Harris Wants A Bigger Budget For Redditch

Harris At Edgar Street Last Monday

Recently installed as manager at Redditch, Tim Harris has said he wants a bigger budget.

There has been speculation that chairman Chris Swan was already backing the club with substantial funds but that doesn't seem to be enough for Harris.

"I don’t want people to get carried away because the budget that we have at the moment is where we are – a mid-table side," Harris told the Non-League paper.

"We need to change that and there are several things we can do. We need to get some good income from pre-season games and we need to bring in extra on the commercial side."

Given gates at Redditch are averaging just 292, it's hard to see where any extra income might come other than from chairman Swan who appears ambitious.

Not long after taking over at Redditch in late 2011, Swan said how he had turned the club around.

"It turned out there were debts of £200,000 and we had baliffs trying to take the floodlights.

"But that is all behind us now. We have got a stable club, we have got accounts, systems and an infrastructure. 

"When we took over turnover was less than £10,000, but it is going to be around £260,000 this year.

"We lose £70,000 playing football and make £72,000 through the function rooms and corporate sponsorship.

Earlier that year Swan tried to take over Kiddermister but that plan soon fell through.

'After announcing late yesterday that they had reached agreement with Chris Swan on the takeover, and that it would be completed this afternoon, the club have announced that Swan was 'unable to reconcile fundamental issues' and had withdrawn his bid.'

Then in 2015, Swan met with former Hereford United chairman David Ketye about a plan to relocate Redditch to Edgar Street. But the FA wasn't impressed.

"The Committees were of the opinion that, by moving a club 50 miles, the best interest of Redditch United supporters and the supporters of any new club in the city of Hereford would not be best served."

However since 2015, Swan has pumped money into Redditch with a new 3G pitch.

Whilst grants totalling over £650,000 helped install the pitch, Swan claimed he put in £200,000 of his own money.

So it looks as though Harris's best bet is to sit down and have a long chat with his chairman if he wants an increase in his budget. 

Meanwhile there was speculation on Monday that Stuart Fleetwood might not stay with Redditch much longer given he arrived for the match with a Merthyr kit-bag.

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