Gillingham manager Mark Bonner is relishing the challenge coming from within the club.
The target this season is clear and Bonner will have the experienced figure of Kenny Jackett looking on.
Jackett, the club’s director of football, and head of recruitment, Andy Hessenthaler, have an abundance of experience to offer but Bonner will be backing his own judgement.
He said: “I am really clear what I want and know how I go about it and how to manage people, but experience is really important so when I have got two guys there who have managed 1,500 games between them, they are certainly good people to have in the club.
“They won’t be watching our games at weekends because they will be out watching others but they will always watch them back and having someone there who you can pick their brains will be really useful for me.
“Fundamentally their number one role is to help with the recruitment side and Kenny [is] overseeing everything. He is the boss I need to make sure I try and keep happy. At the same time, he is someone who can challenge me firstly, which is really important. You don’t want everyone just agreeing with you.
“Challenging me is really key but also for me to pick his brains every now and again will be good.
“I like the fact that we have a really dynamic team and I look forward to seeing what that brings.”
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Bonner’s backroom team haven’t got the same years of experience as Jackett and club legend Hessenthaler, but assistant boss Anthony Hayes and coach Pete Gill have plenty of enthusiasm and determination.
Bonner said: “That experience helps but what you want is good people first and good coaches second, they are the main things you’re looking for.
“Having worked with Peter in the past I know he will be excellent in terms of working with the players individually and feedback. We do a lot of individual analysis and we need the staff to cover that.
“We have a way of working where everyone is alive on the training ground. It’s not one person taking a session, we try to coach for multiple outcomes in sessions so therefore it’s impossible for one coach to coach everything and allow the game and the practices to flow.
“To try and get that right you need the right people and I think it will be a really good dynamic.
“Anthony is an excellent coach, good experience throughout the leagues, and has experience leading teams and coaching teams and he has a varied CV as well.
“It’s quite a young team, quite a dynamic team, but when we talk about the positivity that we want, a fearlessness that we want to play with, the energy that we want to have, the personality that we want to adopt, I think we have got a team that can really help create an environment that allows us to do that.
“The key bit is making sure we are all on the same page with the information that we want, that we give and the feedback that we give, that we behave in the manner that I want this environment to be and that we get buy-in from the players really quickly.
“That’s the first things I’ll be looking for in the first couple of weeks – which players are coming with us, which players want to be part of the thing that we want to build and that will be the most exciting thing for me in the next couple of weeks.”
