Steve Burr reckons the Vanarama Conference ‘gets tougher by the year’ but the Chester FC manager is determined to improve on this season’s efforts.
Barnet won promotion to the Football League as champions and will be joined by one of Bristol Rovers, Eastleigh, Forest Green Rovers or Grimsby Town via the play-offs.
However, three of those clubs will be back to try again and with Cheltenham Town and Tranmere Rovers dropping down, and ambitious Barrow AFC and Bromley coming up, the Blues will face a tough ask to better on a 12th-placed finish.
Burr relishes the challenge and, with the bedrock of his team in place, will now begin the search for new additions to strengthen his squad for the 2015-16 campaign.
He said “We’ll look to improve again next year but it’s a very tough league. We’re going to have the likes of Tranmere and Cheltenham, who are another two big clubs coming down into this division.
“If Bristol Rovers are going to go up they’ll have to go through the play-offs so it’s getting tougher by the year but it’s going to be exciting again next season and let’s hope we can be in the mix."
Chester have eight players contracted for next season with the futures of several more still to be decided. Some could be asked to come in for pre-season and earn themselves a new deal with the manager hesitant to use up his budget before he knows who is on the market.
Burr will not rush into deals as many other clubs have contracts which run until the end of June.
"You have to recharge and get yourself going again but I must admit normally a week or two weeks and I'm ready to get going again," said Burr.
"I'll enjoy a bit of golf and enjoy the cricket while the summer's on, but it doesn't really end to be honest.
"Although we're not playing, this is the worst part about it the negotiating side, tooing and froing and all that type of thing but that's part of it, dealing with agents is not my cup of tea at times but they are not all bad I must admit and it's part and parcel of the game now.
"We'll look to try and improve and I want to be going into next season where we can be achieving something here."
