New Warrington Rylands manager Michael Clegg interview

On Tuesday, the former Ashton United and Atherton Collieries boss was confirmed as Blues’ third manager of the season to replace Jody Banim, who resigned from his role last month.

Rylands were looking for a longer-term appointment and that search has led them to Clegg, whose first game in charge will be Saturday’s trip to Whitby Town.

In this extended Q&A, our sports reporter Matt Turner spoke to Clegg about the squad he has inherited, his remit for the last 11 games of the season and his plans beyond that…

MT: First of all, you will have observed Rylands from afar over the past year or so and prepared for matches against them – what impression did you have of them as a club and as a group of players?

MC: You look at the squad list and it’s just got so much quality in it. It wasn’t until I got hold of it fully that I realised just how many good players are here.

Dave (McNabb, former Rylands boss) built an unbelievable squad for the level which put pressure on everyone, but he had two horrific injuries to Josh Langley and Aaron Morris which really hurt them early doors.

You then look at players like Callum Dolan and Kane Drummond – the club managed to sell them for profit, one to a Football League club and the other to an aspiring Football League club.

The elephant in the room is the budget – everybody has spoken about it but that kind of thing doesn’t really matter to me as it’s spent.

It’s not like I’m coming in with a war chest available – I’m coming in to squeeze the best out of what we’ve got.

Having said that, it’s pretty obvious that we need a forward and we’re working hard to get one but other than that, we’re relatively sound.

MT: So having looked at what you have and worked with them briefly for the first time on Tuesday night, you’re confident things don’t need overhauling as can sometimes happen with a change of manager at this level?

MC: It definitely doesn’t – there’s a lot of quality in there.

They’ve had a few injuries of late which hasn’t been ideal but I think they’re over the worst of it now.

I think there’s one player unavailable for this weekend so providing we pick nothing up at Whitby on Saturday, we should be fully at it for FC United next week.

MT: When you sat down with the board, what kind of impression did you get? It must have enthused you as I guess we wouldn’t be having this conversation if it didn’t!

MC: It reminded me very much of my time at Atherton Collieries.

I felt like I was sat down with a lot of people who cared about the club and are really passionate about it.

There’s an element of climbing the ladder really quickly and now being the time to sort of take stock.

There’s a bit of a sense of losing themselves in it – the volunteers that used to really enjoy coming to games but now losing games is hurting.

I reassured them that while there’s been mistakes made based on what you’re telling me, it’s nothing we can’t learn from or change.

We all make mistakes – I was a young manager at Atherton and won nearly everything then went to Ashton, had two Covid-hit seasons and won a trophy but it still maybe felt like we underachieved to some.

There was a transparency from the board from the outset that this year, they’re happy to stay in this league.

Regardless of where they finish, they’ve learned a lot and now they want some continuity and consistency. They don’t want a revolving door of players.

MT: So what would be your very basic main priorities for this job, both in the short and long-term?

MC: If we can, we want to bring local, Warrington-based players in. We’re already working to build a bit of a database of players who play semi-pro who are from Warrington and if so, can we get them in?

I want to build that bridge between the under 18s, under 21s and the first team because ultimately, I feel like bringing young lads through is one of my strengths as a manager.

I also want the players to engage rather than just picking their money up, getting in their car and going.

You’ve got to thank sponsors, meet young fans around the ground, have a beer in the clubhouse – that’s all part of being at this level and that’s what I told them at training on Tuesday. We have to be good people.

We need to represent what this club and what this town is about because Warrington is a very humble, hard-working place.

There may have been a reputation in places that Rylands was somewhere you could come and earn an easy quid, but that definitely won’t be the case while I’m in charge.

MT: Listening to what you’re saying there and looking back at your managerial career – five years at Atherton Colls, three years at Ashton – you like long-term projects so is that what you see here?

MC: That’s what I’m here for. I’m absolutely not here as a quick fix.

That’s what I said to the board when I first met them. I told them that if I’m here for two, three or four years, I will make an impact.

Will that happen overnight? It may do – when I was at Ashton we lost our first three games but I think we then won 12 out of 13.

At the same time, I’m going in “softly softly” to see what we’ve got.

I saw things in training on Tuesday that I liked and I saw some things I didn’t like, which will be addressed but not in a bad way. We’ll build on it.

If I’m tearing strips off people, it won’t be opinion-based. It will be because we’ve analysed it, watched the video and we want to put it right.

That said, I’m not a screamer and shouter. I like to give lads a bit of love and let them know where they stand constantly because I think they need that.

We tend to create a good environment – when I left Ashton the group were devastated because I had a group that worked for me.

It was a weird time at Ashton because we had the Covid years that hit everybody hard, but I never really felt as though I got going there although I have only good memories of the place and the people there.

At Rylands, it felt like there’s a lot of people here for the right reasons and who just want their club back.

MT: On the field then, what does a Michael Clegg team look like in terms of how it goes about winning games of football? Do you nail yourself to a specific style of play?

MC: I always like my teams to be intense, hard-working sides.

Pace and intensity will get you through at any time, but we’ve got to be willing to work and roll our sleeves up.

Some people might say it’s a bit old-school but old-school is normally the good school – you do your jobs right, you look after your teammates and do the basics that matter.

In these last 11 games, we’re going to be going out trying to win every single game. We won’t be putting 11 men behind the ball.

It’s not often you come into a club with no pressure on at this time of the season, but the remit from the chairman is that he wants everyone to enjoy their football regardless of results.

These 11 games are about everyone rolling their sleeves up, working hard and enjoying being here. That’s a good platform that they’ve given us.

MT: The gap to the play-off places at the moment is seven points. It seems a lot and getting up there may not be a specific target, but you’ll have seen that a couple of wins strung together can get you right up there.

With that in mind, in terms of what could be achievable over the next couple of months, what are you thinking?

MC: As cliché as it is, we’re only thinking about Whitby on Saturday. They have turned their form around so it will be a difficult game at a really tough place to go.

FC United at home the following week is a game all the lads should be up for in front of what should be a big crowd.

If you plan too far ahead in this league, you can fall flat on your face.

If we can string a few results together and get some momentum, who knows but the sole focus is on Saturday and then getting to know this group better.