Hi all,

Firstly and most importantly, I want to express my deepest sympathy and sadness to the family of Ron Parrott, who sadly passed away recently, and to everyone associated with Hereford FC. We send our heartfelt condolences to Ron’s family and friends. May you rest in peace, Ron.

It’s been a month since my last update, so I thought I’d post a sort of ‘what’s been happening’ on and off the field update.

Pre-Season Friendlies

I want to start by publicly thanking Wellington FC for their hospitality and welcome when we played them in our opening pre-season fixture. It was a good test for us after some really tough, exhausting training sessions that the players were put through.

I was asked a few times leading up to and after the Walsall match by some supporters why the game was behind closed doors. To explain as best as I can from my side, this was a match I couldn’t turn down for various reasons. The first one being the opposition are two levels above and got to the play-off final in League 2, and for me, the most important thing is providing different challenges for our players.

Secondly, it was a request from Walsall, which is entirely natural in pre-season, and in most cases, clubs won’t announce it, but I insisted we kept you updated on what we were doing. The game was played at Walsall’s training ground, and it was exactly what I thought it would be and a great test for us.

We then went to Inkberrow as the first of our two games across the weekend, and the hospitality and welcoming yet again was fantastic to see. Such a warming family football club which provided us with another good test on the pitch. I want to stress, I am in control of which pre-season friendlies we choose, and if people are upset and unhappy about the fixtures we have, then to be quite frank, I am not bothered about that.

I am the manager, and I know what’s right for my players. There are also mitigating factors to only scheduling one friendly at home. The delay for the brilliant Ben Bowen to get onto the pitch for maintenance being one, but also the most mitigating factor was out of our control in terms of the pitch having been damaged on one side during the floodlight installation process.

While this has now resulted in the cancellation of the Leicester game, it has also meant that organising fixtures, particularly at home, was something that had to be delayed until we knew exactly where we were in terms of timing on the pitch, and with that delay, it is natural for clubs not to wait on an answer from us and schedule their own pre-season plans.

There are many part-time clubs going on pre-season tours abroad, which would be great to do at our club, but we are aware that isn’t possible at this stage in the club’s journey. I am currently working on a fixture for our players for this coming weekend.

Trialists

Naturally, in pre-season, every club has trialists, and we have been no different. We have to find and manipulate markets and free agents as best as we can. The players that have come into trial for us have been of a decent standard, and decisions have been made on some already – and they have been made aware – and others will be made later this week on what the future holds for them.

To give you more of an insight into that, we may or may not offer players a deal, and from that comes location, part-time, long commute, and most vitally, finances. Can the player make it work? What are the financial expectations from them? Where will they accommodate themselves? Will work allow them half days and, in some cases, full days off on Tuesday evenings?

I clearly drive the potential to play in front of a brilliant support as a tool to bring players to the club to override the financial aspect but as an agent once told me playing in front of 3,000 or 30 people makes no difference when it’s money that pays household bills. This is the battle of being part-time in a league dominated by full-time and hybrid teams now.

Squad Builder

I am not blind and I see the figures some clubs are taking in through their Squad Builder. One thing I won’t do is ask people to start throwing money they don’t have to a squad builder scheme because that’s naive of me and selfish. I have kids and security for me is at the forefront of my mind. I understand what life is like right now. The other clubs who have raked in those mass fortunes have been given a big advantage in the market and that’s allowed them to shop in high-end markets to give themselves the best opportunity to be successful.

I am not jealous of that because in truth I’ve never shopped in those sorts of markets and I am immensely proud of the overall recruitment since coming to the club. Every penny donated, of course, helps, but I ask you to do it in a manner that you are comfortable with, please. Thank you very much to those who have contributed, and for those that haven’t, you are not seen as any less important to me than those that have been able to donate. We are all in this journey together.

Internal Works

I don’t get involved in off-field stuff just as I expect and hope others not to be involved in the on-field stuff, so I will respectfully only touch on the things I believe that relate to the football side. There is so much work going on behind the scenes to make Edgar Street the best experience for supporters and players alike. Our dressing room has been updated to a high standard worthy of an EFL changing room. The AP construction group have been first-class and completely accommodating of all the desired needs of the football club to make the dressing room to a top-class standard, and I personally thank Phil and Alan Glover for their support.

Recruitment

It’s always a topic at the club that sparks debate but such is life. We are pleased with our recruitment since the day I came into the club. I will make mistakes and will continue to make mistakes and a huge admirer of accountability.

On the whole though I think my recruitment has been better than what it should be in terms of attracting players to our club. It’s been so pleasing to see so many players speak fondly of our club and the culture I have created in and around the dressing room, so it shows I have the personality and character to talk certain players into the reality of the opportunity at Hereford instead of in some cases doubling your wage at a club at our level and lower. We will look to add 3 or 4 more bodies if financially possible to the current group.

Recruitment also involves my backroom staff. I have made a change in the last few days in bringing back my former goalkeeping coach Shaun Edwards. I want to thank Daniel Price for his short spell at the club and I wish him all the best for his next venture. Let me absolutely stress from the horse’s mouth there was no ill feeling nor any poor performance on anyone’s part in me making this decision and one I felt was the right one for me personally.

It’s my backroom staff overall. Dan was the ultimate professional. I had an opportunity to bring Shaun back after his role at Alvechurch as assistant manager in a hybrid model caused a few issues in balancing it alongside his work which brought an opportunity up for Shaun to come back to us part time. Shaun is a close friend first and foremost. He is also someone, alongside Adam, that I know when I leave the room whether he agrees or not with the decision I make will have my back. I trust him and with me going into my final year of my contract at Hereford I wanted a team around me that I know and trust. Shaun is exactly that and his return as expected proved extremely popular with the players.

To sign off, I want to as always thank everyone for their support, from boardroom level to the pitch, and most importantly into the stands. Everyone has to continue coming together. Please be positive. The rumour mill of pre-season is almost over. I think at this time of the season and throughout my time at the club I have acted in a manner of calmness (off the pitch) and will continue to do so. I am not a lifelong Hereford supporter so I can make decisions based on my professional opinion and not on my emotional attachment to the club. I love representing you with passion and a will to win. I won’t change. That’s my personality. Some love it and some don’t. I am not here to be loved I am here to be as successful as I possibly can. I’ve made it clear I enjoy my time managing the club and would love that to continue, but I am not in control of that destiny so my focus is doing as best as I can in bringing continued improvement to the football club.

“No family is perfect.. we will argue, we will have a difference of opinions. We even stop talking to each other at times, but in the end, family is family and the love will ALWAYS be there”

I use the above as a reflection of Sunday’s fixture against Malvern where there was a small coming together. When I walked into this club, I attended a fans forum after about a week in the job. I was told time and time again “Hereford are too soft” , “We allow people and clubs to dominate us” and I started to see that through talking to players and representatives when trying to sign players. We are no longer soft. We never have been in my time here. I made that stance from the beginning with players and representatives.

On the pitch and off the pitch I have set a precedent of sticking together. On Sunday, the reaction of my bench wasn’t aesthetically pleasing on the eye but I was proud that no matter what when we pull that Hereford FC shirt on and that badge touches our chest we are a family, and families stick together. I will stand in front of those lads through thick and thin and to see those lads have one another’s back makes me proud.

You might like it you might hate it, but while I remain in charge we will have a group who go to war together and leave no one behind. That’s a given!

Take care and catch up soon!

Paul Caddis