A NEW approach to football is about to sweep through Farrar Road.

New training kits are on their way, and there is even talk of a League Two player joining Bangor City after Steve Bleasdale took over as manager this week.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Bleasdale yesterday. “They’re a good set of lads, we had a good training session on Tuesday and we’ve got players coming into the squad. I’m looking at two players tonight ahead of Saturday’s game against Llanelli – I don’t want to say who in case that gives Llanelli an advantage, but one is from a League Two side and one’s from another Welsh Premier club.”

Bleasdale will be known to viewers of TV’s Big Ron, Manager programme after he quit as Peterborough boss in front of the cameras last season.

The story goes like this: Posh fans couldn’t understand why, after he transformed them into real candidates for promotion from League Two, Bleasdale suddenly walked out on the club 70 minutes before a game against Macclesfield in April.

Then in the summer, all became clear. Peterborough chairman Barry Fry had allowed Sky to bring Ron Atkinson into the club as a “football troubleshooter”, but Big Ron seemed to cause more problems than he solved.

Feeling he was being undermined as Atkinson and Fry interfered in team selection, Bleasdale quit.

The irony was that, before Big Ron was brought in, Peterborough had won four of their previous five matches under Bleasdale.

Now the former Chester City assistant boss, who also coached a young Wayne Rooney in the Everton youth set-up, intends to bring the full benefit of his professional experience to Farrar Road, helped by his assistant Brett Harris.

“Slowly but surely as the weeks go by I’ll get to know the Welsh players pretty quickly,” he said. “I’ve got lots of contacts in the game, and Brett and I complete our Uefa pro licenses in January, so that’s the highest qualification in Europe.”

He admits that going from professional full-time football to the part-time Welsh Premier will be a challenge.

“The biggest problem is going to be that I’ve been full-time for 10 or 12 years,” he said (Bleasdale was also involved in management at Southport and Leigh RMI). “The other night Brett and I held a training session, and a few of the lads said they were going to be late, so I had to do the team talk after training rather than before.

“Then there’ll be players who can’t play a particular game, so it will be difficult. At Peterborough I was there at seven every morning, I was sorting out their nutrition, etc.

“I can’t bring that to Bangor, but there will be a new regime. Brett and I are coach-educated, so we’re up on all the modern ideas.”

Bleasdale said he saw potential in the side when he watched their 1-1 derby draw with Porthmadog at Y Traeth last Saturday, adding he needs to bring some leaders into the team.

“I thought they tried very hard, they were workmanlike, but they lacked a couple of players in various positions. I think the team needs four or five leaders – Ricky Evans and Paul O’Neill are both natural leaders but they’re both out at the moment.”

If his new regime at Farrar Road is successful, the Welsh Premier may simply be a stepping stone for Bleasdale to return to professional management.

“If Brett and I move on in 18 months or 12 months time we’ll leave a legacy for someone,” he said. “Who knows, we may even want to stay.”