be against Barnet, this coming Saturday.