“Improvement Required”

Jim took time out to discuss with www.clydefc.co.uk the impact of recent results…

“No manager wants to see his team at the bottom. A few weeks ago we were decently placed and now we need to get back on track. As a manager you are constantly reflecting on what different things you could have implemented. The team continues to work hard but at times our inexperience has been punished and on reflection that is a result of the choices made in the summer. 

“As we discussed at the board meeting this week, we wanted to progress as a club in the long term and a means of doing that, on the budget available, was by investing in youth. To that end I brought in a number of younger players to augment the squad. However it was too quick. The players have undoubtedly the necessary skill and are good lads but in hindsight just weren’t ready in the short term to take the step up into first team football. As others have struggled, we have then paid the price as we are now asking a lot from the younger players who were asked to play but who themselves were still learning the game.

“It is a balancing act of what is right in the short term and what is good for the future and I accept the balance hasn’t been right this year. It is important that this is rectified.

“The club has diligently made huge strides off the park and a sustainable future is being planned for, but I fully accept that on the park progress is slow and expectations for us to be higher up the league are not unrealistic.

“We are actively making steps to improve, though that will also be within a budget that does not threaten the club’s very existence, as it did in the past.  An example of that improvement is that we are close to announcing our first pre-contract deal as we seek to add to our squad for 2013-14. That is the first time for a long while that we have been able to do that. 

“Regardless of our hopes for next season, fans can be assured that we have not given up this year. Going to 10th has been a major blow and a setback to all of us, but the division is close and we can get back up the league.”