Neil Young admits tough times lie ahead for Chester FC but insists that things will get better.

The former Blues boss, a legend at the club after guiding them to three successive league titles following their reformation in 2010, is back on board at Chester in a voluntary advisory capacity after answering an SOS from current boss Marcus Bignot.

With Chester’s financial crisis of late well documented, the club facing relegation from the National League and lumbered with well over £100,000 of liabilities on the playing budget for next season, Bignot turned to Young to for support last week.

Young was quick to answer the call and has joined the Blues to allow Bignot, who has lost all senior members of his first team coaching staff due to the financial crisis, the ability to concentrate solely on managing the football team.

And 43-year-old Young, who was present in the stands for Saturday’s 0-0 home draw with Aldershot Town , will be helping to aid the Blues cause for this season and next, describing the coming 12 months as the most difficult since Chester’s reformation.

Said Young: “It has all come around quite quickly. I have always been a massive supporter of the club and always tried to assist before, externally.

“I got a surprise phone call last week from Marcus Bignot - I thought he had rang me by mistake. We all have each others numbers as managers and I wished him well when he got the job and told him how good the club was, but I don’t think he has forgiven me for that! He asked if he could have a chat with me and I came up and met him.

Chester FC boss Neil Young with the Evo-Stik League First Division North trophy on that unforgettably dramatic afternoon at Garforth Town.
Chester FC boss Neil Young with the Evo-Stik League First Division North trophy on that unforgettably dramatic afternoon at Garforth Town.

“I think my main role is going to be first and foremost to take a bit of pressure of Marcus so he can concentrate on what he is meant to be here for and that is to look after the football club and make sure that the team is best prepared to win football matches.

“Can I add anything from a playing perspective in terms of networking and bringing players in, that will be another part of what we do and a lot will depend on what we can do financially and that is something I want to get my teeth into this week.

“I see it as a two or three pronged attack. The key thing for me is to let Marcus do his job. If something needs to be done from a player perspective then let’s deal with that separately and almost take him out of the equation so he can do what he has been brought here to do.

“Can I help and advise the people who are doing a lot of good work behind the scenes in terms of how we go forward as a football club and how the football club will look? We have had a difficult three months with the finances but the next 12 months is going to be the most difficult since the reformation of the football club. I don’t know the numbers yet but I have got a rough idea in terms of liabilities (on the playing budget) for next year.

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“There is going to be an expectation, and rightly so from the Chester fans and we have got to make that expectation a reality as best we can with what we have got. There is a lot of hard work going on and hopefully I can assist with that over the next seven or eight weeks because it is not just about getting us on a firm footing for this season, more importantly going forward we give ourselves the best chance whatever league we are in next year.”

Young admitted that the situation at the football club in recent times had him ‘wound up’.

A catalogue of bad decisions over the previous 12 to 18 monthas had taken Chester close to the brink, just eight short years since their triumphant rise from the ashes of Chester City.

One of the key architects of those stunning early years and a man who remains a bonafide legend at the football club, Young says his previous success has little bearing on the here and now and hopes his experience in dealing with football matters away from the pitch is something that will be utilised by the current board.

He said: “I looked at it from the outside and if I’m brutally honest I was getting wound up myself in terms of where we were going and what we were doing. People say to me ‘why are you doing it?’ Obviously I have got a lot of affinity with the football club and I have been here since it started and been here regularly as a supporter and have backed the club wherever I can, so from my perspective if I am inside I getting a better idea of what is going on. Hopefully the club use me not for what I have achieved before because that has nothing to do with it now, that is the past and that is history, it is more what I know from the business side.

Former Chester FC manager Neil Young

“I don’t think many people realise that when we kicked the club off in 2010, between myself and Steve Ashton (former CEO), on the football side of things we basically put all of the processes in place. I was doing all the contracts myself, and I have done that wherever I have been. The contracts, the deals, the Antoni Sarcevic deal I did myself, and all the deals that we did bringing players in, getting players out. It is one of my skills, I am more of a general manager than a football manager, and a lot of what I do comes from being in the industry a long time and having a business knowledge from my day to day job at Merseyrail.”

With Chester eight points off safety with eight games left it would take a minor miracle to avoid a slide into the National League North at the end of this season.

Liabilities for next year’s playing budget will likely mean Chester’s ability to put together a competitive budget, even in the league below, will be severley hampered. And while tough times are ahead, Young insists there is cause for optimism and good times will return.

“Don’t get me wrong, it might get worse before it gets better - but it will get better,” said Young.

“What we have got to give is give people realism. We have got to paint a picture over these next 12 months of where we are going to go. I know the Chester public and the supporter base and they will back the football club. If they see a way forward and people wanting to get in the trenches then they will support the football club in whatever way then can.

“Going forward we have a football club we can be proud of and we have got to continue with that.”