Clarke relishing the chance with Tadley

The new man in charge is already thinking about next season

NEW Tadley Calleva manager Adam Clark has already outlined ambitions for the 2019/20 season, just a week after being appointed.

It was announced last week that Clark would be the successor to Danny Dolan, who left the club after eight seasons, earlier this month.

Clark has just returned to England after spending two years coaching in the Cayman Islands, and is excited about the challenge ahead.

“I was looking actively to see if I could get an opportunity somewhere as there has been a lot of movement in the non-league circuit in the last few weeks.

“I got a message off the club last week saying that Danny [Dolan] had left, which was very surprising, and they said that they were interested in offering me the role.

“It was a great meeting, I met Sandy [Russell] and Dean [Newton] so it was great to hear their ideas and plans for the future and the infrastructure that they are putting into place.

“They’re trying to make the ground Southern League standard and they also want to match that on the pitch.

“I think it’ll be a great challenge,” he said. “There will be fantastic support behind the scenes because the club are going to want to push forward as they won’t want to stay where they are.”

Clark has appointed John McFarlane as assistant manager and he believes his experience will be crucial.

“It’s great to get him involved,” he said. “I have known him for around four years and as soon as I had been approached by Tadley, he was one of the first to know.

“He has fantastic experience and extensive knowledge of the level having worked within it since 2008.

“So as well as contacts, he has good relationships with other clubs and he is aware of a lot of players, which is handy.”

Clark has some managerial experience with Queens Park Rangers and Basingstoke Town and is looking forward to meeting some of the squad.

“I have spoken to a few of the players to get to know them a little bit more and then I can share with them our plans.

“It’s important that we improve on last year, even though it was a very good season and a brilliant finish.

“You can’t knock the work that Danny did because he has done really well, but in life you always want to improve so hopefully we have the players to kick on.”

And even though Clark has yet to begin pre-season with Tadley, he has already outlined key areas that he would like to improve.

“There are a number of targets that we have set ourselves,” he said. “We want to finish with a positive goal difference, we want to make it tough for teams to come to Barlows Park and two cup runs would be fantastic.

“It would also be nice to secure a trophy in the other competitions that we enter and it’d be nice to get a number of players from the youth squad into the senior squad too.”

And after time away from England, Clark believes it is the right time for him to have a crack at management once more.

He said: “Coming back here wasn’t something that was planned, but we have to go with it.

“I feel that I have enough experience and contacts to make Tadley into a decent Wessex Premier side,” he added.