Maynard relishing Notts opportunity
STUART Maynard says quitting the day job to become a full-time manager at Notts County is the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition.
The Wealdstone boss was appointed by the League Two Magpies on Thursday to replace Luke Williams, who joined Swansea City a fortnight ago.
“It’s been one of my ambitions to get into full-time football for a long, long time now,” said the 43-year-old, who has given up his job as a BT engineer to take charge at Meadow Lane. “All I’ve ever wanted was to give football all my focus and dedication. For it to finally happen, I’m just delighted.”
Maynard has spent almost two decades with the telecoms giant and was hard at work when the call came to say he’d landed his dream job.
“I was in the van as usual, working away,” he laughs, “Next thing you know, I was sat there as the manager of Notts County.
“My manager at BT has been brilliant with it and handled everything really well. He understood what it meant to me and recognised that this was an unbelievable opportunity. I think they’re as excited for me as I am to get started.
“I had 19 good years at BT openreach, and it’s a tough decision to leave a job you’ve been in for so long. But when a club like Notts County comes calling it stops being a tough decision and becomes a really easy one.”
Philosophy
Maynard, a former Wealdstone player, returned to the club in 2019 as assistant manager to Dean Brennan and won the National South title in his first season.
Promoted to manager in 2021, he oversaw finishes of 16th and 13th in the top-flight, despite the Stones’ status as one of the only part-time sides in the division.
Their success was founded on a patient passing style that bears a strong resemblance to Williams’ work at Notts County and Maynard believes that shared philosophy is what landed him the role.
“Chris and Alex Reedtz, the owners, do their homework on potential managers,” said Maynard, who will be joined at Meadow Lane by his assistant Matty Saunders.
“Me and Matty always knew that we’d need a club to really do their research properly to understand what we do and that’s what happened.
“They’ve recognised what we’ve achieved, they’ve understood we play with a similar philosophy to Luke. He did an incredible job at Notts and deservedly got his opportunity at Swansea. Now they’ve looked to us and thought our ideas married up.
“When you are overachieving, when you’re doing what we’ve done as the only parttime team left in the National League, we’re just delighted that Notts County knew their stuff and kept track of our progress over the years.”
Maynard is proud of the foundations he leaves behind at the Vale and says he is excited to see how his ideas translate to a fully professional setup.
Structure
“The football, the goals we’ve scored, the league finishes – we’ve made great progress as a club,” he says.
“Wealdstone are now 13th with two games in hand, six or seven points off the playoffs. We’ve left them in a really good position, which was always our aim.
“What excites me now is putting our structure into a full-time environment and seeing what we can get out of the group.
“Training part-time, we’ve always been tied down in the sense of having to decide what’s more important in the limited time we had with the players. Now we can do it all, so it’s a no-excuse environment for us and the players. It’s incredibly exciting for us.”
