CEO gives an update on the search for a new manager.
Shrewsbury Town Chief Executive Brian Caldwell is hoping that a new manager will be in place by this weekend.Caldwell was speaking to the Press yesterday and admitted that the process have begun moving forward after a busy weekend of activity.
The CEO admits that talks continue but it hopeful that a conclusion will be sooner rather than later.
“There’s been quite a bit of activity over the weekend,” Brian told ShrewsWeb.
“If I’m honest things probably haven’t moved as quickly as we all hoped they would move, but there’s been constant activity over the weekend. Yesterday was pretty frenetic with constant phone calls back forward.
“I think we have got to the stage of whittling it down to a manageable number that we would like to speak to, but during that process we do have to consider that we do have conversations to have with the person themselves, with their representatives or whether it’s a club where they are employed.
“It’s important that we keep everybody happy, go through the process and talk to everybody that we need to be talking to.”
Last week Brian had said that around 10 candidates were in the running, but over the weekend that number has halved as Town get closer to making an appointment.
“We are probably at about 4 or 5 now,” said Brian.
“We are obviously keen to appoint as soon as possible. There’s the game against Sheffield United, but we are trying to step things up and we have done since last week, but these things don’t always move as quickly as we want them to.
“Potentials that we might want to talk to are at clubs right now, so you don’t want to interfere in their daily routine and effect your relationship with the club. So, it’s been slower that we had been hoping it would be, but are we closer? Yes, we are a lot closer than we were last Thursday.
“There’s been a lot more conversations taking place. There is one individual in particular that we’ve had maybe 20 calls with over the weekend, back and forth. It’s been hard work, fairly close to constant, but hopefully we are coming closer to a conclusion.”
A number of different options are being explored by the club, but most importantly for Caldwell, the new manager must be fully committed to Shrewsbury Town.
“There are a few with different backgrounds, but then everybody’s different,” continued Caldwell.
“It’s important we look at different aspects and I’m sure when we speak to people we want to make sure they are 100% committed to coming to Shrewsbury Town.
“There is no point in me filling one of the interview slots with somebody that’s not 100% committed, so we need to make sure they are and they are showing the passion that we are looking for, so that when it comes to the interview they are 100% wanting to take this job on.”
Talks continue for the Town hierarchy and Brian hoped that a boss would be in place by the Northampton game.
“There are constant conversations going on,” said Brian
“We are obviously keen to get someone in sooner rather than later. We appreciate that at Walsall people were coming up to us at the game asking us to try and get a manager in quickly.
“I think the players are keen for it as well. We are all keen, we all want a manager in as soon as possible, so hopefully we are nearing a conclusion and ideally we can have somebody in place for the weekend.”