New Manager Foyle aims to rebuild City
Martin Foyle has pledged to reconstruct York City from the foundations up, knitting together every aspect of the club behind his ambition to return as soon as possible to the Football League. In an exclusive and revealing interview with Nouse, the former Port Vale boss laid out his vision for the struggling Conference outfit and expressed his dismay at the wider state of football in the twenty-first century.
The first positive signs of the ‘Foyle factor’ emerged during the last week, with an impressive 2-1 away victory over Oxford United in the FA Trophy backed up with a convincing 3-0 league win against Lewes on Saturday. By adopting a flowing style of play which is anathema to the standard long-ball tactics of non-league football, Foyle is starting to coax the best from a squad often negative under his predecessor Colin Walker. Most encouragingly of all, striker Richard Brodie, reeled back in from a loan spell at Barrow, has started scoring regularly, keeping the Minstermen above the relegation watermark.
Having experienced football as a player in the south, with Aldershot and Southampton, and the midlands, as Port Vale’s record post-war goalscorer (he hit 107 in nine seasons), the time felt right for a change of scenery. “I’d done the rest of the country, and it was now time to sample the northern mentality,” Foyle said. “I had been keen to come to York City for over a year and so I was pleased to get the nod from the chairman.”
But how to arrest the club’s decline, which arguably started after their finest moment – victory over Crewe Alexandra in the division three playoff final at Wembley in 1993 – and culminated in ignominious relegation from the league in 2004? “The club need to move with the times and need stronger foundations,” replied Foyle, alluding to a rough masterplan. “We need a new stadium, and soon. Better facilities mean we can attract a better quality of player, a new generation of supporter, new sponsorship. If we can achieve this, I predict the Football League within five years.”
Clubs like York don’t feel the decadent trappings of the modern game; the multi-billionaire owners and all-seater stadiums are a parallel universe but does that ‘buzz’ of being involved in football still exist? “As supposedly intelligent footballers, we always looked at the management and said, ‘yeah, that’s easy. I could do that.’ It was a shock to the system, its hard work all week long.” Foyle’s last week said everything about the challenges facing coaches at this level; never-ending rounds of meetings with everyone from youth to reserve teams, and from the Centre of Excellence to eternally-demanding supporters’ groups.
Foyle’s views on the modern game make for interesting listening: “the quality just isn’t as good as back in the eighties. Back then, teams like Liverpool and Everton were top, top passing sides. Football today is drying up.”
With clubs in York’s position increasingly affected by economic worries, the unearthing of local talent is more critical than ever before. “The big clubs seem to collect prospective superstars at ages as young as seven or eight, before they have chance to develop. How can you tell a kid is going to make it at that age? You just can’t. Its just putting unnecessary pressure on them.”
So, does Foyle see himself in North Yorkshire in five years time? “I would be lying if i saw myself standing still here. You’ve got to have ambition, I want to do the best for myself.”
>> YORK CITY vs. LEWES: Read the full match report online
Loading ...