Chester FC legend Neil Young has returned to the football club to offer support to manager Marcus Bignot.

The 43-year-old has been brought back to the club by Bignot in a short-term, voluntary 'advisory' role to help with the first team and will be returning in time for Saturday's home clash with Aldershot Town.

Young took the reins at Chester in 2010 following the club's reformation from the ashes of Chester City and guided the Blues to three successive championships, winning the Evo-Stik First Division North, Evo-Stik Northern Premier and Conference North.

He left the club at the beginning of 2014 after a poor set of results in the club's first season in the National League and has since managed Altrincham and Stockport County and was recently in temporary charge of FC Halifax Town.

And Bignot is delighted to get his man.

Said the Chester boss: “I feel now that the football club, even though we have done great to get through the here and now with the cash flow, there is a far bigger problem ahead in terms of what next season looks like. We are a club on its knees and if we don’t make the right decisions we will be a club that falls flat on its face. We have got an opportunity to get back on our feet and if I can play some part in that I will be delighted. I have already made the first steps in terms of what I believe needs to be brought to the football club. The football side has took a hammering on and off the pitch.

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 sat down a week or so ago and shared with Neil my thoughts and he shared his thoughts with me. We are both clubmen, we are not people who are narrow minded, this is about the football club. We share the same values and the same vision. For me, to have a manager in the building who has been a manager before is critical. Someone who has been in my shoes and who understands what we are going through.

“Secondly, I wanted someone who understands the business side of a football club, and Neil ticks that box. Whether we are in this league, League Two, National North, having that experience at those levels we can bring that to the table. There has been success on both parts and he was someone I was keen to work with, he will support me and will be a support to the football club.”

“If there is anyone whose nose is going to get put out of joint or feel under pressure then it would be me. This is not about me. This decision and this proposal I put was about what it right for the football club and how I think we can get of our knees.

“If you think this season was bad the next 12 months will be a massive indicator. It is on its knees and this liability we have got going into the next 12 months is a noose around its neck and if it is not managed probably this club could really fall flat on its face.

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"We have a situation where the football side and business side are not running alongside each other and you get a jacknife situation and a car crash - and it has become a car crash.

“Me and Neil Young believe that if the crash is going to happen then we are the best people to get out of it. If we go down then both of us have got out of the North and we will do it again.

Young wins Non-League Paper's 2012/13 Team of the Year award
Young wins Non-League Paper's 2012/13 Team of the Year award

“You need the tools do do a job and the only tools I have had in this job is time, but what does that time look like? What I had has now gone, what I need I can’t have. You can’t work on those lines.

“Volunteers are what is special about this football club. Against Wrexham on Sunday we had half a team of volunteers - that can’t be the case. We can’t have a situation where the football team then become volunteers as well as the staff. But it’s great that we have now got Neil Young in...on a voluntary basis!”

Bignot, whose side sit second bottom in the National League, six points from safety, was allowed to bring in support on the management side after losing goalkeeping coach Dave Felgate earlier this week.

Since January Bignot the financial crisis at Chester has forced him to lose assistant manager Ross Thorpe and player-coach Tom Shaw, leaving him the only first-team coaching staff member remaining. Academy boss Calum McIntyre has been helping Bignot in recent weeks.