Having advised last week that Sean Ray had committed his future to the Club for a further season, it has now been confirmed that United's captain has put pen to paper on a deal that will see him extend his third spell at the Pilot Field into another year.
Amongst the U's current squad, Ray trails only Sam Adams in terms of senior appearances, having clocked up a total of 347 since making his debut back in August 2004. And after failing to find the net last term, the now thirty-four year old centre back will be keen to add to his tally of forty-two United goals when the new campaign gets underway.
The Club is also pleased to announce that two time former First Team boss Nigel Kane has agreed to remain at the Pilot Field, returning to his erstwhile role as Head of Footballing Development. Kane will also manage the Under 21s, assisted by his brother Norman, with the side being renamed as United's Development Squad, but once again competing in the Ryman U21 League South Division.
Mark Stapley has also accepted a new role within Garry Wilson's backroom team, having been appointed Chief Scout. Stapley has undertaken a number of managerial and coaching jobs for the U's since first joining the Club in 2008, including a handful of stints in caretaker charge of First Team affairs.
Good news on all three fronts there. Glad we have some consistency to go with the new players and management team. Having mark as a dedicated scout could be invaluable too.
I'm very glad about all of this. I'm particularly pleased for Nigel Kane. He deserves great respect and appreciation for his service to the club. He really does put the club first!
Hopefully the development team will play the same way ie formation as the 1st team, so players can easily slot in when required, not sure that this has happened in the past.
Good to see Razor has signed and that Nigel, Norman and Stapes will have roles at the club. They have worked hard for the club and I wish them and all of the football management the best of luck for the coming season and beyond. I hope we can keep Gary and Co for a long while and believe they will be successful. We need to be patient and not jump on their backs if things take a while to get going. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither are football teams.
-- Edited by FatherXmas on Friday 26th of June 2015 09:23:53 AM
Quite right Steve. We are entitled to have expectations, and we can hope that we get off to a good start, but we must give Garry and Danny time and aim to make our comments here and elsewhere constructive. Although we might express things differently, I think we're all pretty much agreed with the principle of that.
