Chester Manager Looks Forward

Lassana Mendes Scores For Hereford At Chester

After a disappointing season Chester manager Calum McIntyre looks forward to the next campaign.

One particular point he makes is that he pnly had his strikers available for 63% of the games.

'It is important we continually look to improve our squad.

Much gets said about budgets and resource, but it is down to the manager to generate as much value as he possibly can within the limits of the playing budget and this is a challenge that I embrace entirely.

Twelve months ago, we were in a position where we had finished third in the division, achieving our highest finish and points tally since being relegated in 2018. Our focus was on retaining as many of the core of that group as possible and adding in areas where we felt we needed to strengthen.

I think it is important to note that of the five clubs that took part in last season’s play-offs and were not promoted, three failed to qualify this time around with one being relegated and another finishing just outside the relegation places. Generating back to back success is difficult and we have to look at the reasons why and ensure we are better placed this time around.

We obviously lost our leading goalscorer, who earned a move to the division above. This would hit any team significantly and we felt that we had actually added some really positive forward options, however, we have only had our centre forwards available for 63% of this season’s games, less than two thirds of the season.

This summer presents an opportunity to look to improve the group and there has been some real work put in to ensure we have a recruitment model that works for us. We have real clarity as to what we need to strengthen the squad this summer and have returned to a strategy that ensures we will be really specific in terms of our player profile.

It is clear we need to improve the athletic nature of the group and need to add some physical presence in key positions as well as ensure we return to being a more dynamic force at the top end of the pitch. We intend to run with a smaller squad with part of our recruitment strategy identifying players who have consistently played over 80% of the available minutes in the previous two seasons.

For our supporters benefit, we have already identified a number of targets and discussions are ongoing. There are pieces of business that we may look to do immediately and are in a place to do that but equally won’t rush our recruitment this summer.

The nature of football means that supporters always want signings during the close season, particularly when other clubs are seen to be doing business. Often I have found the busiest parts of the close season for us will take place right at the beginning and then again when pre-season training draws closer.'